Dutton made Gaza a problem for Albanese, and Zali Steggall made it worse | David Penberthy

The switchboards have not lit up like it has over Gaza refugees since the height of the referendum debate. And that’s bad for the PM, writes David Penberthy.

Much of the policy discussion around whether we accept asylum seekers from Gaza has focused obviously enough on questions of national security.

Labor argues that proper protocols are in place to check their bona fides and that the least we can do is take civilians affected by a terrible war through no fault of their own.

The Liberals counter that the correct protocols are not in place, and that in the midst of a full-blown war zone with a huge terrorist presence it is probably impossible in the current climate to check people’s bona fides anyway.

That argument is not the subject of this column. This column goes to the perceived relevance of the issue to Australians at all.

On the cusp of an election, this facet of the debate poses more of a danger to the Albanese government than the national security component.

Sometimes working in radio you get a real-time insight into how an issue is playing out in the suburbs and regions.

This happened last week when we had Opposition Leader Peter Dutton on air the day after he pledged to veto the intake of people from Gaza.

The term “the switchboard lit up” is a cliche but on occasions like this one an accurate description of how a topic goes down with the public.

We were getting so many texts about the issue the screen looked like a rolling ticker, impossible to keep up with them all. The only time this ever happened on a political issue in the past two years was in relation to the Voice to parliament.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese needs to move past the Gaza issue ASAP. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

And the sentiment was identical.

Of the messages we got the other day, many of them went to the national security issues at play, with passionate and invested people making their own points about the percentage of Gaza residents who support Hamas, or sifting through the testimony of ASIO chief Mike Burgess raising concerns about background checks.

But overwhelmingly, the messages were along these lines: Why the hell are we talking about this?

Why the hell is the Prime Minister talking about this?

Is this really the number one thing that should be occupying his time? Why isn’t he talking about the fact that I can’t pay my bloody power bill?

I am not saying for an instant that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is preoccupied with the question of the refugees of Gaza.

He has several other policy items on his agenda and is more than capable of handling multiple issues at the same time.

What I am saying is that a whole heap of people think that he is preoccupied about it.

This was the killer for Albo in the context of the Voice.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has a vested interest in keeping Gaza on the agenda and being called racist doesn’t harm it. Picture: Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images

To put it bluntly, people felt like the Prime Minister spent almost the whole year fretting about people in the APY Lands and forgetting about people trying to pay for their groceries at Elizabeth.

I pick Elizabeth deliberately because in that blue collar suburb in Adelaide’s north, the former spiritual home of the Australian car industry where the Holden plant is now gathering dust, the highest No vote in Australia was recorded at the referendum last year.

The other comparable aspect of the Voice and the debate over Gaza goes to the attempts to shout down anyone with questions over the process.

For the record, I would personally let thousands of people from Gaza into Australia provided we could be absolutely sure they were civilians who did not support a proscribed terrorist organisation and upon coming here to start afresh will embrace our way of life.

Australia is a country built on successive waves of migration and an overwhelmingly harmonious one at that. It’s also the same country that rolled out the red carpet for Man Haron Monis.

Wanting reassurances about the political allegiances of people from the most fraught bit of earth on the planet does not make you a bigot.

Suggesting as Dutton has done that maybe on safety grounds we should just ditch the whole idea for now doesn’t make you a bigot either.

Especially when you were a senior member in the Abbott government which let in hundreds of Syrians escaping ISIS.

Zali Steggall during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

This part of the critique is not on Albanese.

But the people like Zali Steggall stand up and deride Dutton as a racist, the only people they are damaging are Albanese and themselves.

This is because there is a visceral suburban reaction to this type of name-calling, which looks like an attempt to shut down debate and cow people into silence.

It’s a real come-in-spinner moment for lefties like Steggall, as in suburbs such as Elizabeth people think, wow, if she’s calling Dutton a racist for speaking his mind on this issue, she’s effectively implying that I am one too.

The other thing that people such as Steggall don’t get is that concerns about crowding and cultural shifts from sudden surges in immigration are at their most acute in the blue-collar suburbs where new migrants congregate.

Zali Steggall would need a compass and a packed lunch to find these suburbs.

If Anthony Albanese allows himself to be wedded to this issue, he is going to be in massive strife.

Losing a referendum is one thing, losing an election is something else.

The model for defeat on this issue was designed during the Voice and is being repeated with Gaza. We have just ended a second week dominated by the topic.

The PM needs to change the subject, fast.

However darkly his critics might consider his motives, Peter Dutton has a vested political interest in talking about nothing else.

Originally published as Dutton made Gaza a problem for Albanese, and Zali Steggall made it worse | David Penberthy