Rita Panahi: It’s rather rich for Jim Chalmers, or anyone on the Left, to call the Liberal leader ‘divisive’

Labor is targeting Peter Dutton as if he’s the prime minister and lashing out in an increasingly nasty fashion — and it stinks of desperation and delusion.

Peter Dutton has the Anthony Albanese government rattled and it shows.

Several poor poll results and a drubbing in the NT election on the weekend has the Labor government lashing out in an increasingly nasty fashion.

Labor has decided that the best way to deal with the serious issues afflicting the country – from the cost of living crisis to the Gaza visa furore to suicidally stupid energy policies saddling households and businesses with crippling bills – is to attack the Opposition Leader. Typically it’s opposition leaders who are accused of being overly negative and in permanent attack mode, but Labor has flipped the playbook and is targeting Dutton as if he’s the prime minister.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers intensified the government’s attacks against Dutton when he launched into a particularly shrill diatribe at the John Curtin Research Centre in Melbourne on Monday night.

Jim Chalmers launched into a particularly shrill diatribe at the John Curtin Research Centre in Melbourne. Picture: Nadir Kinani

“Leadership which is destructive, and divisive, is not really leadership at all.

“And that’s what we are seeing from Peter Dutton. He is the most divisive leader of a major political party in Australia’s modern history – and not by accident, by choice,” Chalmers said. “It is the only plank in his political platform. He divides deliberately, almost pathologically. This is worse than disappointing, it is dangerous. His divisiveness should be disqualifying.”

Labor has flipped the playbook and is targeting Peter Dutton as if he’s the Prime Minister. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

To call Dutton dangerous and the most divisive leader in modern Australia is not just hyperbole but stinks of desperation and delusion.

Polls show that despite the consistently harsh treatment Dutton receives from the bulk of the mainstream media, he is cutting through on consequential issues from the economy to national security to cultural issues.

Dutton’s response to Chalmers’ astonishing attack hit the nail on the head.

“If Australians were doing so well, and if the economy was running as great as Jim Chalmers claims it is, why is he dedicating his speech to me?” he said.

And, it’s rather rich for Chalmers, or anyone on the Left, to call the Liberal leader “divisive” when it was Labor who tried to enshrine racial division into the Australian constitution.

Far from being the sensible centrists they claimed, the Albanese government has proved to be radically Left and willing to back reckless, irrational policies.

Ideology is trumping reality and reason, and that never ends well.

Originally published as Rita Panahi: It’s rather rich for Jim Chalmers, or anyone on the Left, to call the Liberal leader ‘divisive’