ANDREW CARSWELL: Why Labor’s low blows are a boon for Dutton’s Libs
A builder or a fixer.
What does Australia need the most in its prime minister, post election?
The answer depends on where you believe Australia stands — whether we’ve fallen behind and need a realignment, or whether we should stay the course, even if the destination remains unclear.
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A builder or a fixer on the ballot: Anthony Albanese pledging to “Build Australia’s future,” versus Peter Dutton’s promises to get Australia “back on track.”
Your answer will likely be grounded in trust — trust shaped by the actions and inactions that brought us here, and by the credibility and believability of both leaders’ visions.
Will voters trust that the Albanese Government can build Australia’s future given their lacklustre, distracted performance over the past three years?
There would be plenty of sceptics.
Voters who have watched their quality of life dip as their spending power evaporated like a fart in the wind. Voters who have screamed at the TV as their elected leader busied himself with things that didn’t matter, and appeared impotent to fix the things that did.
And, while Peter Dutton’s call to get the nation back on track may strike a chord with frustrated voters who are alarmed at where our country is heading, will voters believe that he is the man to achieve it?
To get Australia back on track.
There are shades of Donald Trump’s simple campaign message here; a mantra that ignited a revolution in the US, finishing off a tired administration not with grandiose, over-the-top motherhood statements but a simple proposition: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
Countless Americans said no, and gave him their vote, closing their eyes and swallowing what genuine concerns they may have had about Trump’s character, criminality, or method. The promise to get things back on track was music to their ears, even if it was in the wrong key.
What does back on track look like from Peter Dutton’s perspective? An affordable place to live. A nation of social and ethnic cohesion. A nation that has reliable energy. A country where home ownership re-emerges as a possibility for anyone under 40.
Nothing outrageous.
This is a ripe harvest for Dutton; tapping into the growing discontent across the nation at the breakdown of fundamental pillars in our economy and social fabric, acting on the collective groan of disappointment at a Government that promised much, but delivered little.
And once again harking back to Trump, harnessing the attempted character hits fired at will from his opponent.
Because the barbs are coming. It’s not all about building a strong Australia and getting voters to believe Labor has a plan to see it through. It is stopping Peter Dutton.
Both strategies are difficult to land in the current environment.
Voters roll their eyes whenever the Prime Minister outlines his record on addressing cost of living, because those very same voters just aren’t feeling the tangible benefits. It’s not that the list isn’t credible. But those achievements just haven’t filled pockets, soothed pain, or changed circumstances.
However — rock and a hard place — there are also dangers in throwing too many low blows.
Voters are in a volatile, restless mood. They’re combative, ready to challenge the status quo.
Incumbency is suddenly a curse, and no longer a safety blanket. They’ll hear the negative attacks about the so-called risks of Peter Dutton, but will respond in kind: “Yes, but you’re the Government — and you haven’t exactly delivered.”
It also risks inadvertently introducing a solution to their common gripe. What is the opposite of weak leadership?
It’s a curious strategy — at a time of economic strain, fiscal mismanagement, social fragmentation, and global uncertainty — to attack a leader for being a strongman. For being resolute. For being cold-hearted, stubborn. A bully.
These are the perceptions, right or wrong, that have dogged Dutton for years — shaped by the roles he was handed in tough, determined governments and reinforced by his willingness to be the blunt instrument of political combat, striking where his opponents or critics were vulnerable.
Even if you’re smart enough to see through the character assassination and distinguish orchestrated myth from reality, could we have in fact used more of that iron will and bullheadedness as inflation grew into a monster, or as lawlessness and anti-Semitism ran rampant on our streets?
When our immigration system broke down, and our borders were overrun. When our Budget turned from surplus to a decade of future deficits.
Softly-softly got us to this parlous state.
Will we need a leader impugned for his weakness, or a leader denigrated for his strongman tactics, when Trump finally comes knocking for his pound of flesh, otherwise known as tariffs?
Or when China’s real expansionist motives come to the fore; when diplomacy is cast aside for direct and deadly action.
Suddenly, the real risk is more of the same.
Andrew Carswell is a former adviser to the Morrison government