EDITORIAL: Brace as Albanese gets a case of the campaign scaries

Born ready.

Anthony Albanese reckons he was put on this earth to fight this election.

It’s a throwaway line that betrays the hubris and delusion of a man who would be delighted he won a knife fight simply because his opponent’s blade was dull.

So Opposition Leader Peter Dutton needs to sharpen up.

The campaign has barely hit a canter as the almost even-odds favourites trot out some fairly pedestrian policies.

After revealing his brazenly populist plan for tax cuts, and fiddling around the edges with a plan to have 90 per cent of GP visits bulk-billed, Mr Albanese is relying on the fear factor. First, the ever-reliable fear of the unknown.

We don’t know what’s ahead, he said as he called the election on Friday, but we will face these sinister unspoken challenges the Australian way.

Whatever that means.

And the fear that the Liberal Party, who he has implied is mounting a Trump-like campaign with its MAGA-esque “let’s get Australia back on track” slogan, will go all Edward Scissorhands if they win government.

“The world today is an uncertain place but I am absolutely certain of this — now is not the time for cutting and wrecking, for aiming low, punching down or looking back,” Mr Albanese said.

Big talk for a bloke who brandished a Medicare card as a prop to so subtly plant the seed that the Liberals have their heart set on hacking into health care.

Hello! 2016 called and wants its scare campaign back.

But they know scare campaigns work, which is why Mr Dutton is trying to keep calm and carry on.

The man who would be prime minister has a similarly underwhelming set of policies so far, including a national gas plan, a sketchy nuclear solution, dialling back migration and temporary reductions in fuel tax. It’s hardly big-picture stuff.

But he’s already alive to what he has coined “the sledge-a-thon” by a Prime Minster who “doesn’t have a good story to tell about his three years in government”.

Mr Dutton is deploying disappointed dad mode in an effort to win the hearts and minds of a nation of people who are fatigued from spending time on struggle street.

He says he wants people to be putting groceries in their shopping trolleys, not putting them back on the shelves.

He’s trying to stay calm and positive in the face of a negative assault from a government determined to distract. Of course, Mr Dutton is not all Mister Rogers because he has to convince voters there is one thing to be afraid of: a second term of the Albanese Government.

Meanwhile, what does any of it mean if people are not paying attention to the detail?

If easily debunked claims are taken as fact?

If pessimism and fearmongering win over pragmatism and authenticity?

And what of the circus that will soon be rolling into a town near you?

As both leaders try to convince punters they’re worth a shot, let’s hope the theatre of the campaign doesn’t blinker them to what really matters.