EDITORIAL: Vicious attacks on Dutton could backfire on Labor

Divisive, destructive and dangerous.

That’s how Treasurer Jim Chalmers and the Labor Party want you to think of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

“He is the most divisive leader of a major political party in Australia’s modern history — and not by accident, by choice. At a time when most sane people see political divisiveness around the world and want to reject it, he wants to embrace it,” Dr Chalmers said in Melbourne on Monday evening.

“He divides deliberately, almost pathologically. This is worse than disappointing, it is dangerous. His divisiveness should be disqualifying.”

And according to Chalmers’ attack, this Australian Trump doesn’t care if you suffer — so long as he can leverage that suffering for his own political advantage.

“If anything, Dutton wants higher inflation, higher interest rates, higher unemployment, lower wages and less help,” Dr Chalmers said.

It’s pretty extreme stuff, even for someone like Dr Chalmers who makes no secret of his adoration for Australia’s most celebrated political brawler, Paul Keating. He even earnt his PhD through an academic study of Mr Keating’s leadership (and attack) style.

And there’s no guarantee that positioning Mr Dutton as a Trump-like figure will have any cut through with voters.

The fact is that Australians have become used to Mr Dutton over two years as Opposition Leader.

It turns out he’s not as “unelectable” as Labor always thought he would be.

And when senior figures like Dr Chalmers turn their attention to attacking their opponents, accusing them of trying to “start a culture war” because they don’t know how to fight inflation, there’s a risk that voters will instead see a Government out of ideas themselves.

Dr Chalmers also had a crack at Mr Dutton for his relentless focus in Parliament on the issue of visas granted to Gazan Palestinians.

But here too Dr Chalmers may be at risk of misreading the national mood.

Polling published in The Guardian on Tuesday showed Australians are concerned about the use of visitor visas for those fleeing the violence in Gaza. The Coalition claims those issued the visas aren’t subject to adequate security checks.

Forty-four per cent of respondents to the Essential poll said they agreed with Mr Dutton’s call to pause visas granted to Palestinians, while 30 per cent opposed it and 26 per cent said they were undecided.

Dr Chalmers may believe it’s all a lot of politically-motivated dog whistling, but clearly Australians think otherwise.

Dismissing their concerns in this manner may prove politically unwise.

But between the missiles aimed the Coalition, Dr Chalmers did get one thing right in his speech.

The No. 1 concern on the minds of Australians is cost of living.

Not Gaza, not confected culture wars, and certainly not Peter Dutton.

If the Labor Party is to have any hope of governing with a majority after next year’s election, they’ll need to come up with some answers fast.