“This prime minister is as weak as water and the Australian public are working out what a fake and a fraud he and his government have turned out to be,” he said.
The Coalition’s immigration spokesman,Dan Tehan,was more targeted. He focused on the asylum seeker issue,accused the government of being too slow and said the Coalition was willing to keep parliament sitting as long as it took to pass laws to fix the problem.
But the policy was no longer the issue. Dutton had made it about antisemitism.
Albanese was so angry he was almost shaking when he launched his speech in reply. He pointed to his record in speaking against attacks on Jewish people and his rejection,over many years,of the Boycott,Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
He was too angry. He could have countered Dutton without fury in order to lower the temperature.
Albanese condemned Hamas for its attacks,called it a terrorist group and expressed his horror at the loss of innocent Israeli lives,but he also mentioned Palestinian deaths and this seemed to upset some of the Liberals. He reminded them he was talking about the loss of innocent babies.
“I stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself,I’ve done that consistently,but I also say how it does it matters,” he said.
Dutton has been desperate to exploit a Labor divide on Israel and Gaza,but his tactic only unified his opponents. Nothing Albanese said was at odds with Foreign Minister Penny Wong in her call for “steps towards a ceasefire” and an end to Israeli attacks on hospitals.
Old hands know that overreach is the most common mistake in politics. While Dutton is unlikely to admit he blundered,he looked wooden as Albanese spoke. And his failure was more than tactical. He showed bad judgement and poor leadership.
The member for Wentworth,Allegra Spender,called Dutton “reckless” and the member for Goldstein,Zoe Daniel,called his move “extremely dangerous” because it played games with antisemitism. They considered moving an amendment to Dutton’s motion condemning Albanese,but they did not need to. The Coalition lost by 54 to 86 votes.
It is only a few weeks since Australia’s director general of security,Mike Burgess,called for moderate language when talking about Israel and Gaza.
“We do see a direct correlation between language that inflames tension and out of that tension does grow a small number of people who think violence is the answer,” he said. “It’s something that we all have to be mindful of,and that’s for all Australians to play their part.”
Communities are divided and tempers are frayed over war in the Middle East. How did Dutton help? His attack was incendiary by design. At the very moment leaders are meant to be calm,he chose to inflame.