So said Vladimir Lenin - not a comparison that new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would welcome,given his attempts to slough off his lefty roots to become an aspirational,centrist leader.
But last Sunday,as the rubble settled on the Liberals’ electoral defeat,it did feel like a decade or so had caught up with the party in one strange and messy evening.
Former PM Scott Morrisons' time is wrapping up at Kirribilli House after losing the Federal Election to Labor leader Anthony Albanese.
All the negative aspects of nine years of Coalition government (and I don’t say there weren’t many positive aspects too) -,contempt for the notion of,a focus on and manipulation of public office for political gain - suddenly flipped the electorate and Australia looked new.
Outgoing Prime Minister Scott Morrison invited the cameras to film him worshipping at Horizon church in Sutherland,. Morrison said he was glad his final words as PM were in front of this select group of fellow parishioners,as opposed to the Australian people he represented. That spoke volumes.
Meanwhile,Albanese was the centre of a more secular,and more relatable gathering - he was having coffee locally at the Marrickville Library,with his partner and his dog (and a few dozen of his closest friends and media).
These are two very different men,and they represent two very different sides to Australia.
Perhaps we will grow tired of the Labor leader’s log-cabin story,but it says a lot about Australia that someone from his background can ascend to the highest office - chiefly through,the bond of community,and the power of education,both Catholic and state-sponsored. A prime minister who has been elevated by those means can’t help but represent those things.
The upside of Albanese’s weakness going into the campaign – that few voters knew him – is that Albanese doesn’t carry much baggage. That could change,and quickly,and will not be enough to save him from.
Peter Dutton,almost certainly anointed as the new opposition leader,does not have the same thing going for him. He is known,but for his hard-man portfolios and for the delight he takes in baiting the left.
His forays into racial stereotyping –saying in 2018 that Melburnians were afraid to go out to dinner because of,and his 2016 comments on the “mistake” of resettling Lebanese – were deeply disappointing.
Dutton is also notorious for boycotting the apology to the Stolen Generations (something he later said he regretted),which will put him,and his party,in an interesting position when they formulate a response to a referendum on the Voice to parliament. Dutton,as a former Queensland cop,has seen Aboriginal disadvantage up close,and perhaps he believed the apology was tokenistic.
But symbols matter in politics,and the Uluru Statement from the Heart is not virtue-signalling from a white-woke minority. Besides,what the right-wing of the Liberal party calls “woke” is becoming increasingly mainstream,especially when these issues are framed for what many of them are - a request for fairness.
Dutton,as the man who guided the Coalition to a deft solution to its impasse over same-sex marriage,will hopefully be cognisant of the culture-war follies of his predecessor. It was encouraging that he spoke this week about the Liberals being the party who believed in
Dutton’s world-view seems to have been formed in a crucible of threat – he was a policeman in the Drug and Sex Offenders Squads in the 1990s,and left the police force after sustaining terrible injuries in a car crash in the line of duty.
“I have seen the wonderful,kind nature of people willing to offer any assistance to those in their worst hour,and I have seen the sickening behaviour displayed by people who,frankly,barely justify their existence,” he said in his 2001 maiden speech in parliament.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton has warned Australia needs to prepare for war to deal with the threat from China.
More recently,in the Home Affairs and Defence portfolios,Dutton has been alive to threats of a national security nature. He was one of the first people at high levels of government to realise the profound shift in China’s intentions in our region.
In the lead-up to the election,Dutton spoke freely about Australia’s future prospects for war.
He told theAustralian Financial Review’s Jacob Greber that “most Australians would be shocked” at the scale of China’s interference and cyber-warfare.
He spoke of an “invasive approach not limited by morals or by law” and said he had no doubt “we’re heading in a very troubled direction” .
The same rhetoric,of course,could be applied to the threat of climate change,but there is no doubt Dutton speaks from a place of intimate knowledge of China’s capability.
How will Dutton balance this serious talk of threat with his apparent desire,now,to show the Australian public his warm side?
We have heard much this week from Coalition frontbenchers,and his wife,about Dutton’s humour,his decency,his compassion and his intelligence.
Stuart Robert,Dutton’s Queensland ally,says Dutton is “a warm-hearted,very,very decent,very competent individual”.
Robert also made the strange assertion that:“you can’t judge someone on either comments they’ve made or decisions they’ve done when they’re exercising their either personal conscience or their particular viewpoint”. Oh,but people can,Stuart! And they will.
Still,it is lazy for the Twitter-focused left to dismiss Dutton as a bogeyman. He has the potential to be an interesting leader,maybe even a good one.
An effective opposition leader,one who can reframe his party around mainstream values after the disaster of Scott Morrison’s narrow vision for Australia,is good for us all. Even if his enemies will never admit it.