Extract from ABC News
There's going to be a federal by-election this weekend, though you could be forgiven for not knowing that. Sure, Labor isn't running a candidate and sure, it's Scott Morrison's old seat of Cook, which is among the safest Coalition seats in the country, and certainly the safest in Sydney.
But you would at least think the Liberals might show up to bang the drum. Not Peter Dutton apparently. His official website records visits to the electorates of Dobell, Ryan and Hughes in the past month, and to Western Sydney, but no sightings of him down south in what is known as The Shire.
There aren't even many Liberals to be seen on the ground. Frantic messages have been going out to the party faithful outside the electorate in recent days, pleading for numbers to man unattended booths.
Even the voters aren't showing up. The Australian Electoral Commissioner, Tom Rogers, was compelled to put out a statement on Thursday expressing his alarm that early voting numbers "are down by approximately 11.2 per cent based on the same period in the 2022 federal election".
It seems we can confidently assert high degrees of apathy all round.
Compare this with recent by-elections which were contested by the major parties and how most political developments that occurred were seen through the prism of politicians trying to appeal to the voters of those particular electorates.
Instead, this week, we see this extraordinary voter apathy on the one hand but political rhetoric by both major parties on the other that seems wildly out of step with the views of voters they must win if they want to win the next federal election.
Let's talk sheer political pragmatism
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton shocked many people, and left others simply wondering, when he gave a speech at the Sydney Opera House on Wednesday which spoke of events in Gaza since October 7 through the prism of a rising tide of anti-Semitism in Australia that he linked to Palestinian protests at the same building on October 9.
"A mob undeterred creates a movement," Dutton said, and after listing a range of events which he said demonstrated this alarming trend, went on to blame "a lack of political leadership from those in power" for "the rise in anti-Semitism" in Australia.
It was his comparison with the political leadership of John Howard in response to the Port Arthur Massacre of 1996, in which 35 people were killed, which attracted all the attention.
"While no one was killed during the October 9 protests, the events at the Sydney Opera House were akin to a Port Arthur moment in terms of their social significance," Dutton said.
There are some places you can't go in politics and this was one of them. His comments were widely condemned, including by the Liberal Premier of Tasmania. Dutton's frontbench colleagues dutifully came out to defend him. Tasmanian Liberal MP Bridget Archer described Dutton's comments as "incredibly disrespectful" and "wholly inappropriate".
But at a deeper level, if we are talking political leadership, Dutton's unrelenting and increasing policy of addressing the catastrophe that has occurred in the Middle East since October 7 purely through the lens of what it means for Jewish Australians — and ignoring the fact tens of thousands of Palestinians have lost their lives — doesn't really seem to fit the bill.
Let's not even focus on the rights and wrongs of this for a moment. Let's talk sheer political pragmatism. The Coalition's political strategy, ostensibly, is to win a slew of seats from Labor in places like Western Sydney.
Arab and Islamic communities feel unheard
Western Sydney is home to hundreds of thousands of people with links to the Middle East. Not all of them are Muslim. And there is deep alarm and fear in these communities over what is happening in Gaza, often to people who are their families and friends.
Dutton pays little heed to these concerns in his public remarks, and attacks the prime minister for failing to "see the danger which anti-Semitism poses to our social cohesion, to our way of life, and to the preservation of the Australian achievement".
Dutton's political leadership, it seems, only applies to some sections of the community.
But what is deeply troubling to Arabic and Islamic communities in Australia — including Christian Arabs and Lebanese Maronites — is that they feel equally unheard by the government of the day.
Earlier this week, comments by Foreign Minister Penny Wong raised the spectre that Australia may at some point formally recognise the state of Palestine.
This was because she said the recognition of a Palestinian state is "the only hope to break the endless cycle of violence" in the Middle East and a two-state solution would help ensure long-term security for Israel and further undermine Hamas.
This was widely interpreted as ramping up pressure on Israel by implying that Australia might — one of these days — join the many other countries that already recognise the state of Palestine.
It shouldn't actually have been that controversial a statement. A two-state solution and recognition of Palestine are, after all, official Labor Party policy.
But the government has dodged and weaved on moving there since it won government in 2022.
Caution has dominated the government's approach
Wong's comments attracted the ire of Dutton, The Australian and the Israel Lobby in Australia, among others. She was congratulated by others for moving Australia's position forward, however incrementally.
The congratulators included many of her colleagues sitting around the cabinet table on Tuesday. But it was apparently too much for some in the room and bitter differences erupted between Wong and Industry Minister Ed Husic — who has long led the internal charge for a more balanced position on the conflict from the government.
Wong's cautious rhetoric may have been the antithesis of Dutton's colourful rhetoric, but the question of just how Labor's political handling of this issue since October 7 matches up with the aspirations of Australia's Arabic and Islamic communities is equally hard to fathom.
Multiple sources say that Labor is experiencing a mass desertion of voters from these communities who have started to organise themselves politically in WhatsApp groups to run independent candidates at the next election — discussing fundraising and strategies that reflect their sense of abandonment by Labor.
The party machine has told the government that between five and seven seats in Sydney and Melbourne are currently under serious threat, including the seats of ministers Jason Clare, Tony Burke, and Ed Husic and MPs Anne Stanley (Werriwa) and Peter Khalil (Wills).
Senior figures in the government insist that Wong's remarks this week have to be seen as part of a calibrated international effort to ramp up pressure on Israel.
But Australia is starting late, and behind the pack of many other countries that have already moved, including the UK.
Some sheepishly acknowledge that Australia's response is calibrated to seeking the protection of being in step with the United States on this issue.
Caution has dominated the government's approach.
The move to appoint the former chief of the Defence Force Mark Binskin to investigate the killing of seven humanitarian workers in Gaza, including Australian Zomi Frankcom, seems to suggest any pressure Australia is trying to apply is having little effect.
Israel is doing little, it seems, to aid or assist Binskin's task.
If Palestinians feel unloved by both Israel and Hamas in Gaza, their family and friends in Australia feel equally unloved by our major political parties.
Laura Tingle is 7.30's chief political correspondent.
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