Peter Dutton’s plan to squeeze Anthony Albanese on Israel-Gaza war and the High Court’s controversial decision doesn’t hit its mark

Weeks of building tension over the Israel-Gaza war, accusations the government has left the community at risk after a High Court immigration decision, and a sense the post-Voice political tide may be turning erupted yesterday in the most heated and personal Question Time clash between Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton since they both assumed their respective roles.

The day began with a clear sign the opposition leader was feeling confident: he held his first press conference in Parliament House in more than three months.

Dutton used the occasion to detail a rap sheet of Labor failures. “The wheels are falling off the Albanese government,” he declared. The list included deteriorating cost of living, a rise in anti-Semitism, and the mass release of “hardened criminals” from immigration detention.

Collectively, the list played to the hip-pocket pain and security fears the Coalition believes many Australians are feeling. For good measure, Dutton also called on the prime minister to cancel his trip to the APEC summit in San Francisco.

Clearly, the opposition leader felt he was on a winner. Buoyed by the morning performance, Dutton interrupted Question Time in the afternoon with a motion covering similar ground.

It didn’t pan out quite the way he might have hoped.

A chance to respond

In parliament, it turns out, the other side gets to respond. And a visibly riled Albanese — no doubt helped by the fact Dutton had telegraphed his punches in the morning — hit back hard.

Dutton accused the prime minister of failing to “overcome divisions within his own caucus to stamp out anti-Semitism”. “This prime minister needs to stand up and be united with the Jewish community and he’s not,” he said. Serious stuff.

The opposition leader then segued to the release of immigration detainees, blaming the government for putting the community at risk.

The linking of these two issues and the damning accusation the prime minister is somehow not standing united with the Jewish community against anti-Semitism was too much for Albanese.

“The weaponisation or attempt to weaponise anti-Semitism in this chamber and make it a partisan issue is frankly beyond contempt,” he said.

At times shaking with anger, the prime minister noted he’d spoken to Israel’s ambassador and been thanked by the local rabbi after condemning an anti-Israeli protest in Melbourne on Friday night.

He then made a virtue of his efforts to hold the Australian community together.

With the Coalition on one side accusing him of failing to stand up for the Jewish community and the Greens on the other complaining the government isn’t supporting Palestinians strongly enough, the prime minister made the case for national unity.

“I make no apologies for trying to bring communities together not divide them, because that’s the role of political leaders.”

It was a powerful response and not everyone on the Coalition benches looked entirely comfortable sitting on the receiving end.

LoadingAn unresolved mess 

Still, even a strong parliamentary performance from the prime minister can’t solve all the government’s difficulties. Particularly the current mess left by last week’s High Court ruling.

The court overturned a 20-year precedent in deciding indefinite immigration detention is illegal. The government is scrambling to respond. So far, 83 detainees, including murderers, rapists and paedophiles, have been released.

Plenty of Australian citizens who’ve done their time for serious crimes, it must be said, now live in the community and face various restrictions around where they can live and work.

The court overturned a 20-year precedent in deciding indefinite immigration detention is illegal.(ABC News: Gregory Nelson)

These former immigration detainees will apparently face similar rules, but the details aren’t being made entirely clear.

The High Court hasn’t helped the government by deciding to issue its ruling without the reasons for its judgement. Nor is there any clear indication of when those reasons will be delivered.

Without that detail, it’s difficult for the government to know how to respond, or indeed how many people it needs to release. How long can the government validly hold someone before a tipping point is hit and the detention becomes unlawful?

Rushing legislation without that detail is risky. On Thursday the government proposed the use of ankle bracelets and curfews to monitor the 83 people released last week, with Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil challenging the opposition to pass the legislation which would also make it a criminal offence to breach visa conditions. 

Even once the full High Court judgement is delivered, the government knows it can’t go back to the rules that previously applied.

Dutton, however, seems to have a different view. He suggested there was a way to keep them all behind bars.

“If there was another option available — which I honestly believe that there is,” he told 2GB, “then they could have prevented these people from getting out onto the streets”.

As a long-serving minister for Immigration and then Home Affairs, Dutton presumably had some grounds for arguing there was some “other option” to keep the community safe.

But if he does know the answer, he either can’t or won’t say. “That’s an issue that the government has to deal with,” he said. “They’ve got a whole department within the attorney-general’s remit to come up with the advice, to draft legislation.”

Laying blame, as always, is much easier than coming up with solutions.

David Speers is National Political Lead and host of Insiders, which airs on ABC TV at 9am on Sunday or on iview.