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Peter Dutton’s contention that Kevin Rudd is Anthony Albanese’s problem, does not pass the pub test. Dutton has joined Murdoch media elements to shift from his original position to support Rudd in his capacity as Australia’s ambassador to questioning Albanese’s judgement in making the appointment.

There is nothing subtle about Peter Dutton. If he sniffs an opportunity that may give him a political edge, he will pounce irrespective of the merits of the argument he pursues. Rudd has been a divisive figure within Labor in the past, but as Australia’s representative in the US, his excellent intellect and his tireless work ethic make him a more-than-suitable choice for the job.

Even Paul Kelly, doyen of Australian conservative reporting, revealed the sinister nature of this operation. “The campaign against Rudd comes from Australia not America. To the extent that it is promoted by the Coalition and its media backers, it seeks to damage Labor while undermining the national interest. It needs to be called out.”

Nigel Farage revealed that “friends at Sky News Australia” had urged him to ask Donald Trump his opinion of Rudd now that his less-than-flattering comments made about Trump had been scoured out by trawling journalists in their attempts to destroy him.

This low-level attack on our ambassador augurs for a bitter election campaign to be fought in the new year.

There will be an overuse of the word “elites” by the Coalition when the federal election campaign kicks off. Already their media backers have warned Labor from cosying up to the “elites” at the expense of caring for the ordinary forgotten folk.

How does one define elite? Would it include multi-billionaires like Gina Rinehart, Donald Trump and Elon Musk? They were all at Mar-a-Lago when Trump celebrated his election victory. Former deputy leader of the Liberal Party vice-president Teena McQueen, special adviser to Rinehart, was sitting right next to her exclaiming, “It was the best night of my life!”. I would say all of the above.

Earlier this year Peter Dutton flew to WA just for an hour to pay homage to Gina Rinehart’s at her 70^th birthday celebration. This was just before the Dunkley by-election. Radio announcer Ben Fordham, no friend of Labor, said it was a “bad call”. Needless to say, Dutton received accolades from Rinehart for being an “outstanding leader”.

Who are the ordinary folk? They are generally the every-day folk who don’t earn 6-digit salaries. They are the folk who mostly did not get a single cent of tax cuts from the government which included Peter Dutton as a prominent minister. They are the folk who were all given a tax cut when Labor’s Jim Chalmers had settled in as Treasurer of Australia.