The Prime Minister has delivered a searing, somewhat sneering, indictment of Peter Dutton.
Anthony Albanese said his opponent was "a bit like a Tony Abbott tribute band."
And in a reflection on his two years in power, he took a swing at some right-wing journalists: "There are some journalists who are more stenographers," he said on a podcast for ANU professor Mark Kenny.
Mr Albanese also made what sounded like a cry from the heart about the pain of social media.
"I have found over recent times, perhaps because of the position I'm in, but the level of hatred which is there and the things that people will say on the internet, in social media, in comment sections.
"I try not to look anymore. I just find it extraordinary. I can't believe that people would face-to-face say that to anybody else. Reprehensible, violent, threatening. It can be quite extraordinary.
"I think the debate about our youngest Australians and access to social media will broaden very quickly into a debate about social media in general, what the impact is, what the impact of the internet is, and to a debate about our society.
"One of the things I've been wondering about is whether people's isolation during COVID, where we lost the capacity for health reasons, to have that social interaction, whether that exacerbated some of those issues that can occur with isolation.
"We need to find ways in which people can engage with each other. We're social beings."
Mr Albanese was reflecting while on the Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny podcast.
Mark Kenny asked the Prime Minister what he made of Mr Dutton. He wasn't complimentary.
"I think he leads a really ordinary team. His priority has been keeping his party room together and that's a party room that has shifted further and further to the right."
In the podcast, Mr Albanese laments the state of some journalism: "You do have a blurring of news from opinion."
"There are some journalists who are more stenographers, in particular on the right wing. They are a cheer squad."
He cast his mind back to a different time. "I know that when years ago, people like Alan Ramsey wrote one column every Saturday and then had a smaller one on a Wednesday, and it was a considered piece. There was research. It was people that had been spoken to. Some journalists do that now, too, but it is far less frequent.
"And I think one of the things that that means is that for some of the publications you look at a front page and say well, that'll be gone tomorrow because there isn't substance to it."
He deplored the state of current debate. "I worry about the state of political discourse and polarisation. Whereas, previously I think people shared some of the same experience. They read the same newspapers. They watched the same TV news."
