Peter Dutton’s shock-and-schlock tactics are fear-mongering in search of a policy

‘With no obvious twinge of shame or embarrassment, he likened an 9 October rally at the Opera House to the massacre of 35 people at Port Arthur.’ Photograph: Steven Saphore/AAP

The opposition leader Peter Dutton’s determination to convince Australian voters they are on a path to an ill-defined catastrophe is collapsing under the weight of its own absurdity.

As with his apparent American role model, Dutton’s Trump-like insistence that voters are headed for disaster relies on cheap over-reach rather than rational analysis – shock them with schlock.