It is hardly surprising that Malcolm Turnbull has followed up his personal attacks on Bill Shorten with more of the same.
The besieged Prime Minister was clearly buoyed by the positive response from colleagues and commentators in the aftermath. At this point in the cycle and with his own popularity in free-fall, that's a win-win.
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Turnbull v Shorten: Round 2
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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has taken his attack on Bill Shorten even further, with the Labor leader landing a few of his own blows. Courtesy ABC News 24.
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Turnbull v Shorten: Round 2
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has taken his attack on Bill Shorten even further, with the Labor leader landing a few of his own blows. Courtesy ABC News 24.
Spontaneous as the tirade had appeared, its objectivess were clear enough: to force Shorten back after the Labor leader has become increasingly bold in tagging the PM as "Mr Harbourside Mansion"; to reassure wavering pro-Turnbull MPs that their leader has the steel, the mongrel to hit back with interest; and, to silence persistent internal critics.
While it is undeniable that voters generally dislike such aggression in their leaders, and perhaps will particularly dislike it in Turnbull's case, this was more primal, its audience, more fundamentally tribal.
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Expect Turnbull to elaborate this approach from here. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, he added to his dark picture of Shorten as a "simpering sycophant" to billionaires, a "parasite" and a hypocrite devoid of "any" integrity, by raising the character question.
The advent of "angry Malcolm" could not have come soon enough for his beleaguered troops. Something had to be done and for conservatives, this usually means channelling John Howard.
Parallels with Paul Keating's bruising parliamentary style, Peter Costello, and even Julia Gillard's (in)famous misogyny speech, were inevitable. But the more important parallel, looking forward, is with Howard.
Turnbull knows he cannot realistically hope to keep up that level of vitriol, and would not want to. But by hitting out so aggressively, he has done a couple of important things. One, he has signalled to his adversary that two can fight ugly, and that henceforth there will be personal consequences.
Two, he has begun the character assault on his rival. From here on in, Turnbull's approach will exploit doubts over Shorten's suitability for high office.
In politics as in advertising, the messages that cut through are the ones reinforcing an existing belief or prejudice. Fair or not, Howard nailed Kim Beazley's softness and rendered it negative with his claims that the big man might have lacked the ticker for national leadership.
Turnbull's line on Thursday morning? "Bill Shorten doesn't have the character to be prime minister of Australia. He does not have the integrity to be leader of the opposition, to be leader of the Labor Party."
Just as Labor is working off focus group feedback confirming the Mr Harbourside Mansion, millionaire tag on Turnbull, the government hopes to amplify a view of Shorten as beholden to corrupt unions, seduced by money and power, and insincere in championing the interests of working families.
Labor's is the easier task - especially as the harbourside mansion label was coined by a Liberal. But having finally bared his teeth, Turnbull at least feels he has found something solid on which to bite.
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