Opposition Leader Peter Dutton (Image: AAP/Russell Freeman)
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton (Image: AAP/Russell Freeman)

In the midst of the Fatima Paymania that intoxicated federal Parliament last month, the contribution of one politician to Australia’s vaunted social cohesion stood out: Peter Dutton.

The context was the Labor Party’s existential panic that Payman’s exit from the party may be the trigger for a political insurgency in safe Labor seats with large Muslim populations.

Asked about this, Dutton warned that the next Parliament could “include the Greens, it’ll include Green-teals, it’ll include Muslim candidates from Western Sydney. It will be a disaster”.

Standard Dutton, who never saw a division he didn’t think was worth stoking.

But this time he is being sued for it.