If the Peter Dutton who showed up on election night had turned up consistently over the last three years, he would have had a decent chance of becoming prime minister.

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Instead, Dutton has been ejected from Parliament and Australia's most successful party has experienced an electoral catastrophe, retaining fewer than 50 seats in the lower house.

A dozen years ago, Tony Abbott stormed into office with 90.

In defeat, Dutton's generous and dignified concession revealed a side of him kept tightly hidden - institutional Dutton, constructive Dutton, kind-hearted Dutton, and what we might call strong-vulnerable Dutton.

The abruptly privatised former public figure who fronted shattered Liberal volunteers on election night, was a model of pluralist grace and civility.

Importantly, he shirked nothing. Barely three hours into the election count, Dutton exemplified the quintessence of Australian democratic best practice - reinforcing the primacy of reading the people's verdict clearly and validating it swiftly. Free-and-fair elections, no quibbling.

At a personal level, that cannot have been easy given the thrashing his party received nationally and which extended, humiliatingly, to blunt rejection by his own constituents of Dickson.

"I said to the Prime Minister that his mum would be incredibly proud of his achievement tonight, and he should be very proud of what he's achieved," Dutton told the party faithful in Brisbane after calling Anthony Albanese.

He offered equally warm and encouraging words for Ali France who, on her third attempt,........

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