When politicians talk about staying in Paris, some people think of climate change and the international pact to save the planet from a diabolical temperature rise.

Many, though, likely imagine the Eiffel Tower or the upcoming Olympics, expensive hotels, fancy food or fashion – maybe even pollies’ snouts in the trough.

When Peter Dutton mentions Paris, he’s speaking to both groups but mostly the second, those not focused on what the Paris agreement is or why it matters.

Most people have better things to do than note where global climate summits were held and what was agreed there, and the opposition leader is not minded to enlighten them. In fact, he does the opposite.

“It’s OK for Mr Albanese to want to feel popular and get all the back slaps from Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron at the Paris conferences,” Dutton said in the climate context on Thursday. “The prime minister’s responsibility is actually to the Australian public.”

Paris conferences? Backslapping?

The Paris agreement emerged from a United Nations climate change conference in, yes, Paris, in 2015. There are not “Paris conferences” upcoming, nor anything to prompt Francophone bonhomie. But Dutton seems unworried about making this up. If people think references to “Paris” are about Albanese jetsetting, he’s fine with that.

This nonsense from the putative prime minister underscores a few things about his decision to abandon the 2030 emissions reduction target and not name another before the next election.

First, it’s not really about climate change and only partly about energy. Mostly, it’s to amplify people’s fears and concerns during a period of high financial stress, and be seen to respond.

Ultimately, Dutton is sending messages to target voters so they’ll hear the bits he wants them to hear and disregard the rest, whether they live in climate-concerned teal seats, out on the suburban fringes or in the bush.

Dutton comes to this debate armed with Coalition research on what is worrying people, where they rate climate change, and how they feel about him and his opponent, Anthony Albanese.

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