The federal election campaign is getting some bad press. Critics say it’s a damaging, depressing charade in which the main participants refuse to be bold and confront the big issues. There’s something to the criticism, but we need to be seriously hashing out the issues all the time, not just in a five-week campaign.

Anyway, it misses a larger point. Modern elections are mostly a beauty contest. This election is performing its chief function, which is to decide who’ll serve as prime minister.

Illustration by Dionne Gain

Above all else, the election has given most voters what they need: an opportunity to measure up the leaders by getting a sense of their temperament, personality, worldview and ability to operate under pressure. It was always going to be like this. The movement towards a more presidential style of politics began in earnest during the 1972 “It’s Time” election in which Labor under Gough Whitlam was elected to office, and it’s become progressively more entrenched since then.

That focus on the leaders has become even more intense because of Donald Trump’s return to the White House. That’s been bad news for Peter Dutton. Trump’s vengeful, chaotic and cruel presidency is causing a significant shift in Australia’s political sensibilities. Our most reliable friend, a country that we felt we knew almost as well as our own, is not all that interested in the friendship any more. Mutuality is out, pure self-interest is in.

On the relationship with America, this is where the criticism of the 2025 election campaign is sharpest: it’s the biggest issue on which Dutton and Anthony Albanese dissemble most egregiously. Questioned about Australia’s future relationship with Trump and........

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