Peter Dutton is the Acting Prime Minister

... as the actual Prime Minister goes missing again

Thank God for Acting Prime Minister Peter Dutton!

Yes, you read that right. This week the Opposition Leader was effectively running the country.

With Anthony Absentese too busy jetting off overseas to be bothered with governing, Peter Dutton stood and took charge.

Well someone had to!

Peter Dutton has been clear and concise on Israel. He has backed our key Middle Eastern ally’s right to destroy Hamas, while Everywhere Albanese has equivocated.

Peter Dutton has been strong in his condemnation of anti-Semitism, while Each-Way Albo has been as careful to denounce Islamophobia that is not happening as he has been to denounce the anti-Semitism that is happening.

And on Thursday, Peter Dutton stepped in to hold the Home Affairs and Immigration ministers’ hands, instructing them on how to craft legislation to protect Australians from dangerous criminals released into the community after a High Court ruling that made indefinite detention unlawful.

The High Court ruling was a shocker. Asylum seekers who were being kept in detention because they were too dangerous to be given Australian visas (but unwanted by any other country) were suddenly set free.

One was a Malaysian assassin who murdered a pregnant woman before using military grade explosives to blow up her corpse.

Another was a Myanmar pedophile who had sex with a 10-year-old boy.

Those are just two examples of 80!

Earlier in the week, Dutton had urged the Prime Minister not to leave Australia until the immigration detention laws were sorted out.

But faced with the choice of leading or leaving, Airbus Albo up and left.

Remember Anthony Albanese before he became PM?

“If I’m Prime Minister, I won’t go missing when the going gets tough - or pose for photos and then disappear when there’s a job to be done. I’ll show up, I’ll step up – and I’ll work every day to bring our country together.”

The Opposition should repeat this quote non stop until 2025.

Since October 14, Albanese has taken four separate overseas trips visiting Washington, Beijing, Shanghai, Cook Islands and San Francisco.

He was on a RAAF jet flying from China to the Cook Islands when the Reserve Bank announced a 13th interest rate hike on Melbourne Cup day.

This week, with Albo again on his aeroplane, his hapless ministers were left to deal wth the with the 84 asylum seekers - murderers, rapist and pedophiles among them - now wandering the suburbs.

Ah yes, the suburbs. The Prime Minister would have looked down on them as his RAAF Boeing 737 soared high above.

From the rarified air inhabited by our high-flying PM, it must have been difficult to imagine life in the suburbs.

In case the PM or his advisors are reading The James Macpherson Report, let me bring them up to speed with what’s happening in the suburbs.

Grocery prices are up.

Power bills are up.

Interest rates are up.

Rent is up

Fuel prices are up.

Anti-Semitism is up.

Blood pressure is up.

And everyone you talk to is absolutely fed up.

The only thing not up is Anthony Albanese’s polling numbers.

Albanese - who clearly believes there’s not much more to being PM than (virtue) Signalling, Selfies and Stitch-ups (for union mates) - is in San Fransisco.

Governing doesn’t seem to have occurred to him.

Though, to be fair, he has rarely had to make any decisions for Australia due the sporadic nature of his visits.

So while Albanese was in America shaking hands with Blackrock CEO Larry Fink, Peter Dutton was in Australia acting to protect citizens.

He embarrassed the government into finally producing legislation to deal with dangerous asylum seekers released into the suburbs.

And when they produced the legislation, Peter Dutton pointed out all the holes in it. He completely owned Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles. We now know that neither of them can be trusted to keep Australians safe. Both should resign.

Dutton told them which bits of the legislation needed to be amended, and how it should be amended.

And acting PM Richard Marles agreed with barely a whimper.

It was as remarkable as it was game changing, because suddenly the whole country realised that it really doesn't matter if Albanese is in the country, or not.

This week, at the halfway point of his first term in power, the Prime Minister became an "optional extra".