Patriotism is for grownups. It’s not about chest-thumping, flag-waving, or hurling adolescent insults.

True patriotism is loving one’s country, believing that Australia is the best and fairest nation on this Earth, wanting to protect it from real threats, and make it a better place for all to live.

Patriotic leadership is measured by actions, not words. As Paul Keating once quipped, “the test is the outcome”. On that score, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton fails spectacularly.

Consider the Port of Darwin. Earlier this month, Dutton and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese both vowed to tear up the Chinese-owned Landbridge Group company’s 99-year lease. Dutton has spent years railing against China’s influence while failing to take decisive action when and where it mattered most.

The Darwin Port’s lease was a strategic blunder made under the Abbott government’s watch in 2015, despite warnings from our own Defence Department. The Coalition’s privatisation put a critical piece of infrastructure, located directly opposite the Larrakeyah Defence Precinct, potentially into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.

When Dutton later served as defence minister, he had the authority in 2021-22 to tear up the lease on national security grounds. He didn’t. The man who so often accuses others of weakness was unwilling to make the hard and correct decision in the national interest.

Dutton talks a big game on China but backed a decision that handed Beijing a strategic foothold in northern Australia. Instead, he now chooses to talk tough on China from the safety of opposition. A real patriot would have acted when he had the chance, not just talked.

Instead, Dutton saves his bravado for puerile insults. On Donald Trump’s “liberation day” of tariffs, the alternative prime minister accused Albanese of being “weak and missing in action”, a line straight from Trump’s playbook. Dutton’s description of Albo as “limp-wristed” is worse – desperate rhetoric unworthy of a man who wants the nation’s top job. 

Dutton’s accusations are projection. It’s weak leaders, insecure in themselves, who resort to name-calling. Strong leaders, true patriots, focus on protecting their country – its people, economy, and democratic institutions. They don’t ape Trump’s empty machismo or desperately seek to dance away from associating with the Donald and his erratic agenda because polls are telling us that Trump is about as popular with Australians as a rattle snake in a lucky dip.

Compare Dutton’s words with the Albanese government’s “buy Australian” policy, which leverages government procurement to support local industries and creates a stockpile of key critical minerals as strategic leverage with the US – strengthening our economy, supporting jobs, and protecting sovereignty. That’s a concrete plan to put Australia first.

A fortnight ago, Australian steel and aluminium imports were targeted by Trump’s tariffs. Now, emboldened by Trump’s tariff wars, American big pharma is circling our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, threatening to weaken it and push up prices for essential medicines.

If Dutton’s chest-beating rhetoric meant anything, he’d be fighting to defend the PBS scheme on a unity ticket with Albo. Instead, he’s too busy throwing rhetorical bombs at the Prime Minister. The same goes for our effective biosecurity laws and news bargaining code.

Australia has a proud tradition of wielding patriotism as a force for progress.

From Andrew Fisher’s Labor government, aided by Liberal leader Alfred Deakin, founding an independent Australian Navy in 1911, to John Curtin rallying the nation during its darkest hours of World War II (and yet visionary enough to create the PBS in 1944 as war still raged), and Bob Hawke’s revitalisation of the economy and creation of Medicare in the 1980s, our best leaders have embodied a patriotism defined by strength and optimism.

True patriots build the institutions that make Australia strong – Medicare, the PBS, fair-go workplaces and our defence forces.

Dutton’s dance from Donald is underscored by his election backflips. Take, for example, his abrupt shift on 41,000 public sector jobs cuts amid real concerns about the impact on essential services. Then there’s his U-turn on the work-from-home ban.

Inconsistency, particularly when it comes to matters of national importance, is a weakness in this time of Trumpian uncertainty. It’s like watching Nadia Comaneci on the balance beam: All over the place – but without the grace.

When Dutton attacks Albo as limp-wristed, he merely signals his desperation. The Liberal campaign is floundering, and he hopes a Trumpian barrage of insults will distract from his own failures. Australians aren’t so easily fooled. Dutton’s projection – accusing others of weakness while failing to show strength himself – is an indictment of his own patriotism.

The greatest act of patriotism isn’t waving a flag or forcing supermarkets to sell Aussie flags. Patriotism is about making this country stronger, fairer, and better for future generations.

This election, the test of patriotism is about whether our leaders choose to put Australia first. That means standing up to foreign powers when they threaten the national interest, even allies when they don’t act like friends. Dutton’s bluster and insults are a very poor substitute.

Real patriots don’t need to shout – they deliver. The question for voters on May 3 is simple: Out of the two men contesting to be prime minister, who do you think is on Team Australia?