'Manchurian candidate,' political scare campaigns go red and Green

And this is not a reference to the usual suspects, or 5G.

The scare campaigns in the unofficial federal election campaign dialled up to 11 for a brief moment on Wednesday in question time with the Prime Minister calling the deputy Labor leader Richard Marles, the "Manchurian candidate."

Well whack of being a Chinese puppet went over well. And the subsequent confusion over whether Mr Morrison withdrew the remark, and then did it again anyway, just added to the farce.

With no policy and little legislation to debate, the government side does not look energised.

Worse still, there is disunity based on poor polling, ambition and political survival that Mr Morrison can only implore in the government party room to go away. Labor Leader Anthony Albanese referred in Parliament to continuing cabinet leaks as "more like a dam wall burst over there."

There is more than one minister looking terminal at the moment. The appearance of Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck at Senate estimates on Wednesday has not done him any favours.

And Education Minister Alan Tudge. His name has been removed from his ministerial office, but apart from that there is, according to the Prime Minister, nothing to see here.

So, it is not a stretch to question the current crop of scares.

Take your pick, the government wants to know which will stick: A Labor/Greens alliance in government, a secret plan for death duties or an Albanese Labor government subservient to China?

We will all hear more of these throughout the campaign. And others from Labor about the government, most likely over the future of Medicare.

But China is being viewed as getting the most traction and harder to defend, particularly as there isn't a unified position on Australia's largest trading partner among the wider Labor movement. Think former prime minister Paul Keating not happy with foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong.

The endorsement for the Labor leader as preferred prime minister over Mr Morrison this week in the Chinese state-run mouthpiece The Global Times is all the evidence the government needs. The editorial describing Mr Morrison as a "clown" was done by a former Australian diplomat Bruce Haigh who has never been a fan of the Member for Cook.

No doubt there are concerns about Chinese influence, for all parties. The Director-General of ASIO Mike Burgess was very clear this week amid speculation over a foiled foreign interference plot, reminding parliamentarians he and his agency remain "proudly apolitical".

Labor says Mr Morrison is desperate and hitting out in all directions and not connecting. No doubt the government would relish a khaki election. National security is favoured ground. But a Manchurian candidate in parliament? All good conspiracies have a whiff of the possible, but this is wacky. Well, it has done the job. It has got us talking.

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