Peter Dutton has plumbed new and dangerous depths by suggesting China is backing Labor | Daniel Hurst

Did the defence minister not hear the Asio boss warn that stoking community division has the same corrosive impact on our democracy as foreign interference itself'?

Peter Dutton's incendiary question time intervention suggesting China had picked Anthony Albanese as its election candidate plumbed new - and dangerous - depths.

For weeks, Scott Morrison and his defence minister have been suggesting voters must not be lulled into a false sense of national security bipartisanship. Only the Coalition, their argument goes, can be trusted not to appease" China.