Few events in modern Australian history are as deeply seared in the nation's consciousness as the Port Arthur massacre.

The shooting murder of 35 people, Australia's worst mass killing in recent decades, sits alone in the impacts it had on the country. 

Others were injured, families were left devastated and the name of the historic Tasmanian town was forever stained.

So to liken what happened in the aftermath of one of Australia's darkest days to a pro-Palestine protest in Sydney last year was quite the overreach. 

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton didn't absent-mindedly walk into the comparison, he read it straight from a prepared speech on Wednesday evening.

"While no one was killed during the October 9 protests, the events at the Sydney Opera House were akin to a Port Arthur moment in terms of their social significance," Dutton said in a speech inside the Sydney Opera House.

The protest in question occurred two days after Hamas's deadly terror attacks in Israel. It has been the subject of claims and counter-claims about what was said that night and led to a NSW Police review. 

Dutton's argument was the October 9 protest had provided a moment for leadership, like the aftermath of Port Arthur, but that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had failed where John Howard succeeded in driving a moment of national change. 

By Thursday afternoon, few others had rushed to offer the same connection Dutton sought to land, but the opposition leader remained unrepentant. 

Dutton's Port Arthur comments distracted from a wide-ranging speech in which he was trying to turn the blowtorch on Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Albanese for their handling of the Israel-Gaza war.

But it instead left him facing questions about his comments.

Dutton's speech tightened the tether with which his Coalition has attached itself to the Israeli government.

He dubbed Wong "reckless" in raising the prospect of recognising a Palestinian state, describing her comments as "utterly illogical, ill-timed and inappropriate".

Dutton went further and said the October 9 protest highlighted there were people in Australia who didn't subscribe to liberal democratic values.

"My message to this recalcitrant minority is simple. You will not change us," he said.

"If you do not subscribe to the Australian way of life, leave the country."

He vowed a future government under his leadership would have a "zero-tolerance approach" for "intolerable behaviours".

"Non-citizens who incite or choose violence should have their visas cancelled and be deported," he said before adding a sentence not included in an earlier version of his speech. 

"The visas wouldn't have been issued in the first place had their views been known to the issuing authority."

Dutton's speech wasn't the first time he's drawn migration into this conflict. Back in November, he raised the prospect of a "catastrophic outcome" as a result of Palestinians receiving visitor visas to come to Australia.

He has this week again reinforced just how far he's willing to go to back the Israeli government, but all his arguments could have just as easily been made without drawing links to that awful day in Tasmania in 1996.

Albanese looking a lot like Howard

Anthony Albanese might not be living up John Howard's leadership style in Peter Dutton's eyes, but a post on the PM's Instagram account had Albanese suddenly looking a lot like the former Liberal PM.

Howard was often photographed during his morning walks decked out in a Wallabies rugby union tracksuit (it's so infamous that one of them is now in the collection at the Museum of Australian Democracy). Albanese, as it turns out, is more of a rugby league guy, posting photos of himself high above Canberra in a PM's XIII top. 

But there was more to the photo than might have initially met the eyes.

The PM's XIII is a match played between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Albanese looks to have not just been getting his daily steps in, but training for a hike — and not just any hike.

The ABC reported on Thursday that he will mark Anzac Day on the Kokoda Track, in a highly symbolic visit that could see his PNG counterpart joining him along the walk.