Prussian soldier strategist Carl von Clausewitz is best remembered for his statement, “War is the continuation of political intercourse with the addition of other means.”

The corollary might be, “Political warfare is the natural means by which total victory can be achieved.”

Political class warfare has been resurrected by Labor’s treasurer apparent Dr Jim Chalmers, the former acolyte and anointed successor of Labor’s most vicious political warrior, fellow Queenslander and former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan.

First as a Queensland Labor apparatchik then federal member for Lilley, Swan was to political warfare what Mao Zedong was to guerrilla warfare.

Mao wrote, “politics is war without...