Peter Dutton: Everything you need to know
HE’S the cop turned politician who built a reputation for being tough and tenacious — and he could well be Australia’s next Prime Minister. But Peter Dutton has been at the centre of many controversies since he first became an MP.
SPECULATION is rife that Peter Dutton will challenge Malcolm Turnbull for the leadership of the Liberal Party.
It has already been suggested that he could be Australia’s new Prime Minister as soon as tomorrow, should he challenge and win.
But who is Mr Dutton and what could Australians expect under his leadership?
Put simply he’s a cop turned politician who is no stranger to controversy.
The 47-year-old has built a reputation for being tough and tenacious.
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Here’s everything you need to know about the man who could be Australia’s next PM.
MP SINCE 2001
The father of three secured a Liberal seat in the lower house at the 2001 federal election after unseating high-profile Labor MP Cheryl Kernot in the Queensland division of Dickson. He’s been married to wife Kirilly since 2003.
A DECADE IN THE FORCE
Brisbane-born Dutton spent nearly a decade as a Queensland cop, working in the drug squad, sex offenders squad and National Crime Authority. Of his time as a cop he said: “I have seen the wonderful, kind nature of people willing to offer any assistance to those in their worst hour, and I have seen the sickening behaviour displayed by people who, frankly, barely justify their existence in our sometimes over-tolerant society.”
SMALL BUSINESS EXPERIENCE
In 1999, he abandoned the force to join his father in the business Dutton Holdings, a company that bought and converted buildings into childcare centres. He sold childcare centres to the now defunct ABC Learning Centres, which led to Labor accusing him of a conflict of interest.
MINISTER WITHIN THREE YEARS
Dutton spent just one term on the backbench after his election to parliament. In 2004, John Howard appointed Dutton as workforce participation minister, then later revenue and assistant treasurer before Kevin Rudd toppled the coalition government in 2007.
EFFECTIVE IN OPPOSITION
One of the most common refrains in Dutton’s many speeches is that Labor stands for nothing because of its ultra-pragmatism — the “whatever it takes” mentality so well defined by former Labor minister Graham Richardson. It was with that in mind he was effective in keeping the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor government on its toes as opposition spokesman for finance, deregulation and health.
In 2008, when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered an apology in Parliament to the Stolen Generations, Mr Dutton was the only Coalition frontbencher to stage a boycott of the event.
HEALTH MINISTER 2013-2014
In 2014 in his role as Health Minister, Dutton tried to introduce an added fee of $7 for visits to GPs, but the proposal was dropped after outrage from the public and the medical profession. A year later, he was ranked as worst health minister in 35 years in a poll conducted by Australian Doctor magazine.
IMMIGRATION MINISTER 2014-2017
Dutton is remembered as a hard-nosed immigration minister who “stopped the boats” by militarising the department and taking a tough approach to the wellbeing of asylum seekers in offshore detention — sending the strongest possible signal to people-smugglers.
But he also has a softer, empathetic side, overturning visa decisions when special cases were put to him.
In 2016 in his role as Immigration Minister, Dutton caused outrage after suggesting it was a mistake to resettle many Lebanese-Muslims in Australia saying many people charged with terror-related offences came from that background.
He caused outrage again that year when he discussed the number of refugee resettlements in Austraia: “For many people, they won’t be numerate or literate in their own language, let alone English, and this is a difficulty. These people would be taking Australian jobs, there’s no question about that, and for many of them that would be unemployed, they would languish in unemployment queues and on Medicare and the rest of it”.
SPY CLAIMS
In 2015, Dutton denied claims by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young that she had been spied on during a visit to Nauru. However, the spying claims were later confirmed by the Immigration Department and the company that carried out the operation.
SHARP TONGUE, LOOSE LIPS
He’s known for a sharp tongue, once describing journalist Samantha Maiden as a “mad f … ing witch”. He later apologised.
He was branded ‘vulgar’ in 2015 after an open microphone captured him joking about the plight of Pacific Island nations facing rising seas from climate change. Dutton initially refused to apologise, saying it was a private conversation, but he later apologised.
HIS DEFINING QUALITY
In his first speech to federal Parliament 16 years ago, Dutton paid tribute to his parents.
“Their outstanding quality is their tenacity,” he said in February 2002. It’s a character trait Dutton has in spades. Everything Dutton has done in his career has been characterised by a tenacious approach.
— with AAP
Originally published as Peter Dutton: Everything you need to know