Peter Dutton can’t disown hypocrisy on Ali France

Dutton now looks like an uncaring person at best and a cynical political street fighter at worst, writes Dennis Atkins.

THE drive from the Strathpine shops to Tweed Heads is just over two hours while Labor’s candidate for Dickson, Ali France, lives just five minutes outside Peter Dutton’s electorate.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. Picture: supplied

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These little facts are handy because there’s a mini-brouhaha bubbling away in the Pine Rivers district about local loyalty.

Dutton was elected as the Member for Dickson two decades ago with a campaign railing against Labor’s celebrity candidate and former Democrats leader Cheryl Kernot.

Kernot came from the Gold Coast and Dutton harrumphed she’d been parachuted in to the outer-suburban seat.

Dutton prevailed in a bare-knuckle fight in which no blow was too low for the aspiring Liberal.

A decade later Dutton’s love for Dickson had waned and he made a serious bid to forsake his once loyal voters and head for the very southern reaches of the Gold Coast, the safe conservative seat of McPherson.

Liberal Margaret May left McPherson in 2010 having seen her margin whittled down to 8 per cent - still much safer than Dickson, which was way too skinny at 0.13 per cent.

An internal battle raged and Dutton, who was using plenty of political muscle to turn his back on his constituents, was eventually told to stay home by locals on the Coast.

Last year when Dutton’s leadership ambitions were being burnished, the old “let’s go to McPherson” playbook was rebooted but again didn’t fly.

Now Dutton is promoting criticism of Labor’s France for not living in Dickson.

Having lost a leg after a horrible traffic accident eight years ago, France requires special needs facilities where she lives and claims she couldn’t find suitable accommodation in Dickson.

She lives just outside the electorate, a few minutes away by car.

Dutton now looks like an uncaring person at best and a cynical political street fighter at worst.

Given his own history of trying to break the bonds with his electorate, one thing he can’t disown is hypocrisy.