Peter Dutton vows to help Coalition win over Queensland
PROUD coup leader Peter Dutton has declared new Prime Minister Scott Morrison can win over Queensland and is pushing for a central role in the new leadership team.
QLD Politics
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PETER Dutton says Scott Morrison has the best chance to lead the Coalition to victory, and he is pushing for a central role in the PM’s new team.
Reaching out to the man who beat him to become Prime Minister, Mr Dutton has ruled out another leadership challenge and offered to draw up a strategy to save Queensland seats.
Mr Dutton is also expected to be reinstalled as Home Affairs Minister, which will see him returned to one of the largest portfolios in Cabinet.
Within hours of losing the Liberal Party leadership contest, Mr Dutton spoke to Mr Morrison and pledged to back him as Prime Minister.
“I’m determined to do whatever we can to win the next election,” Mr Dutton told The Sunday Mail.
“I believe we are in a stronger position to win the election with Scott Morrison as Prime Minister.
“I have pledged my loyalty completely to Scott and to the new Government.”
Declaring “Scott will better connect with Queenslanders”, Mr Dutton said the LNP had a better chance of winning under Mr Morrison than Malcolm Turnbull.
“He is a man of integrity, he has a good story to tell, he’s down to earth, and Queenslanders will relate to him,” Mr Dutton said.
In a sign of how crucial Queensland will be to the Coalition’s chances at the next election, the Liberal National Party holds 21 of the 30 seats in the state. At least seven of those seats — including Dickson, held by Mr Dutton — are on thin margins and are at risk of falling to Labor.
Some LNP figures feared an even larger wipeout across the nation under Mr Turnbull, with predictions that 14 seats would have fallen.
Part of the groundswell of support for Mr Dutton came from disgruntled Liberal members in Queensland.
LNP President Gary Spence took the extraordinary step of calling MPs to urge them to back Mr Dutton before he had even announced his bid.
Most Liberal MPs from Queensland backed Mr Dutton and Mr Morrison is under pressure to show he understands the state.
But the former Treasurer is seen as very Sydney-centric by some. He is a former NSW Liberal party operative and doubts have been raised by some in the LNP about his ability to understand nuances in Queensland seats.
He has already flagged a drought package and a focus on cutting power prices — both of which have been welcomed by nervous government MPs.
Mr Morrison is likely to highlight his past role as a tourism industry executive as he tries to make a pitch to regional Queensland, where a swath of seats are being targeted by Labor.
His plain-speaking tone — and his previous role as the man who stopped the boats — has also led several MPs to claim Mr Morrison will have a better natural appeal in the state than the verbose Mr Turnbull.
Mr Dutton has offered to play a prominent role as a Queensland whisperer, both giving guidance to the new PM and driving the government’s agenda in public.
“As a proud Queenslander, I want to work very closely with him on delivering for the roads, dams, and the investments that need to be made in Queensland in the run up to the next election,” he said.
“I want Queensland to be a major winner out of the Morrison Government and I’m sure that Scott is of the same view.”
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