Election 2022: Peter Dutton blasts disrespectful voters, Anthony Albanese

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has called for Aussie voters to show respect to leaders of our country, after saying Anthony Albanese is clearly not up to the job of being PM.

Australian voters need to remind themselves they live in a lucky country when compared with nations like Ukraine and show respect for their leaders, Defence Minister Peter Dutton said on Thursday.

Mr Dutton, responding to the controversy of activists crashing the campaigns of both leaders, said respect needed to be shown during the election campaign.

He said while both Labor and Liberal parties had “enthusiastic” supporters behind them, that was no excuse for disrespect.

The 20-year-old activist who gate crashed Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s private western Sydney event earlier this week was cited.

“I think one of the things we should remind ourselves of in this campaign is when you look at the Ukraine and what is happening in Europe, the uncertainty in other countries at the moment sometimes we do take for granted what we have got in this country, how fortunate, how lucky we are and how our democracy is pretty fragile on occasion, we haven’t even realised it,” he said.

“So I think it is a great thing that people can express a view but whether you are with the Young Liberals, Young Labor or whoever you are, Young Greens, whatever, you’ve got to express it respectfully and in the end the office of prime minister is a very high office in our country and whether its Liberal or Labor we have to show respect to the person in that position. I think sometimes we should remind ourselves of that, everyone is after a great moment on Snapchat or YouTube or whatever but do it respectfully.”

Mr Dutton also said he thought “Albo has had a shocker” so far on the campaign trail.

“Let’s call it what it is. It has given people an insight of somebody who has hidden himself from public view for months.

“Now you understand why. He is clearly not up to the job and not prepared for the job. It is clear to Australians that the rumblings within the Labor Party about the leader and he can’t go the distance in the campaign.

“That all makes sense to people now. People have a bit of a taste. It is a bit of Mark Latham about it of 2004. I think that you will see more from Anthony Albanese by way of mistakes and just demonstration that he is not ready for the top job in the country.”

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has criticised Opposition leader Anthony Albanese over national security. Picture: Liam Kidston

DUTTON BLASTS ALBANESE OVER NATIONAL SECURITY

People smugglers in Vietnam and Sri Lanka are rubbing their hands in glee over a potential Labor government, with leader Anthony Albanese’s soft approach likely to “restart the boats”, Defence Minister Peter Dutton has warned.

Announcing a more than $500 million tranche of weapons acquisitions from a Brisbane defence supplier on Wednesday, Mr Dutton said Labor could not be trusted with national security whether it was to deal with a restart of refugee boats, Chinese aggression or even making friends in the Pacific.

Mr Dutton said he had followed Mr Albanese’s career from across the parliamentary dispatch box for more than 20 years and it was unbelievable the Labor Opposition leader was now 20 days before an election trying to pretend to be strong on security.

“It just doesn’t pass the pub test,” Mr Dutton said.

Mr Dutton lampooned Mr Albanese “as twisting and contorting”, not knowing who he was claiming to be – reincarnated from former Labor leader Bob Hawke, laughably comparing himself to former Coalition leader John Howard and even marketing himself as Brisbane premier Annastacia Palaszczuk “version 2.0”.

“I think the Australian public can sniff a fake here,” he said.

Mr Dutton said he knew “the preconditions were there” for the refugee boats to resume voyages to Australia like they had during the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard Labor government years and smugglers from Vietnam and Sri Lanka were thinking “bring it on”.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton tours Brisbane defence company NIOA. Picture: Liam Kidston

“The threat will never go away, but Anthony Albanese is sending smoke signals that the Labor Party has the same policy as Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard which equates to boats restarting and people being back on water, and that’s not what we want,” Mr Dutton said.

“The preconditions are there for the boats to recommence.

“They would be looking at Labor’s policy at the moment, rubbing their hands together, thinking ‘fantastic, bring it on, game back on’.

“If you look at Brendan O’Connor – my opposite, at least for the moment – there are 12,000 who came on his watch. Women and children drowned when he was the Home Affairs Minister.

“We don’t even know if Kristina Keneally would be the Home Affairs Minister. I think the Albanese roadshow is (about to) run into some pretty rough territory.

“The people smugglers won’t try and risk their arm against a Morrison government, I’ll tell you that,” Mr Dutton said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with Prime Minister Manasseh Damukana Sogavare of the Solomon Islands. Picture: Getty Images

On China he said a Labor government would no doubt dispatch Penny Wong as foreign minister to Beijing and she would be told Chinese relations could improve if Australia stopped the defence build-up.

“She would fall for it,” he said, adding there was a split between the Labor Left and Right on how to deal with China.

The Federal Government announced on Tuesday it was dispatching officials to the Solomon Islands capital, Honiara, to discuss Australia’s concerns with the government signing a military deal with China.

Mr Albanese said this sort of ministerial attention should have been taken when the deal was first revealed but instead the critical security issue was “fumbled”.

ASIS head Paul Symon and Office of National Intelligence (ONI) Director-General Andrew Shearer met with the Pacific nation’s prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, two weeks ago over the China deal, which the Solomon Islands leader had earlier said he would sign.

Originally published as Election 2022: Peter Dutton blasts disrespectful voters, Anthony Albanese