Federal election 2022: Peter Dutton urges Aussies to ‘prepare for a chemical weapon attack’

In a wide-ranging interview from his family farm, hard-nosed Defence Minister Peter Dutton has revealed why Australia is in its most vulnerable position as he also lashed China.

Australia is in its most vulnerable position since the 1930s with China seeking to establish unchallengeable might and to turn our nation into a “tributary” state, Peter Dutton says.

The Defence Minister has warned Australians to prepare for the likelihood of a chemical weapon attack against a major city of an Australian ally in coming years and claimed that China would “laugh under their breath” and play Penny Wong “like a fool” in an Albanese government.

In a wide-ranging interview ahead of Anzac Day tomorrow, the hard-nosed minister said his view on the dangers facing Australia were shared by defence chiefs and the country needed to be open and honest about it.

He also spoke at length of his personal respect for ADF personnel, revealed he believes his chance of becoming prime minister had passed and told of his disgust at the “terabytes of nasty memes … and vile language and attacks on my wife and my children” online.

THIS IS DIRE

Describing Australia’s strategic position as as “dire” as it was in the lead up to the Second World War, Mr Dutton warned defence spending will need to rise to maintain “peace and stability” due to a changed China.

“I think the circumstances are as dire as they were in the 1930s,’’ he said.

“I’m happy to present the facts … and then people can draw their own conclusions.”

Members of a People's Liberation Army band stand together at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party in 2021 at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. Picture: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

The Defence establishment shares his level of concern about the risk to Australia, he said.

“We want a normalised peaceful relationship with every country, including China. But China has changed,” Mr Dutton said.

“And it’s going to take money to respond to that both in terms of additional personnel as well as investment in technologies and equipment.”

Australia needed to maintain both its military and naval capacity “be prepared for what a year ago would have been inconceivable”.

“It’s conceivable that there could be a chemical warfare attack on a capital city of one of our allies and so could you be drawn back into a conflict in the Middle East,” he said.

‘XI’S REAL INTENT’

Mr Dutton urged Australians to grasp that the trouble the nation faces was not of its own making, he said.

“The problem is not with Japan, it’s not with India. It’s not with New Zealand, it’s not with Australia, it’s not with the United States,” he said.

“The problem is with China under President Xi.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose for a photograph during their meeting in Beijing, on February 4, 2022. Picture: Alexei Druzhinin / Sputnik / AFP

The Chinese premier’s view of Australia’s role in the world was completely unacceptable, he said.

“My judgment is that President Xi wants a tributary state arrangement with Australia and others in the Indo Pacific,” he said.

“So they want a military presence; they want a might that no one could ever question and that could never be challenged” putting countries in a “sustained position of weakness.

“Australia will never abide that: we will never surrender our sovereignty, what we fought for generations.

“We want a good relationship with China but we’re not going to be subservient or cower to them or anybody else.”

‘PLAY HER LIKE A FOOL’

Mr Dutton warned the view that Russia’s problems in the Ukraine would curb China’s ambitions for Taiwan was wildly mistaken.

“When some of the Chinese military leaders look at the Ukraine, I suspect that they see … a bumbling stop-start military strategy by a tired force in the Russians,” he said.

“I suspect what they see is that the lesson is not to not to pull back or to question but how to go in harder faster and to conquer more comprehensively.”

Penny Wong, Opposition spokesperson for Foreign Affairs. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dean Martin

Mr Dutton said the criticism from Labor last week over the government’s handling of the Solomons situation had given Australians a window into Penny Wong’s and Anthony Albanese’s thought processes.

“It’s pretty scary … Penny Wong believes that if she was dispatched to Beijing that she could she could resolve all these issues,” he said.

“She believes that she could embark effectively on an appeasement strategy that I think is frankly quite dangerous. I think when you look at China’s actions against India, when you look at what they’re doing in the East China Sea, when you look at what they’re doing in the South China Sea, they’re not going to be swayed by Penny Wong’s so-called charm.

“They’d laugh under their breath and Penny’d think ‘well, well, if we, if we pull back on the AUKUS deal, and show that as a sign of good faith to the Chinese, they would enter into good faith negotiations with us’. They’d play her like a fool.”

THE DIGGERS

Mr Dutton said being the Defence Minister had deepened his respect for ADF personnel.

“I think of many of them standing at a hotel, or working in an aged care facility or helping flood victims – it’s not the first order of business that they signed up for but when you see the work, and in certain emails, you hear it from people, ADF personnel toil through all of that without complaint,” he said.

“I think it’s strength of character and their determination. They just roll the sleeves up and crack on.”

LIFE & LEADERSHIP

Mr Dutton, said his wife Kirilly had borne the lion’s share of the workload of looking after their children and that public life was hard on families of politicians – both for the time spent away from home and nasty things they were forced to read online.

“I have always said, if one of my kids went off the rails, I’d resign from his job overnight,’’ he said.

“But they’re good kids, well balanced. And Kirilly’s made a lot of sacrifices to be there for them when I haven’t been able to.”

Defence Minister Peter Dutton at his Dayboro farm. Picture: Zak Simmonds

He said that while all kids today suffer from the pressures of social media, “I think for public figures, there’s an extra dimension, because when our kids are old enough to Google their parents name, you know, there’s some pretty horrible things.”

This abuse has led Mr Dutton to occasionally threaten legal action against his online abusers but he said his actions were pretty insignificant compared to the “terabytes of nasty memes and photos and vile language and attacks on my wife and my children.”

The Defence Minister will have been in Parliament for 21 years this November but while he still believes he still has petrol in the tank – “I want to stay as long as I think I’m contributing and enjoying it” – his leadership ambitions have passed.

“I think my shot was in 2018,” he said.

“I think this election is going to be tight but I think Scott Morrison gets there and as John Howard was written off election after election, I’d be surprised if Scott Morrison doesn’t have another couple of elections in him,” he said.

Got a story tip? Email us at [e-mail]

Know some goss or seen something in your electorate? Contact us at [e-mail]

Originally published as Federal election 2022: Peter Dutton urges Aussies to ‘prepare for a chemical weapon attack’