Credlin: In Dutton, Coalition finally has a leader to make a fight of things

After a decade when both sides were fighting over personalities, it’s now clear that, in Peter Dutton, the Coalition has a leader who’s going to make a fight of things, writes Peta Credlin.

For all those yearning for leadership, the good news is that the next election is going to be a real contest: not just between two sides and two personalities but between two sharply different sets of policies based on quite different ideas.

And about time, too.

The last federal election that was a battle of ideas was in 2013.

After a dismal decade, when both sides were fighting over personalities, it’s now clear that in Peter Dutton, the Coalition has a leader who’s going to make a fight of things.

First, over the Voice and now over energy policy, Dutton and his team are determined to be a clear alternative, not a weak echo of Labor.

Because he knows, they know, you know that Labor-lite Liberals lose.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton knows that Labor-lite Liberals lose. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Don’t believe those who say that Dutton, as a former Queensland cop, is unelectable. People said the same about John Howard and Tony Abbott before they won landslide victories.

Even first-term governments that have broken promises and let people down only win elections if the alternative is worse. Based on his performances so far, Dutton isn’t going to just play safe in the vain hope that the government will lose.

Instead, in key areas, his disposition is to stake out clear ground of his own.

Peter Dutton went against the Voice while and Senator Jacinta Price gave the Nationals some spine. Picture: AAP Image/Jono Searle

First, he went against the Voice, despite an initially divided shadow cabinet and the relevant shadow minister’s resignation, and without the support of any of the state Liberal leaders. Now, he’s supporting nuclear energy as the only feasible way to get to net zero while keeping the lights on, despite the climate worriers in his own ranks and state Liberal parties that often want to out-green Labor.

As well, it looks like he’ll go to the next election with a bigger, bolder version of the 2022 super-for-housing policy that Scott Morrison was too timid to unveil until the last minute; a much lower immigration intake, at least until our housing stock has caught up; and a tax policy designed to boost incentive and productivity.

That’s why this will be the first federal election since 2013 where it’s likely to be obvious, based on announced policies, that the result will make a difference. In 2016, Malcolm Turnbull wanted a coronation rather than a contest and, as a result, ended up losing 14 seats.

In 2019, Morrison and Josh Frydenberg ran an effective campaign against Labor’s extra taxes on retirees and investors and against Labor’s job-destroying climate policies – only to “me too” net zero after the election.

And in 2022, but for Labor’s implausible claims that it would cut power prices and boost real wages, the fight was mainly over Morrison’s character.

Under Dutton, expect the scrapping of Labor’s new tax on SUVs and utes that’s meant to force us into EVs. Picture: Glenn Campbell

But under Dutton, there’ll be much less Tweedle-Dum versus Tweedle-Dumber. Expect a fairer go for small business and changes to Labor’s pro-union workplace laws. Expect the scrapping of Labor’s new tax on SUVs and utes that’s meant to force us into EVs. Expect a return of work-for-the-dole, because it’s wrong that we have almost a million people on welfare when jobs go begging.

Expect a push for our education system to have a more academically rigorous curriculum, and more say for parents. And, I hope I’m right on this one, a commitment to no new spending (other than on national security and economic infrastructure) that’s not funded by savings elsewhere, that should eventually make room for responsible tax cuts.

This will sharpen the difference between a Coalition that wants to boost the economy to ease the pressure on household budgets and a Labor Party addicted to woke gimmicks and handouts that can only be paid for by robbing Peter to pay Paul. The challenge now is for the rest of the Coalition team to be no less hungry to win than Dutton.

Deputy leader Sussan Ley seemed pretty half-hearted in opposing the Voice, and Nationals leader David Littleproud needed Jacinta Price to give him a spine. Meanwhile, Dan Tehan in immigration, James Paterson on security and Angus Taylor on the economy are working hard to take down Labor but will need some policy commitments of their own to be fully effective.

As Dutton is now sensing, taking the path of least resistance is not the way to win elections. He was vindicated on the Voice because he called it on principle and then persevered with the argument.

An artist’s rendering of a planned small modular nuclear power reactor. Picture: Westinghouse

Similarly, on nuclear power in our grid, Dutton seems prepared to argue a case clearly and consistently, confident that the facts will speak for themselves.

As he has noted, it was the late Labor PM Bob Hawke who first championed nuclear power in this country, saying in 2016 that “nuclear power would be a win for the environment and an essential part of attacking global warning”.

Plus there are plenty of union leaders, especially from heavy industry that needs reliable 24/7 power, who’ve been supporters of nuclear energy, too. And now another Australian legend, electronics guru Dick Smith, has chimed in, saying that we could get nuclear power within six years and that Labor’s opposition to it was “emotional and irrational”. “There was simply no way you can run a country on 100 per cent renewables” he said.

Support for at least having the option of nuclear energy is not going to be enough, on its own, to win the election for the Coalition, but it would be a strong start to the Coalition’s positive policy and a demonstration that it knows that being a small target won’t win against a first-term government.

TONY ‘PERK’, THE MINISTER WHO SIMPLY CAN’T READ THE ROOM

Tony Burke likes to attack the big end of town but is happy to emulate their lifestyle at taxpayer expense.

The Employment and Workplace Relations Minister once led the charge against Bronwyn Bishop over her notorious $5000 helicopter ride to a Liberal fundraiser.

However, that’s next to nothing compared to his own $58,000 bill on us for a four-day trip to the US that involved going to just one formal dinner, two meals with our ambassador, and one meeting with a US senator along with, presumably, attending some conference sessions.

Burke’s trip was reportedly twice the cost of Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles’ trip to the same 2022 US-Australia Leadership Dialogue.

As well, taxpayers picked up a hefty dry-cleaning bill and the $8000 tab for hire cars, including one that was kept waiting for 10 hours!

Burke has form here, too, earlier billing taxpayers $48,000 for a luxury European trip in the Rudd years with his former staffer, now wife.

With ordinary voters struggling to pay power bills that are up 20 per cent on Labor’s watch, let alone all the other cost-of-living hits, this is beyond a bad look from one of Labor’s most experienced ministers.

As a PM’s chief of staff, one of my jobs was to keep ministerial snouts out of troughs. It never made me popular but it was necessary because, while most MPs did the right thing, there was always a “Burke” who thought they should live it up.

But with a PM who loves the celebrity high life, too, who is going to rein in Tony “Perk”?

Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm