Andrew Bolt: Cautious Peter Dutton just the man to rise to the Labor challenge

Peter Dutton faces threats that could keep the Libs in opposition for years. He needs Labor to own the pain it will cause, making him the man to call when there’s “a huge mess to clean up”.

Peter Dutton already faces three big threats that could keep his shattered Liberals in opposition for a decade.

Play them wrong, and the Liberals will be damned as planet-wrecking racists who still crawl to Britain.

That, or another bunch of Liberal sellouts.

Dutton is no fool. The new Liberal leader knows this, even though he sounds for now like he’s just banking on the Albanese government destroying itself in the old Labor way – by stuffing up the economy.

“I think we’ll have a huge mess to clean up by the end of three years,” he said.

But our politics has changed. If the economy was the Liberals’ trump card, it should have won this election.

Instead, it lost on values. Because of the global warming religion. Because of Scott Morrison’s sneer. Because of the Liberals supposed “women problem”. Because the Morrison government looked stale, sterile and without a plan for the future.

So, yes, Labor is going to make the economy worse, especially with its reckless plan to switch off coal and get 82 per cent of our electricity from renewables in just eight years.

Liberal leader Peter Dutton is no fool - he knows the threats that Labor poses to his party. Picture: Tracey Nearmy

Look at the power bills already, and it’s going to get much worse. Labor will spend more than $20bn to give us electricity that will be more expensive and less reliable.

There’s a real chance many poorer Australians won’t even be able to heat their homes in winter.

Clearly, a cost of living crisis could hurt Labor, but it also knows younger voters especially are hungry for a sense that “tomorrow belongs to me”.

Given that, Labor has already prepared three crusades on values that could smash Dutton’s Liberals: on global warming, an Indigenous “voice” to parliament, and – surprise move – the republic.

You could see it in the new Labor ministry unveiled on Tuesday.

Predictably, global warming zealot Chris Bowen, is the new Climate Change Minister.

More surprising was that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appointed no fewer than three people to push his plan to change our constitution to create a kind of “advisory” parliament just for Aborigines, called the “Voice”.

There wasn’t just Linda Burney as Minister for Indigenous Australians. There’s also Malarndirri McCarthy as her assistant minister, with Pat Dodson the “special envoy for reconciliation”.

Predictably, global warming zealot Chris Bowen, is the new Climate Change Minister. Picture: Sky News

Even more surprising, Albanese named Matt Thistlethwaite as “assistant minister for the republic”, two days before the Queen starts celebrating her Platinum Jubilee to mark 70 years of service.

The Queen is 96. Let’s be blunt: she could very well die during this Albanese government, giving us the ludicrous King Charles. Albanese will be perfectly poised to argue for an Australian republic.

For the Liberals to fight Labor on all three fronts – global warming, the Voice and the republic – sounds like suicide.

It risks making them seem stuck-in-the mud reactionaries, and already Labor is challenging Dutton to be “on the right side of history”.

Dutton knows many Liberal MPs don’t have the guts to stand against a call like that. Some even back Labor’s crusades.

So Dutton has a massive challenge, despite promising “the Liberal Party will be true to our values”, and he’s so far moving cautiously.

He this week refused to rule out the Labor Voice that even Malcolm Turnbull had rejected on principle as racist. He said he would consider whatever Labor finally put up, claiming it might actually be watered down.

A cost of living crisis could hurt Labor, but it also knows younger voters especially are hungry for a sense that ‘tomorrow belongs to me’. Picture: Andrew Taylor

But how can any Liberal compromise with any step at all towards racial division, when their party is founded on belief in the individual?

So I tip Dutton will – must – oppose the Voice, and is strong enough to do it. If the Liberals surrender, what is Liberal about them?

He also will – and must – oppose Labor’s more radical global warming push.

For one, Dutton needs Labor to own the pain it will cause, making Dutton the man to call when there’s “a huge mess to clean up”.

But on the republic, the bets are off. Resisting all three crusades may be one too many.

Besides, as Dutton says, he leads the Liberal Party, not the Conservative Party. There’s nothing intrinsically Liberal about being a monarchist.

If the monarchy works for us, great. If it crumbles under Charles, why keep it?

Still, the danger is that the Liberals are fighting battles picked by Labor.

It’s failed for years to have the vision or guts to start some inspiring cultural battle of their own.

Perhaps Dutton can pull it off, because just waiting with broom and dustpan won’t be enough.