Peter Dutton resigns ministerial position after leadership challenge

PETER Dutton refused to criticise the Prime Minister today and said he had other reasons for the leadership challenge.

PETER Dutton has revealed the reasons he challenged Malcolm Turnbull for the Liberal leadership at a press conference today.

The former Home Affairs Minister avoided criticising the Prime Minister and explained his decision was not based on any animosity towards Mr Turnbull.

“I made a decision to contest this ballot because I want to make sure we can keep Bill Shorten from ever being prime minister of this country,” Mr Dutton said.

“I believe I had the best prospect of leading the Liberal Party to success at the next election.”

While Mr Dutton said he respected the decision of his colleagues, he did not rule out challenging for the leadership again.

“Having lost the ballot today, my job is to respect the view of the party room,” he said.

“My position from here will be to do what I can as a backbencher to make sure that I support the government, to make sure we are elected.”

He said he believed the coalition could win the election if it got the policies and message right about lowering electricity prices. He also flagged changes to the migration program until infrastructure could catch up in capital cities and investment in water to get farmers out of drought.

“We need to invest records amounts into health and education, aged care and other areas as well,” he said.

As he fronted the cameras, Mr Dutton joked: “It is good to be in front of the cameras where I can smile and maybe show a different side to what I show when I talk about border protection”. But his comments quickly turned serious as he gave reporters an overview of his 17 years in parliament.

Mr Dutton said he had been on the frontbench for 14 years and served four Liberal leaders loyally, as well as being assistant treasurer to Peter Costello and John Howard.

While Mr Dutton said he had been the minister for various portfolios including health, sport and workforce participation, he enjoyed his role as head of home affairs the most.

“Because of the people who work within those agencies and the incredibly important work that they support,” he said. “I am proud of the fact that I got children out of detention.”

During an earlier press conference today, Mr Turnbull revealed that after the spill he thanked Mr Dutton for his “outstanding service” as home affairs minister and had a “good discussion” about him staying on in the position.

“I have invited him to continue in that office, but … he said to me that he doesn’t feel he can remain in the cabinet having challenged me to the leadership of the party, and so he is resigning,” Mr Turnbull said.

Peter Dutton holding a press conference at Parliament House today. Picture Kym Smith

The Prime Minister said there were always differences among those in political parties but it was important to “put these differences behind us and get on with our job of looking after the 25 million Australians who have put us there.

“I don’t bear any grudge against Peter Dutton for having stood up and challenged me today.”

Mr Turnbull said Scott Morrison would act as Home Affairs Minister, pending other arrangements.

Mr Dutton today declared himself a serious challenger to Mr Turnbull, after previously denying he was interested in the top job.

He put his hand up to lead the party after Mr Turnbull declared the leadership position vacant this morning.

While Mr Turnbull won the spill by 48 votes to 35, it’s unlikely the vote will settle the matter.

Mr Dutton indicated as much after the vote, resigning his position as minister to sit on the backbench.

This will give Mr Dutton the freedom to lobby for more support from his colleagues and to criticise decisions of the Cabinet.

After the leadership spill, Sky News Australia reporter Ashleigh Gillon said “it’s not over” and noted that Mr Turnbull had only won the ballot by seven votes.

If successful, Mr Dutton would be Australia’s sixth prime minister in 11 years.

However, Mr Dutton does have his challenges, including doubt over whether he has a right to sit in parliament.

According to Ten Eyewitness News, Mr Dutton could be disqualified from parliament as two child care centres he owns via a trust have been receiving direct subsidies from the government. Parliamentarians are not allowed to have any direct or indirect pecuniary interests with the Public Service of the Commonwealth.

It was the same rule that brought down Family First Senator Bob Day last year.

Mr Dutton will also have to face accusations that he is a puppet of former prime minister Tony Abbott and is also a figure not familiar to many Australians.

Peter Dutton resigns after Malcolm Turnbull wins Liberal leadership spill vote. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

WHO IS PETER DUTTON?

In his first speech to federal parliament 16 years ago, Mr Dutton paid tribute to his parents.

“Their outstanding quality is their tenacity,” he said in February 2002.

It’s a quality that many attribute to the 47-year-old as well.

He’s often said that as a Queensland police officer for almost a decade in the 1990s he saw the “best and the worst that society has to offer”.

“I have seen the wonderful, kind nature of people willing to offer any assistance to those in their worst hour, and I have seen the sickening behaviour displayed by people who, frankly, barely justify their existence in our sometimes over-tolerant society.”

Mr Dutton is most often seen as the hard-nosed immigration minister who “stopped the boats” by militarising the department and taking an icy cold approach to the health and wellbeing of asylum seekers in offshore detention — sending the strongest possible signal to people-smugglers.

He’s also been known for a sharp tongue, once describing a journalist as a “mad f***ing witch” — for which he later apologised.

But he also has a softer, empathetic side, such as overturning visa decisions when special cases are put to him.

Mr Dutton is Liberal Party to his bootstraps.

Joining the party in the northern Brisbane outskirts aged 18, he found a natural fit in an organisation which valued individualism, reward for achievement and traditional values.

He was first elected to the Brisbane seat of Dickson in 2001 and went on to successive victories, in a seat full of aspiring small business people and industrial sheds.

In 2004, John Howard saw value in appointing Dutton as workforce participation minister, then later revenue and assistant treasurer before Kevin Rudd toppled the coalition government in 2007.

Peter Dutton as a police officer with his grandmother.

One of the most common refrains in Mr Dutton’s many speeches is that Labor stands for nothing because of its ultra-pragmatism — the “whatever it takes” mentality so well defined by former Labor minister Graham Richardson.

It was with that in mind he was effective in keeping the Rudd-Gillard- Rudd Labor government on its toes as opposition spokesman for finance, deregulation and health.

Then with the return of the coalition under Tony Abbott in 2013 he became health minister.

However it was as immigration minister and more recently Home Affairs he found his niche and a true outlet for his tenacity.

On the weekend former prime minister Tony Abbott reportedly told a meeting of Tasmanian Young Liberals on the weekend that he looked forward to “a Dutton government”, however he declined on Monday to speculate on Mr Dutton’s leadership ambitions.

If Mr Dutton was to win the leadership, it may help improve his chances of holding on to his marginal seat of Dickson, according to one expert.

“It’s not a good place for a man to start his prime ministerial ­career,” Paul Williams, a long-time political scientist at Griffith University told The Australian.

“(But) if he could seize the leadership of the Liberal Party, that might actually help him (in Dickson).”

However, the victory could be short-lived as Dr Williams believes Dutton is unlikely to lead the coalition to success at the next election.

“Will it save the government? No. Would a Dutton government be re-elected? No. It would probably just block their demise in Queensland, but it probably might accelerate it in other states.”

But at least some of Dutton’s Queensland colleagues obviously believe it is a risk worth taking.

Ahead of Mr Turnbull’s press conference yesterday, Sky News reported the President of the Liberal National Party of Queensland, Gary Spence was urging MPs to withdraw their support for Malcolm Turnbull and get behind Peter Dutton.

There are fears Mr Turnbull is not popular in Queensland, as evidenced by the recent by-election results in Longman.

On Monday, Mr Turnbull batted away leadership speculation saying: “Peter Dutton was at our leadership group meeting this morning and he was at the cabinet last night. He’s a member of our team. He’s given me his absolute support”.

Mr Dutton also tweeted his support on Saturday saying the Prime Minister had his support.

In relation to media stories today, just to make very clear, the Prime Minister has my support and I support the policies of the Government. My position hasn’t changed from my comments last Thursday.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) August 17, 2018

It now looks like the temptation of claiming the prime ministerial crown has become too enticing.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. Picture Kym Smith