Indigenous flag an easy target for Dutton when he’s kicking down

Peter Dutton has cold political logic on his side when he says he will not stand in front of the Aboriginal flag if he becomes prime minister.

The opposition leader knows he will appeal to voters who want their political leaders to focus on their cost of living rather than the rights of First Australians, especially after last year’s defeat of the Indigenous Voice to parliament.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton during a press conference in July, flanked by the Australian flag.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

But he is also kicking down by turning the country’s Indigenous people into the targets of a new culture war.

And he is being brutally divisive with an easy ploy that inflames arguments over symbolism rather than attempting the much harder task of improving conditions for disadvantaged people.

Dutton did not say he would remove the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags from government buildings, but he told Sky News host Peta Credlin on Monday night that he would not stand in front of them.

Credlin asked him about this after observing that he never had the Indigenous flags behind him in his press conferences.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks in front of Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags at a ceremony to mark the 47th term of parliament in 2022.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“If you are elected prime minister, will that remain the same?” she asked.

“Yes, it will,” Dutton replied.

“I’m very strongly of the belief, Peta, that we are a country united under one flag. And if we’re asking people to identify with different flags – no other country does that – and we are dividing our country unnecessarily.

“Now, we should have respect for the Indigenous flag and the Torres Strait Islander flag, but they are not our national flag.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton at a press conference in Sydney last year with the Aboriginal flag behind him.Credit: Kate Geraghty

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has made a point of placing the flags behind him in press conferences to show his support for First Australians, but his decision to pursue the Indigenous Voice came at an undeniable political cost.

That cost continues to mount as household pressures grow. Every blow to household budgets helps Dutton claim that Albanese spent too much time on Indigenous rights when he should have done more to fight inflation.

Dutton invites a backlash from Indigenous leaders about his remarks but no doubt calculates that this will work for him – just as the progressive attacks on Donald Trump seemed to amplify his message and help him win.

The Trumpian tactics are obvious. Some conservatives are cheering Dutton for challenging the “woke” agenda – even though Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy points out the Indigenous flags have been official flags of Australia for decades.

The timing is revealing. Dutton is about to reveal the costings of his nuclear energy policy but is happy to detonate an Indigenous dispute. Labor wants this week to be all about nuclear, but Dutton knows the tricks required to set up a distraction.

Will this work? The referendum outcome showed that 9.5 million Australians voted against the Voice. In the weeks before the vote, the Resolve Political Monitor in this masthead showed that 84 per cent of Coalition voters were on the No side and 33 per cent of Labor voters felt the same. Dutton assumes he can win some of those Labor voters.

In doing so, of course, he plays a nakedly political game over Indigenous rights without doing anything practical to help. That is not leadership.

Dutton calculates that this will work, but he risks paying a political price. Will voters really thank him for talking about flags instead of telling them what he will do about the cost of living? Do Australians want three years of culture war after the next election?

Labor is trying to brand Dutton as angry, negative and divisive. His latest ploy makes him look all three.

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