Dutton and son: Why Harry’s housing issues became the talk of the campaign

Peter Dutton’s decision to deploy his son Harry to front press conferences on housing this week shocked the opposition leader’s supporters, who have observed him guard his family’s privacy so closely there are no photos of his mother or father accessible online.

But the junior Dutton appeared at a press conference in Brisbane on Monday to testify to the difficulty of affording a house, where his father was unprepared for a question on whether he would help his children break into the market, and Harry turned up again a day later at a town outside Melbourne.

Harry Dutton looks on as his father speaks to the media on Tuesday at a press conference in Maddingley, Victoria.Credit: James Brickwood

The decision to have Harry take centre stage on the campaign trail shows how eager the Dutton campaign is to soften the opposition leader’s image from that of a hard man politician to a dedicated father.

On Tuesday, Dutton conceded that he would one day give Harry financial assistance to buy a home.

“The prime minister and I might be able to help our kids, but it’s not about us, it’s about how we can help millions of Australians across generations realise the dream of home ownership like we did, like our parents and grandparents,” Dutton said.

A day earlier he stonewalled the same question, leaving strategists perplexed. One veteran political adviser from the Coalition side said that Dutton was always going to be asked if he would help kids buy their first home, especially because of his real estate dealings totalling about $30 million in transactions across 26 pieces of property.

“[The question was] totally foreseeable and he had no good answer [and it] reminds people Dutton is actually rich,” the adviser said. Bringing Harry to the press conference, the adviser said, “looks desperate”.

But another Coalition campaign adviser disagreed, arguing Harry was an asset in his father’s campaign because “people can see that he is an ordinary suburban dad”.

“Harry is a straight-talking Queenslander and a great kid and he wants to help his dad, it’s not particularly surprising [that he appeared on the campaign].”

Former prime ministers including John Howard, Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott all appeared in their campaigns with their family in tow. Kevin Rudd’s daughter Jessica wrote columns for women’s magazine Cleo and Malcolm Turnbull’s children Daisy and Alex had public profiles.

But Dutton’s decision to bring his son into such a prominent speaking position on the campaign trail is a sharp departure from the way most politicians, including the opposition leader previously, try to keep their family shielded from the cut and thrust of campaign politics.

When Dutton’s father Bruce suffered a heart attack hours before the first leaders debate last week, the opposition leader and prime minister made a gentleman’s agreement not to mention his condition.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has generally kept his son out of the spotlight and has never forgiven former Australian Financial Review columnist Joe Aston for scrutinising how his son, Nathan, was given membership of the exclusive Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.

Asked whether he’d help Nathan with a housing deposit, Albanese said on Tuesday that “families don’t have a place in these issues. I don’t comment on other people’s families and I don’t go into my own personal details.”

Harry Dutton told 60 Minutes in February that he and his siblings Tom and Rebecca had no interest in following their father and becoming MPs. “We’ve definitely had our dose of politics,” he said.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.