Peter Dutton won’t be fazed by gibes from the hateful left

The Liberals’ new leader has the right stuff, and Labor’s early attacks show it knows it.

Peter Dutton with wife Kirilly, daughter Rebecca 20 and sons (L) Harry 17 and (R) Tom 16, in Brisbane. Mr Dutton is set to become the leader of the Liberal party in opposition. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

There is a cottage industry about to take off like a Tesla-fuelled rocket – hating Peter Dutton.

Sections of the left especially will revel in interpreting every grimace. A raised eyebrow here, a sideways glance there. They will mock Dutton’s bald head.

In fact, they went straight to his appearance when it was clear he would become Liberal leader earlier this week.

Labor’s incoming education minister Tanya Plibersek attacked him for looking like Voldemort, the evil lord from Harry Potter who scares children and wizards. It was tacky, and Plibersek apologised. She is made of better stuff than many of her left-wing comrades.

Left luvvie Jane Caro repeated the same personal attack on the new Liberal leader – and she didn’t retract it. Having failed in her bid to enter the Senate representing NSW under the banner “Reason Australia” – I’m not kidding – Caro seems content to represent the worst of the left.

If their treatment of Jenny Morrison is any guide, some on the left will ridicule Dutton’s wife, Kirilly too, what she wears, where she stands, does she fold her hands in submission; they might even go the kids.

Kathy Lette probably thrilled her Twitter fans this week by posting a photo of Jenny Morrison alongside Serena, a character from The Handmaid’s Tale who is a beaten wife and the victim of brutal misogyny. Later, Lette ­deleted that tweet.

Perhaps someone reminded Lette that while politicians are volunteers in their chosen careers, families are conscripts. Can the left leave Dutton’s family alone?

It was a good sign that new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese asked for less personal animosity, and more focus on policy. Or was his criticism of Plibersek more political? Plibersek is not an Albanese favourite.

The question mark arises because that first instinct among many on the left – their default setting of nastiness – is unmistakeable. No one does character assassination like the left. If their political opponents descended to the same low-rent personal attacks, they’d scream blue murder. No one does hypocrisy like the left either.

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All sides of politics descend into the personal. Dutton has fired off tweets about Kevin Rudd’s fringe. And Julia Gillard was attacked as a “witch”. Many of those who ran to her defence overlooked the deeply personal attacks launched against John Howard for many years.

The left has always gone harder, driven by a starting premise among many that their political opponents aren’t simply wrong, they are immoral. That gives them licence to go the sinner, not for their ideas, but as a person. And unlike established religions, the left keeps creating new categories of sinners to burn at the stake.

A defaced campaign poster for Peter Dutton. Picture: David Clark

Dutton has always been on their list. Now he rises to the top as their Public Enemy No.1 The folk at Four Corners, for example, might be back on the bubbles soon enough, hoping to bring a new inside story on Canberra – in this case, about Dutton – to viewers, spending our tax dollars on equal doses of scary music and campaigning journalism.

Don’t eat a raw onion, Peter. That will excite them too much, and too soon.

It is easy to see why the arrival of Dutton as Liberal leader will cause conniptions among the left. He is the hard man of politics. A protege of both Howard and Peter Costello.

That doesn’t mean Dutton is actually a hard man, just an effective minister in the toughest portfolios – immigration minister, then the super portfolio of home affairs, then defence.

Dutton won’t be moved by attacks this week by the West Australian Labor leader. Mark McGowan labelled Dutton an “extremist” and a man who doesn’t “fit with modern Australia”. “I actually don’t think he’s that smart,” McGowan said.

Histrionics like that are a sure sign that McGowan, a canny political operator, understands that Dutton could be a very different, very effective, Liberal leader – a leader who espouses values and policies that speak directly to middle Australia. McGowan should be grateful that Dutton wasn’t leader when West Australians were treated as prisoners during Covid.

If McGowan thought that Dutton was going to be a wet lettuce leaf leader, the Labor leader wouldn’t waste his breath. As for fitting with modern Australia, Dutton was a policeman, then a businessman, before entering politics. He had jobs through school. He saved for a home deposit. His wife runs a successful business. A family who love him. Never made the cover of GQ. All very mainstream and modern.

McGowan’s assaults on Dutton sit in the same boat as those by former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd. Like McGowan, they likely see in Dutton a different kind of Liberal leader.

Dutton is different from Turnbull, another boon for a party ­trying to learn from previous mistakes. Dutton is a sound Liberal, he is cool-headed, and he is well-liked by his Liberal colleagues. As other journalists have remarked, Dutton’s public persona to date is not aligned with the private Dutton. It should be a reminder that the nice guy persona of many politicians is often just that, a facade. Who was it to first remark about Rudd that those who don’t know him like him, and those who know him can’t stand him?

Dutton may be a serious challenge to Albanese and the Labor government. He is different from Scott Morrison, too. Dutton doesn’t shirk a fight over policy. He holds his nerve. And he understands that values matter because they provide a moral ballast to our actions, and they guide sensible, sustainable policy.

Working hard for a dollar means understanding the importance of holding on to more of your own money, instead of funding bigger government and ever-increasing bureaucracies. Strong borders have encouraged Australians to welcome migrants from all corners of the globe. Energy policy should not indulge the rich; it should ensure working class people can access cheap, reliable energy. The ABC should not be a staff-run collective to cater to a left-elite audience. Not on our tax dollars. None of this is rocket science. Even today’s climate angst may be defused by a Liberal leader who can focus on the looming challenges – inflation on the rise, mortgage stresses, mountains of debt, escalating petrol and energy prices. Cost-of-living pressures are likely to intensify in coming years – and there is sure to be a reckoning from low-income constituencies.

If Dutton has a better feel for middle Australia than Morrison or Turnbull – and that won’t be hard – he stands a chance of not replicating Brendan Nelson as the Liberal Party’s interim leader.

Happily, Mr Dutton doesn’t have a Malcolm Turnbull in his ranks. Picture: Zak Simmonds

But then Dutton won’t have Turnbull stalking him either. When Warren Entsch added his name to a list of signatories calling for a second leadership ballot against Turnbull in August 2018, he added three words under his name “for Brendan Nelson”. It was a reminder of Turnbull’s wretched and disloyal treatment of Nelson during his short stint as leader.

Here is what Nelson told journalist Peter Hartcher some years ago: “If you had any idea of what he said to me over those 10 months, you would be shocked.”

No one would be shocked today by Turnbull’s frequent outbursts. Happily, Dutton doesn’t have a Turnbull in his ranks. Each time the disgruntled Turnbull is given free rein on an ABC platform to vent about Dutton, it will say more about Turnbull – and the ABC – than Dutton.

Dutton will endure crybaby reactions from some moderate MPs who lost seats at last week’s election. Dave Sharma has done himself a disservice by telling his Twitter fans that Wentworth voters really did like him, they just didn’t like Morrison. With loyalty like that, Sharma may join the ranks of Dutton-haters like Turnbull who claim that, as Liberal leader, Dutton will drag the Liberal Party further to the right.

Further to the right assumes that Morrison was a right-wing Liberal leader. Too often, Morrison was a values-free prime minister. It makes eminent sense if Morrison decides not to engage in political commentary as a former PM given that he wasn’t a values-driven PM. Post-politics, what could he speak about with conviction? Plus, he’s no Rudd or Turnbull; he is unlikely to vent publicly over his loss for years to come.

Personal attacks on politicians are nothing new. But Dutton will brace for the worst, not just because the fierce political warrior triggers his enemies. Politics has never been more polarised, more fast-paced, unthinking with the explosion of social media – and that means it has never been more personal. Pile-ons happen in a matter of minutes.

It’s been a long wait. But for many, worth it. The new Liberal leader will send the left apoplectic. And for good reason. Dutton’s ascendance could mark a new era for a Liberal Party that, as a broad church, speaks to, reflects and ­understands large swathes of Australia, from the coast to the ­regions and beyond.