Dutton says Labor opponent ‘ashamed of being Australian’

Peter Dutton has accused his Labor opponent, Ali France, of being “ashamed to be an Australian”.

Peter Dutton and ALP opponent Ali France in the ABC studio. Picture: AAP

Peter Dutton last night accused his Labor opponent, Ali France, of being “ashamed to be an Australian” during their heated first debate in the marginal Brisbane seat of Dickson.

After repeating his apology to Ms France over “insensitive” comments to The Australian about her disability last week, the Home Affairs Minister challenged the former journalist over a now-deleted tweet saying she was “ashamed” of Australia’s asylum-seeker policies.

“Ali has said before that she’s ashamed to be an Australian because of our border protection policies. It’s been deleted from her Twitter account, but that’s the reality,” he told the ABC radio event at Bray Park in northern Brisbane.

“I’m not going to step back and say that we are going to change our border protection policies because I think they’ve been in our country’s best interests.”

In December 2016, Ms France shared a New York Times opinion piece by Ashley Gilbertson, a US-based Australian photojournalist on Manus Island, titled “I Am Ashamed to Be Australian”. She added to the tweet: “Xmas: Aussies will open presents, drink wine & think nothing of the people on Nauru and Manus. Ashamed!”

Ms France last night rejected the attack on her patriotism as “really unfair”, noting she had twice represented Australia in the sport of outrigger canoeing.

“I never said I’m ashamed to be Australian. I shared an article in which someone in New York wrote an article about their experience,” Ms France said.

“I have represented Australia twice in sport, I’ve won two gold medals. When I stood on that podium, singing the national anthem, I couldn’t be prouder.”

Mr Dutton, the MP for Dickson since 2001, holds the seat by a thin 1.7 per cent margin. Although GetUp has identified Mr Dutton as its No 1 target, Ms France insisted she would not be beholden to the left-wing activist group. “I have had no contact with GetUp. I have been out for more than 12 months on the ground, we have a huge number of local volunteers,” she said. “One of the biggest issues when I’ve been doorknocking is people are telling us they are sick of the chaos in Canberra. They want stability.”

Mr Dutton, who twice contested the Liberal leadership last year, stood by his role in destabilising and ousting Malcolm Turnbull.

“My judgment was we had to do whatever we could to stop Bill Shorten becoming prime minister, and I do not resile from that today. I think Scott Morrison is doing a great job and we need to make sure we win,” he said.