Peter Dutton 2.0: I’ll be a gentler and caring me
Peter Dutton promises to show another side as opposition leader, arguing the Libs are the champion of families, small business and aspirational workers.
Peter Dutton has promised that Australians will see another side of his character as opposition leader, arguing the Liberal Party is the natural champion of families, small business and aspirational workers across the nation’s cities, suburbs and regions.
The former defence minister has confirmed he will nominate for the leadership of the Liberal Party and has campaigned on a platform to unify his colleagues and hold Labor to account in an economic cycle dominated by rising inflation and interest rates.
Mr Dutton said he would reveal a gentler side of his character, arguing that the public had grown accustomed to seeing him in “tough portfolios” like defence and home affairs where his job was to deport drug traffickers and child sex offenders.
Amid the debate over whether the party should shift to the right or the left after the teal revolution saw the Liberals lose up to six inner-city seats to Climate 200 independents, Mr Dutton signalled he would lead from the centre.
“We aren’t the Moderate Party. We aren’t the Conservative Party. We are Liberals. We are the Liberal Party. We believe in families – whatever their composition,” he said. “Small and micro businesses. For aspirational, hard-working ‘forgotten people’ across cities, suburbs, regions and in the bush.
“I’ve had tough jobs – firstly as a policeman dealing with serious sexual assaults and murders, to home affairs minister where I deported drug traffickers and child sex offenders.
“Most people have only seen that side of me. I hope now, in moving from such tough portfolios, the Australian public can see the rest of my character, the side my family, friends and colleagues see. The side my community sees, where they have elected me eight times.
“I come from the suburbs and I have never changed my values or forgotten where I come from.”
One of Mr Dutton’s key challenges will be his ability to appeal to female voters, with Scott Morrison having faced severe criticism over his handling of women’s issues, including the response to the alleged rape of former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins in Parliament House.
Mr Dutton’s wife, Kirilly, said her husband was an “amazing father and the kids adore him”.
The couple has two sons, Harry, 17, and Tom, 16, and daughter Rebecca, 20, from Mr Dutton’s first marriage.
“He has a great sense of humour - very dry and witty but he also has an incredible compassion, particularly when it comes to the protection of women and children,” Ms Dutton said.
“He hides a lot of his emotion from the public but he gets most upset at reports of children or women being sexually abused or harmed. It obviously stems from his time as a policeman working in that area, but it’s also from being the eldest of five kids growing up in the suburbs.”
Mr Dutton said Australians needed a prime minister who “won’t buckle in hard times and will stand up for our country, and I have proved that in the portfolios I’ve had”.
“My work ethic is second to none and I have the skill and experience, having served five leaders and having learnt from each,” he said.
“I have held portfolios in government and in opposition, including defence, home affairs, health, finance, assistant treasurer, sport and employment,
“I was raised by my political mentors John Howard and Peter Costello. I was a minister under John, assistant treasurer under Peter.
“Things are going to be tough under Labor: higher interest rates, cost of living, inflation and electricity prices. Labor talked a big game on the economy.
“They now have to deliver, and we will hold them to account.”
Mr Dutton said the Liberals would be a “strong alternative at the next election with economic policies to help, not harm people”.
“This will be in stark contrast to what we will get under Labor,” he said.
With Mr Dutton certain to emerge as opposition leader, Labor on Wednesday launched a pre-emptive assault on the future direction of the Liberal Party under his leadership.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said if Mr Dutton was the answer to the problems facing the Liberal Party, then it was “not entirely clear they had heard the questions that were raised during this election campaign”.
Jim Chalmers said Mr Dutton’s elevation would “show they have learned absolutely nothing from the drubbing on Saturday”.
“Peter Dutton has all of the same characteristics that people didn’t like … in Scott Morrison. I think we’re up for a very divided period when it comes to the Liberals and Nationals,” the Treasurer said.
Likely education minister Tanya Plibersek mocked Mr Dutton’s physical appearance on Wednesday, comparing him to the Harry Potter series villain Voldemort.
“There’ll be a lot of children who have watched a lot of Harry Potter films who’ll be very frightened of what they see on TV at night,” she told Brisbane’s 4BC radio.
A spokesman for Ms Plibersek later told The Courier-Mail that she had unreservedly apologised to Mr Dutton for commenting on his appearance.
Mr Dutton has strong defenders within this party ranks, with North Queensland MP Warren Entsch saying the popular characterisation of Mr Dutton in the media was “nothing like the person I know” and “nobody can tell me he isn’t a man of compassion. He has been given some of the most difficult portfolios, and he has had to stick by them despite being vilified by sections of the community.
“He has done incredibly well as minister in adverse positions,” Mr Entsch told The Australian.
Moderate Liberal MPs also poured cold water on reports in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that serious plans to remove Mr Morrison had been canvassed broadly.
Sturt MP James Stevens branded the idea “completely ridiculous … Any experienced political operator knows if any discussion of that nature was occurring, there’s no way the media would not have found out,” Mr Stevens said.
“It would shock me if it was anything more than whispers into an empty beer bottle.”
Mr Entsch said he had been completely unaware of any whispers to roll Mr Morrison, and the only concerns he had heard were from a “couple of constituents”.
Additional reporting: Max Maddison
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