Peter Dutton hits back at Anthony Albanese, saying his time as leader is over

Peter Dutton has declared that Anthony Albanese’s leadership is ‘over’ and the race to replace him is under way, pointing to a flurry of high-profile appearances by senior cabinet ministers as proof they’re waiting in the wings.

Anthony Albanese visits an apartment building in Ashfield, Sydney, that has installed solar panels. Picture: Jeremy Piper / NewsWire

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Peter Dutton has declared that Anthony Albanese’s leadership is “over” and the race to replace him is under way, pointing to a flurry of high-profile appearances by senior cabinet ministers as proof they’re waiting in the wings.

As support for the Prime Minister falls ahead of a federal election due by May 17, the Opposition Leader accused Mr Albanese of harbouring fears he will lose the leadership to Jim Chalmers or Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke.

Ahead of Mr Albanese’s 62nd birthday on Sunday, Mr Dutton attacked the Labor leader for being in a “desperate position” and said the “leadership race is on”.

Mr Dutton alluded to Mr Burke’s prominent role in a spate of mass citizenship ceremonies – which have been criticised as a vote-buying exercise – and the Treasurer’s recent media blitz ­visiting Washington, campaigning in the Hunter and gracing the front cover of The Australian ­Financial Review magazine.

“The leadership race is on. Anthony Albanese’s leadership is over,” Mr Dutton told Channel 9’s Today on Friday.

Mr Dutton has come under intense media scrutiny this week over his property and share market purchases, after allegations he bought bank shares in the days before a government bailout in the GFC and details of his multimillion dollar property deals surfaced.

Immigration Minster Tony Burke at a citizenship ceremony at Perth Convention Centre. Picture: Colin Murty

Defending his building of personal wealth as “aspirational”, Mr Dutton said he had seen an “opportunity to invest” during the ­financial crisis and had followed the rules by publicly disclosing his transactions.

‘The government has known about it for 16 years, and the Prime Minister, who’s in a desperate position, knows that he’s about to lose his leadership to Jim Chalmers or Tony Burke, and is out there throwing this mud,” he said.

“And I’d prefer to be talking about how we can help Australians recover from a disastrous three years of Labor, and how it would be much worse if Mr Albanese is elected with the Greens in a minority government, which would be a disaster for the economy, would jack up the prices of everything, including groceries.

“That’s what this election is about, not something that was ­declared 16 years ago.”

Mr Albanese accused Mr Dutton of always “talking Australia’s national interest down” in response to criticism over his handling of a Chinese flotilla performing live-drill exercises off Australia’s coast.

Announcing a $25m policy to fund rooftop solar panels on apartment buildings in Sydney on Friday, he lashed Mr Dutton’s energy policy, centred around a plan to build government-funded nuclear reactors.

“The truth is that Australians know that the Coalition aren’t fair dinkum,” he said.

“They know that they are a ­political movement that have a plan for nuclear energy some time in the 2040s that will cost $600bn … (which) has to come from somewhere and that will just add to the cuts that Peter Dutton is planning.”