Peter Dutton lashes corporate executives, saying they’ve turned from the Libs to other parties

Peter Dutton says he will focus on policies to benefit small business.

Peter Dutton stands among portraits of former Liberal Party leaders in Parliament House in Canberra on Modnay. Picture: Tracey Nearmy

Peter Dutton has lashed Australia’s top corporate executives for siding with Labor and other parties, saying he would focus on policies to benefit small business as the Liberals’ new federal leader.

Mr Dutton said on Monday the Liberals had become “estranged from big business” in recent years and he wanted to be a voice for “the forgotten people” in small and micro business.

He accused business leaders of focusing on social policies while failing to “speak out” on economic issues, including industrial relations, tax and wages reform.

The new Opposition Leader’s view was promptly rejected by some of Australia’s leading corporates, who accused Mr Dutton of misreading the situation if he interpreted “socially responsible” positions they had adopted on climate change or gender equality as a repudiation of the Liberal Party.

Mr Dutton, the former defence minister who said some chief executives were now closer to the other parties than the Liberal Party, was critical of the “absence of strong voices that we would have seen even a decade ago within the last generation of business leaders”.

“I think we are a poorer country for that. I think many of them are probably scared to step up because they are worried of an onslaught by Twitter and they’re living in that environment.

“I hope we can continue to work with them but I need them to … speak up on all sorts of policies, not just social policies but other economic policies, not just climate change.

“I don’t seek an adversarial relationship with big business.

“We will have a cordial relationship with big business and we will work on that. I don’t seek estrangement from them … we will work closely with them.”

Leading corporate figures said big business policies on economic issues, which some might perceive as closer to the Liberals’ own, did not mean their views on social matters were a “no-go zone” for conversation and left to the government to decide.

One senior business figure, on condition of anonymity, said union officials would “scoff” at the suggestion big business preferred Labor when the top corporates continued to advocate for company tax cuts, industrial relations reform and wage rises linked to productivity.

Mr Dutton’s comments, while going further in claiming the Liberals were “estranged” from big business, appear consistent with some of his past criticism.

Peter Dutton accuses business leaders of focusing on social policies while failing to ‘speak out’ on economic issues, including industrial relations, tax and wages reform. Picture: Tracey Nearmy

As home affairs minister, he used a 2018 speech to the Samuel Griffith Society in Brisbane to attack the rise of “political correctness” within the business com­munity. He singled out business leaders from Qantas and other companies for engaging in “ideological indulgence” by using corporate funds for social activism.

He blamed activist shareholders and investment funds for pressuring the Commonwealth Bank, Woolworths and BHP Billiton to adopt policies on climate change.

In a 2017 radio interview, Mr Dutton said business leaders and big corporates were being “bullied” by activist groups into supporting same-sex marriage laws. He said he wanted a politically respectful debate on marriage equality but publicly listed companies should not take political positions, and business executives should not put debating moral issues ahead of running companies.

Much of Mr Dutton’s past criticism has been directed at Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, who has argued his airline seeks to co-operate with the government of the day, out of necessity as the national carrier.

Mr Joyce has also stressed climate change is fundamental to Qantas, currently heavily dependent on fossil fuels, as the airline commits to a transition to zero net emissions, consistent with community expectations.

Mr Joyce, returning from overseas, was not available for comment but a spokesman said Qantas had good relations with both sides and intended to maintain that position.

Mr Dutton’s early pledge to put the interests of small business first, while maintaining “a cordial relationship” with large corporations, was criticised by some as a failure to recognise an important shift over the past two decades.

“We are not as aligned as might have been the case once because organisationally we take into account the interests of our staff and customers – we operate broadly in line with community expectations,” an executive said.

Another with Liberal Party ties said: “Business is not like it was during Hugh Morgan’s time (as chief executive of Western Mining and president of the Business Council of Australia) when they were all meeting at the Melbourne Club.”