Peter Dutton, son of a Brissie brickie, has some building to do

If Peter Dutton prevails today, it will be on the back of bitterness and acrimony that exceeds any past prime ministerial knifing.

Peter Dutton yesterday. Picture: Kym Smith

So much for the honeymoon. If Peter Dutton prevails today in the Liberal partyroom, it will be on the back of bitterness and acrimony that exceeds anything unleashed by a past prime ministerial knifing.

Consider what he confronts: doubts about his eligibility that may or may not be settled by ­advice from the Solicitor-General on whether the childcare centre investments housed in his family trust breached section 44 of the Constitution; a likely by-election in Malcolm Turnbull’s Sydney seat that will plunge the Coalition into minority government if it is lost; incendiary claims by the outgoing PM that his supporters and waverers were stood over to vote for Dutton; one Nationals MP, possibly more, threatening to move to the crossbench; and signature policies on tax, energy and climate binned.

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Oh yes, and that ticking sound is the clock counting down to the next general election.

Dutton’s to-do list, should he muster the numbers to become prime minister, would try the likes of a John Howard or Bob Hawke, let alone a new PM who will have neither the time nor the scope to grow in to the job.

At 47, Dutton is an experienced and effective minister who ­handled with aplomb the testing portfolios of health, border protection, immigration and home ­affairs under Tony Abbott and Turnbull to become the hope of the conservative Right.

He also has a grounding in fin­ance, courtesy of a stint as ­assistant treasurer for Howard.

But as Turnbull discovered, technical competence, diligence, decency and application are not enough to ensure success in politics’ paramount and most testing position. The prime minister needs to lead — a measure of character and judgment. In a Coalition government, the demands are particularly acute. The “base” that Turnbull is said by his critics to have alienated is a sprawling collective of socio-economic interests that reaches from progressive Melbourne to the canefields of north Queensland.

Dutton’s challenge is to satisfy this conservative constituency without ceding the middle ground to Bill Shorten. As Paul Kelly wrote this week, Dutton does not present as an obvious political ­saviour or assured vote-winner. But he is, unquestionably, a conviction politician, and if he can project the life values that he professes to hold, it will be something to build from.

“I first joined the Liberal Party when I was about 18 years of age, and for me it was a party of natural choice,” he explained in his first speech to parliament in 2002.

“I had always had an interest in politics and to me the Liberal Party was a party founded in many ways on the principles of individualism and reward for achievement.”

Back then, Dutton’s claim to fame was defeating Labor star Cheryl Kernot for the north Brisbane seat of Dickson, the first of his five wins there. It had been an ugly campaign, marked by Kernot’s suggestion he left his job with the Queensland police under a cloud; when The Courier Mail investigated his record, it reported he had been a “consci­entious and respected officer” over the nine years he spent in uniform and as a detective.

Dutton went on to say in his maiden speech: “What makes the Liberal Party even more significant today is the stark contrast in which it stands when compared to the other party structures in Australia’s society. Where we are guided by principles and objectives, the ­others in Australia have adopted this third way of operation, in which the end result is that they stand for nothing. They have lost all credibility.

“Because they stand for everything, they stand for nothing.”

Turnbull’s internal enemies could have cut-and-pasted this into a critique of the government, referencing this week’s humiliating retreat on top-end business tax cuts and the effective junking of the national energy guarantee to prioritise power price relief. Like Turnbull, Dutton casts back to a “humble upbringing” that, he says, taught him the value of hard work and family. In suburban Brisbane, his father, Bruce, was a bricklayer with whom he went into business after leaving the police in 1999; his mother, Aisla, worked in childcare.

Dutton has two teenage boys with wife, Kirilly, and his 16-year-old daughter from a previous relationship lives with them on acreage at Samford, a hamlet at the bottom of the electorate. Turning on the charm this week, he said he had a self-deprecating sense of humour and enjoyed a beer.

If he is elevated today, he will join a subset of Australian prime ministers, all recent, all owing their ascension to the dark art of political assassination. Julia Gillard deposed Kevin Rudd in 2010 and he returned in 2013 in a revenge strike; Tony Abbott grabbed the Liberal leadership in 2009 at the expense of Turnbull, who seized it back in 2015. Whether or not Dutton succeeds , you can be sure ­Abbott will have enjoyed the specialty of the house in Canberra, that dish best served cold.

WHO IS PETER DUTTON?

Peter Dutton delivers his maiden speech.

* Born November 18, 1970 in Brisbane.

* Married to Kirilly and has three children.

* Joined Young Liberals in 1988.

* Unsuccessfully ran in 1989 Queensland state election in Labor-held seat of Lytton.

* Queensland police officer 1990-99, serving in the drug squad, sex offenders squad and National Crime Authority.

* Studied a business degree at Queensland University of Technology.

* Childcare centre company director 1993-01.

* Won seat of Dickson in 2001 and re-elected in 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016.

* Elevated to Minister for Workforce Participation in Howard government in 2004.

* Took on Revenue and Assistant Treasurer position 2006.

* Entered shadow cabinet after Howard’s 2007 election loss.

* Appointed Health and Sport Minister by Tony Abbott in 2013.

* Took on Immigration and Border Protection from December 2014.

* Minister for Home Affairs from December 2017.

* Outer Brisbane seat of Dickson held with a margin of 1.6 per cent.