Opinion: Peter Dutton’s attempt to ape Donald Trump is not working

Peter Dutton’s plan to make Australia safe again via a costly referendum to expel the handful of unworthy immigrants is straight out of the Trump handbook, writes Robert Schwarten. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is trying to be everything to everybody. Picture: Nikki Short/NCA NewsWire

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Joh Blelke-Petersen famously warned of the danger of walking astride a barbed-wire fence. Peter Dutton should take note. His attempt to be Donald Trump one day and Tony Abbott the next – and to follow that with a weird hybrid of Pauline Hanson and Bob Katter – is truly remarkable.

Dutton’s latest mouth-frothing promise for a referendum to keep us safe from immigrants ignores the reality of how much contempt the Australian voter has shown for constitutional alteration.

He obviously isn’t close to John Howard, who torpedoed the republic. Also his memory must be failing, as he more than anyone sank the yes vote in the last one.

Just as a receding tide exposes nudists, those who vie for the top jobs in running this country face more scrutiny than a fish in a barrel looking up at a shotgun.

Ask Mark Latham why he thought it smart to try to break John Howard’s wrist on television. Dutton is not handling the extra attention very well at all.

He took nearly a week before he ruled out he had got the nod to buy up bank shares at their lowest and sell them when they soared a few days later. That suggests he has not mastered the principle of: “If you throw dirt you need to be able to catch it and chuck it back – and the quicker the better.”

His attack on the Prime Minister for not being able to hog- tie Trump to a deal to exclude us from his economic insanity while those who raced to kiss the President’s feet got the same result wreaks of desperation.

Dutton says he wants to run an election on national safety. I hope he does because he puts himself above every public sector agency charged with keeping us safe.

I suggest he goes on a pub crawl and a cafe/shopping centre blitz and listens to what the mob is saying. They are not talking about referendums or the Constitution.

That Dutton fell for the crims’ con on the explosive-laden caravan suggests he was more interested in alarming people and creating community outrage rather than getting the facts from the experts and letting the real crime fighters get on with it.

His plan to make Australia safe again via a costly referendum to expel the handful of unworthy immigrants is straight out of the Trump handbook. It ignores the reality that most criminals are home-grown and demonises decent people who move here.

Mr Dutton might not have experienced pain from the barbed wire yet – but he’s getting close.

Robert Schwarten is a former Queensland Labor minister

Originally published as Opinion: Peter Dutton’s attempt to ape Donald Trump is not working