Opposition leader Peter Dutton has ‘foolish’ idea to run his own ‘Voice’ referendum if elected

Opposition leader Peter Dutton supports a Voice to Parliament and only opposes it because it has become a Labor initiative closely identified with Anthony Albanese.

This week we heard one of the most asinine ideas from a federal opposition leader in living memory.

After months of telling Australians a Constitutionally-enshrined First Nations’ Voice to Parliament is bad policy, Liberal leader Peter Dutton promised to hold his own referendum on the very same constitutional question should he win government.

That’s it, folks. The rhetorical cat is out of the bag.

Despite what the Opposition leader has been telling us, Dutton is not opposed to the referendum because he thinks it will create another tier of bureaucracy, or because of its cost, or because it could become a third parliamentary chamber – at best all specious claims.

Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton.

In fact, given Dutton’s support for a legislated (and not Constitutional) Voice to Parliament – something Coalition partner the Nationals reject – it’s pretty clear the Opposition leader agrees a federal committee advising on legislation affecting First Nations people is a good idea. Indeed, just this week Dutton said be believed “very strongly that [a Voice to Parliament] is the right thing to do.”

No, Dutton appears to oppose the referendum simply because the Voice has now become a Labor initiative closely identified with the once-popular Anthony Albanese. And to wreck the referendum is to wreck Albo personally.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese.

But we had an inkling this was going to be the opposition leader’s strategy all along. Indeed, Dutton made it pretty clear he wouldn’t merely oppose the Voice but that he would treat the campaign like any other electoral event – which it is not – and aggressively undermine it. As others have deduced, Dutton sees this referendum as a “proxy” election campaign, not unlike a by-election, at which voters can damage the government and the prime minister.

It might sound like ‘dog in the manger’ politics, but it’s working. At least for now.

Exactly a year ago, Newspoll found 61 per cent of voters were satisfied with Albanese, and just 29 per cent dissatisfied, for a net positive of 32 points. Last week, just 46 per cent were satisfied and 47 per cent dissatisfied for a net negative of one. For the first time since the 2022 election, more Australians now disapprove of Albo’s leadership than approve.

By so closely attaching himself to the referendum, Albanese has squandered political capital at the same rate the referendum has lost support. With 20/20 hindsight, it’s now clear Albo should have remained aloof and positioned his frontbench, and Australian celebrities, as the ‘Yes’ case’s primary spokespeople.

But Dutton’s short-term victory has come a long-term cost. Two months ago on this page I warned the opposition leader of the electoral consequences of positioning himself, post-referendum, as the man who killed off a once-widely popular initiative designed to help Australia’s most disadvantaged. I asked if Dutton really wanted to front up at the next election as a ‘Dr No’ who opposes for the sake of opposition.

Dutton seems to only oppose the referendum because it represents the Prime Minister, writes Paul Williams.

Perhaps that’s why Dutton offered his peculiar pledge of a second referendum: to placate critics who warned him against playing Australia’s ‘bad cop’. Either way, the Liberal leader’s backflip is probably too little, too late.

Quite apart from his own Coalition colleagues and fellow ‘No’ campaigners suffering apoplexy for his thorough undermining of the entire ‘No’ case, Dutton’s wrecking of Albanese has done his own public opinion standing no good at all. In fact, it appears to have made it worse.

A year ago, Newspoll found 35 per cent of Australians approved of Dutton’s leadership, with 43 per cent opposed, for a net negative of eight points. Last week, Newspoll found 38 per cent now approved of Dutton, but with 49 per cent now disapproving for a net negative of 11 points. Despite Australia’s highest interest rates and the worst cost of living and housing crises in years – and despite an opposition steadily gaining ground on Labor in the after-preference vote – Dutton is more unpopular today than ever.

The reason is simple: Australians do not like carping opposition leaders who oppose for the sake of opposition. Remember how voters judged Labor’s Bill Shorten in 2019.

If Peter Dutton has any chance of becoming prime minister in 18 months’ time, and of remaining PM far longer than, say, an equally unpopular Tony Abbott, he must offer a gracious statesmanship. He must show voters not what he hates but what he desires for a modern, progressive Australia.

Originally published as Opposition leader Peter Dutton has ‘foolish’ idea to run his own ‘Voice’ referendum if elected