Peter Dutton lashes ‘insiders’ in Labor over lack of real-world experience

Eight out of 10 Labor MPs have careers in the union or other MPs offices before being elected, compared to 37 per cent of Coalition MPs, according to new research.

Peter Dutton has launched a pre-election attack on Labor MPs for having “little real world experience”, as a new study suggests eight out of ten of the party’s federal MPs are political ‘insiders’ who came from the union movement or working for other MPs before being elected.

It comes after a new report, by the Institute of Public Affairs, states 82 per cent of current Labor MPs have what can be deemed as ‘insider’ backgrounds, compared to 37 per cent of the Coalition.

The analysis of MP’s careers before they were elected shows the number of politicians who worked in ‘insider’ jobs – in roles like union officials, political staffers and advisors, and lobbyists – now swamps those who worked in the private sector, farming, teaching, health or the trades.

Mr Dutton told The Daily Telegraph the Labor Party “of Bob Hawke is long gone”.

“And Labor’s MPs have little real world experience in running a business or employing people...They always make decisions that are in the union bosses’ best interests, and in woke agendas of big business’ best interests, but not in the interests of hard-working families and small businesses,” he said.

Peter Dutton MP in his police uniform with his Grandmother before entering parliament. Photo: Supplied

“Modern Labor under Anthony Albanese is just not representative of the thoughts and aspirations of modern Australia.”

A spokesman for the Albanese Government said: “Under this Government every Australian taxpayer got a tax cut, not just some – but Peter Dutton and the Liberals tried to block that and roll it back”.

“Peter Dutton was so against low and middle income earners getting a tax cut, he vowed to take it to an election. Australians would be worse off under Peter Dutton, particularly if he listens to his ultra conservative mates in the IPA,” he said.

Under the IPA’s metric, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – who worked as a bank officer for a year before joining the Labor movement as a party official and advisor for Bob Carr – would be an insider.

Meanwhile, Opposition leader Peter Dutton – who wouldn’t be considered an insider, under the model used - was a cop for almost a decade before becoming an MP.

The IPA’s director of research Morgan Begg said the figures showed Labor had “enthusiastically adapted the practices of professionalising their politics”.

A young Anthony Albanese.

“Politics has become a closed shop for a cabal of highly credentialed insiders who exercise vastly disproportionate political power over mainstream and working-class Australians,” he said.

RedBridge pollster Kos Samaras, who helped run Labor’s state election campaigns for more than a decade, said the figures could be explained by more Liberal politicians coming from the corporate world, while Labor’s MPs are more likely to have a union background.

He warned “It’s not good for democracy if the types of people ending up in parliament have very little in common culturally with the people they rely on for support”.

He said while many MPs had careers in industries outside those classed as ‘insiders’, the boom in MP coming from the Labor movement was leading to politicians’ priorities being warped.

“Our democracy needs to be a mirror of our society. Lo and behold, you might spend a year of parliament focusing on a (Voice) referendum, when you should have been focusing on the economy,” he said.

Originally published as Peter Dutton lashes ‘insiders’ in Labor over lack of real-world experience