‘I am not going to change’: Peter Dutton
Dutton says he will wait for the findings of the review into the election loss by Brian Loughnane and Jane Hume, but he says:
We have heard a message loud and clear from the Australian public. We were a government of nine years, the last couple of years have been some of the most dramatic, certainly that I’ve experienced in my 20 years in public life, the reality of Covid, the way it’s impacted on the Australian psyche and the response to it through jobkeeper for example, when we saved over 700,000 jobs.
There are policies that were strongly endorsed by the Australian people and others they weren’t happy with but we’ve gone through difficult times of the country over the last couple of years, and I hope that’s in the past, but I think there are economic headwinds that will be a reality over the next couple of years and you don’t know what happens in the future.
Dutton was asked about how he plans to change the “rigid” perception some voters may have of him. He responded:
In relation to your other question, [I’ve] been given tough jobs, as a minister it was difficult in Home Affairs bringing together but I was ultimately able to cancel the visas of about just over 6,000 criminals, people who had committed sexual offences against women and children, committed murder, serious criminal acts and to deport them from our country.
It’s pretty hard to break into a smile when you are making that announcement.
I was defence minister and we could negotiate with the United States the Aukus deal and the other issues, [the] realities of [the] withdrawal of over 4,000 people out of Kabul, one of our proudest achievements. Intaking people from Syria, war-torn Syria into our country. The Yazidi women who were being tortured, slaved and butchered by Isil, we brought them here under my watch.
But it’s hard to talk about all that without showing a softer side or a different side to your character and all I would say is I’m not going to change but I want people to see the entire person I am [and] reserve and make their own judgments when they meet me.
I’ve been in the community, a notionally Labor electorate, I won that electorate eight times in a row and people on the ground can see in a more wholesome way who I am. Hopefully you can tell a different story that I’m not as bad as the ABC might sometimes report. There is a smile. The ABC always brings a smile to my face.
Peter Hannam
Not surprisingly, Mike Cannon-Brookes’s family company, Grok ventures has welcomed AGL’s surrender today on its planned demerger, calling it “the sensible decision by AGL to abandon its value destructive demerger plan and renew its board”. In a statement, it said:
AGL’s retail and institutional shareholders have sent an emphatic message to the Board and management of AGL that the company needs to be kept together to take advantage of the economic opportunity presented by decarbonisation.
As AGL’s largest shareholder, we have requested a meeting with Vanessa Sullivan and Graham Cockroft who are co-chairing the ‘strategic review’.
Grok, though, will be keen that the country’s biggest electricity generator remains intact, and for the review not to result in the company’s assets being hived off “piece by piece”.
Cannon-Brookes last week said Grok would be seeking two board seats, and it affirmed its interest today that it would demand “board representation…[to] ensure that AGL has the talent, capital, capability and oversight that is required to embrace the opportunity presented by decarbonisation”.
It did not indicate whom it will be putting up to join the board.
Dutton: ‘We have to be able to pay for it’
Dutton is asked a final question about “multicultural and minority communities, including the disabled community and the LGBTIQ community, feeling underrepresented by some of the Liberal policies and [by] the Liberal party itself. What’s your message for them to know that you will represent those people?”
He mentions a “broad suite of policies designed to help people not discriminate against anyone”, two gay Liberal MPs who lost their seats at the election, Trevor Evans and Trent Zimmerman, and issues a quick warning to Labor, saying:
… whatever program it is that we want to provide to the community, we have to be able to pay for it. And if we don’t run the economy well, we don’t manage the budget well, you can’t pay for it. And that’s exactly what Labor is about to find out.
And that’s it from Dutton and Ley.
Dutton: We’ll support climate change policies ‘that aren’t going to crush families and small business’
Dutton is asked if there’s any prospect he could work with the government on climate policy in this parliament. He responds:
I take the issue very seriously, I’ve supported our policies in the past, I’ve looked at countries that have made commitments and never met them. We have made commitments, we’ve met them. So, I’m very supportive of serious policy, but I want us to get the balance right. And if you look at what’s happening in Europe at the moment, my job as the opposition leader is to put policies forward, between now and the next election, and to hold the bad government to account.
That’s my job. And we’ll support policies that aren’t going to crush families and small businesses. And I’m worried at the moment the Labor party policies, as they’ve got – make energy less reliable and more expensive, and families at the moment can’t afford that, because they can’t afford to fill their car, they’re seeing grocery prices go up, they know that their rents are going up or that interest rates, if they go up, that they’ll have to pay more in their mortgage, and they are worried.
And I don’t want to make that situation worse for them. I want to help their families and I want to help their small businesses become bigger businesses. And I worry that the Labor party is embarking on a course where they will tax and spend, and it will be those families and those small businesses that will be adversely impacted.
Dutton is asked if Australia should still be preparing for war (as he said it should a few weeks back). He responds:
Well, Australia should be realistic about what’s happening in China under President Xi, and the Prime Minister has made this point, and they have been very clear about their intent in relation to Taiwan.
I’m concerned that if they went into Taiwan, that would change quite dramatically the security settings within our own region. I think it would impact negatively on the trading relationships that we have with our neighbours and what it means for safe passage of vessels through particular straits and all the approaches to our country as well.
And I quoted, I think, a fifth-century proverb maybe at the time, which was, you know, not too controversial. That is that you’ve got to, as a country, be strong. And I want to be a strong country. As I said before, we live in the best country in the world, it’s worth fighting for, it’s worth making sure that we take the decisions to help people, and to clean up Labor’s mess in three years’ time. They are going to be a bad Government. There’s no doubt in my mind about that. They don’t have the experience or the capability.
Dutton wants Indigenous voice to parliament to be ‘accompanied by practical responses’
Reporter: You previously argued that an Indigenous voice to parliament would amount to a third chamber. Are you disappointed in enshrining a voice to parliament or is that something you will campaign against?
Dutton:
Well, the minister, Linda Burney, has stated, as I said before, that she’s not yet settled in her own mind yet, and certainly I don’t think it’s been through the caucus in the Labor party as to what the final form will be. So, we’ll have a look at what they’re proposing.
But as I said, I want the symbolic nature – which I accept is very important to many people – to be accompanied by practical responses. I want to understand how we’re going to reduce the incidence of child abuse within those communities. I want to understand how it is that we’re going to allow more young girls to go on to education, how we can address infant mortality, and many other indicators.
And as I say, it’s not been from a bad place, but we’ve failed in this policy area. And nobody, hand on heart, can sit here today and say that we are in a better position in many of those instances, many of those indicators, then we were five or 10 or 25 years ago.
So, I want to understand what it leads to and how we can be constructive in helping Indigenous Australians also celebrate the great successes.
Dutton reiterates that the Liberals are a ‘broad church’
Reporter: The Liberals lost around 17 seats. Is it based on the policy offerings you put forward or the salesman Scott Morrison and what lessons have you learned from his leadership as Prime Minister?
Dutton starts his response by talking about the “unprecedented” pandemic, and how some of the former government’s policies saved the lives and livelihoods of tens of thousands of people, but added:
There are lessons out of the election. We’ve initiated this process. We’ll see what that comes back with and respond appropriately to it. But under my leadership, the Liberal party is not, as I said before, not the Conservative party, not the moderate party. We’re Liberals, we are a broad church. We’ll have policies that appeal to Australians across the board, those that believe as I do that we need to keep our country safe and keep the economy strong so we can help families and small businesses and help them grow.
Dutton appears to say the Liberals will keep the housing policy which would have allowed people to draw on their superannuation for a house deposit. He also says that the push for the suburbs will not be harmed by the party’s reputation with multicultural Australia, but says he does want to “engage more” with those communities.
Dutton is asked about his earlier comments that the party was “estranged” from big business. He says he does not seek an adversarial relationship, but:
…frankly a lot of CEOs now are closer to the other parties and out of the Liberal party, that is the modern reality and I don’t seek estrangement from them but we will work closely with them but I want to create jobs, I want to have a robust economy and with the damage I think Labor will do over the next few years, we will have a big job [to do] when we are returned to government in 2025.
Dutton: ‘there is an opportunity to work constructively’ with crossbenchers
Reporter: What is your plan to approach the crossbench members including a lot of the new independent MPs who obviously occupy seats once held by Liberals? Can you forge a relationship and potentially vote with them on certain issues?
Dutton:
Yes is the short answer. As leader in the house, I tried to have a very productive relationship and respectable relationship with the independents and you’ve seen some public commentary that reflect that from the independent members and I will continue to do that.
There are issues we can disagree on but in the chamber, you can work out who are real independent MPs [or] green independent MPs and it will become obvious by people’s patterns and their statements and their comments on broader issues. It’s just been examined during the course of the election. There is an opportunity to work constructively.
I suspect if the government doesn’t get a majority in the lower house, then they will ask Mr Wilkie to be the speaker. I suspect Mr Wilkie or one of the other independent members would do that.
That’s how I think they will shore up their position in the lower house and of course in the Senate, the Labor party will be relying on the Greens to get their agenda through and that will be an interesting experiment which I think will drag the Labor party further to the left.
Dutton responds to WA premier Mark McGowan
Dutton says that he will also be targeting the working class under his leadership, before being asked about the party’s dire showing in Western Australia, and the characterisation of him by WA premier Mark McGowan as an “extremist” who isn’t very smart. He said:
I feel a great affinity with WA.. As a Queenslander, as much as anything, two mining states and two states with vast regional areas, there has always been that affinity with WA and Queensland so I feel at home in WA, frankly as I do around the rest of the country.
In this job I travel to Sydney hundreds of times, dozens and dozens of times to other capital cities, including Perth and I’ve got lots of friends in WA. I’ve got respect for Mark McGowan as premier of WA, I’m not going to enter into a tit-for-tat and juvenile comments. The state premiers and state Labor premiers and chief ministers lined up as one to attack and pull down Scott Morrison, they will seek to do the same with me.
All I’d say to the Australian people is look at me and form your own judgement, listen to what I’m saying and form your own judgement as opposed to [listening] to these politically motivated statements.And in relation to the second part of his comment, well, I have a bachelors degree in business, in public administration … I was not a committed student at school, I was more interested in making money, I started a business from nothing, employing 40 staff, [I’ve] been on the frontbench of the Liberal party since 2004 having been identified by John Howard in my first term as capable of being appointed quickly to the ministry. I’ve served as our country’s health minister, and sport [minister] which was a great portfolio.
I’ve been a defence minister, home affairs minister, I’ve been on the expenditure review committee, I’ve been part of the National Security Committee, as I say, and [have been] part of the leadership of the party. I will let people draw their own conclusions as to my capacities.
Dutton: Greens believe in ‘all sorts of radical plans’
Dutton is asked a question about the increase in the Greens’ lower house presence, which has increased from one seat to as many as four, with the possible three extra seats all coming in his home state of Queensland. He says:
In relation to the Greens, I think both parties frankly are going to have to talk more about what the Greens represent. The Greens are not this environmental movement that believes in particular policies, they believe in halving the defence spending in this country, they believe in all sorts of radical plans which I don’t think most Australians would support.
In the analysis I have done of a number of our seats and a number of seats where Labor has been in trouble … I think there was as much a protest vote [as] there is a vote for the Greens and I would be surprised if that holds up over the next three years. I think frankly as I said before, people were not happy with us, in the end that is clear, they were not that enamoured with Mr Albanese … and I think many of them have sent a protest vote through the Greens and we will talk more about that.
Dutton voices support for Icac
Dutton says he expects to announce his shadow cabinet ministry later this week. On whether Labor has a mandate for a federal Icac and a 43% emissions reduction target by 2030, given the election result, Dutton says:
I dealt with the emissions question earlier but on the Icac, I’m a strong supporter of the Icac, I believe in transparency and I always have, I think one of the greatest things that happened post the Fitzgerald inquiry era in Queensland was that there was continuing scrutiny which I think has stood our state in good stead.
It’s not the same in every state in the country, I think there are issues and I think the commissions have worked with varying success.
I believe very much in the transparency. The reason I think it’s more important than ever is that under this Labor government, under the Albanese government, we are going to have a continuation of this unholy alliance with the CFMEU, the ETU, the MUA and the Labor Party. In states around the country we’ve seen red shirts in Victoria, Queensland where ministers are keeping secret second email accounts to take direction from union bosses, so I welcome the scrutiny, I think it’s a good thing.
The nuance in the detail, we will be able to work through that and I’m keen to engage with Helen Haines for whom I have a great deal of respect.
Ley is asked again about her earlier comments re women voters, saying:
The time following any election loss is a time for sober reflection as it should be, and sometimes women are presented as one homogenous group which clearly they are not, and every woman has their own passions and drives and determination, wishes for themselves, their children and families … to collect them in one group and say these things apply, these don’t, this went wrong, this didn’t would be far too presumptuous.
I do know that there were women who abandoned the Coalition over the last election. There were women who firmly supported us. At this point in time as a review takes place, I’ll be travelling to as many parts of Australia to speak directly to the women to hear their individual perspectives about what matters to them but I also know that the Coalition’s strong focus on women’s economic security and women’s safety, record investments that we made over the term of the last government, will stand us in good stead and set us up for those future conversations.
Dutton: People in the suburbs are the ‘forgotten people’
Dutton is asked about a focus on the suburbs, and whether he thinks they can reclaim government if they do not win back the inner-city seats the party lost to so-called teal independents at the election. He responds that the party will not be ignoring any seat, saying:
Our policy is going to be targeted at those people who understand the Liberal party is the best when it comes to economic management so that we can pay for our climate change investment and pay for education and policing and our roads and infrastructure. All those issues that are important to people. They are shared commonly in the capital cities and in the suburbs.
All I want to do is to make sure that we don’t forget about those in the suburbs and I do think they are the forgotten people.
I want to have that the focus of our policies, strong policies and we will be talking more about that. So I’m not giving up on any seat, but I do want to send a very clear message to those in the suburbs, particularly those in seats where there has been a swing against the Labor party on their primary, in many parts of the country, this election was a pox on both your houses, there is huge hesitation around Anthony Albanese … whether he is up to the job.
People will give him a go, rightly, they voted for him and there will be a honeymoon period. The media will give him that, that is the convention. But people had big doubts about whether they would vote for him and in some cases, in many seats right across the country, the primary vote went down under Mr Albanese’s … leadership, so I think we’ve all got a lot of work to do, there is a lot to listen to out of this election.
Dutton calls for a ‘generous refugee and humanitarian program’
Reporter: Do you still characterise the Biloela children as anchor babies?
Dutton:
There are a couple of points worth making. There are hundreds of cases I acted on grounds of compassion in relation to migration policies. The minister of immigration is one of the most difficult jobs in the government.
One of the things I didn’t have when [I was the] minister for immigration and border protection and home affairs were calls at 2 o’clock or 3 o’clock in the morning from the admiral telling me that the boat had listed and women and children had drowned, and I was conscious of that because I spoke to men and women of the Australian Defence Force and the Navy in particular [who] are still suffering from PTSD today because of that policy failure when Labor was last in government so [I] wish the family well, I have no gripe against the family. No gripe against the family, and as I said I acted compassionately in hundreds of cases which were not in the media.
What we have to be careful about is the people smugglers who are evil, are trading gun parts, in drugs, and human beings, if they think they are back in business or they are hearing messages from the Australian government that there is an opening for them and they can pitch to people if you wait long enough, you will be able to get on a boat and come to Australia, that will be tragic.
We were able to bring people here in record numbers through the refugee and humanitarian program in a responsible and measured way. I want to make sure that we don’t see the tragedy of kids in detention, we get all the children out of detention. I don’t want to see the boats restart and I do want to see a generous refugee and humanitarian program.
