After 20 years in parliament and several attempts to claim leadership, Peter Dutton has become the new Liberal leader following the election defeat of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Dutton was supposed to be the next leader after the other most likely rival, former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, lost his seat in the “green-green bath” of election night for independents demanding liberal seats in the center. from the city.
While there is no real competition for the leadership of the moderate side of the Liberal Party, Dutton has a challenge ahead of him to convince some of his party that he is the right man to take them forward as the coalition takes its first steps. as an opposition.
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Officer, businessman, politician
The 51-year-old Queensland MP entered parliament in 2001 after a decade as a police officer and working in his father’s construction business.
Mr Dutton left the police force shortly after being injured in a car accident while chasing a runaway prisoner.
A young Peter Dutton in 2001, campaigning alongside then-Prime Minister John Howard in the Dickson electorate, which he would win that year. (AAP: Dave Hunt)
In his inaugural address, Dutton addressed a number of issues that would hint at the direction his political career would take in the coming years, commenting on a “society that is too tolerant” and sometimes on “unacceptable crime rates” that make barricades. to the great Australians, themselves at home, “and about the risk of the” boisterous and politically correct minority “for democracy.
And foreshadowing the changes he would eventually make himself as a minister, Dutton warned that modern crime and terrorism demanded a strengthening of national security laws and a rebalancing of the right to privacy with security.
Peter Dutton has been a member of Dickson since 2001, although he briefly tried to jump into a safer seat. (AAP: Glenn Hunt)
Mr Dutton has been a lightning rod for progressive anger since he first came to parliament because of his firmly conservative views.
His sometimes blunt way of speaking has more than once put his leaders in a tight spot, and a joke was caught on an open microphone in 2015 about “renting water to [the] The “gateway” of the Pacific Island nations is still being used by Labor to accuse the Coalition of damaging relations in the region.
Dutton was also the only opposition leader in 2008 to boycott then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology to the stolen generations, a decision he now regrets, and he personally voted against “and encouraged people doing the same “in same-sex marriage in 2008. the 2017 postal vote.
But colleague Simon Birmingham, now the largest moderate figure in the Liberal Party, has said that Dutton’s character is different from how he is sometimes perceived.
“I’ve worked closely with Peter for a number of years, and while we haven’t always agreed, I suspect it would come as a surprise to many that we’ve agreed more often than people might expect.” said Mr Birmingham on Sunday.
“Peter’s public perception is not always an accurate reflection of Peter’s true position.”
In the last government, he helped secure the “AUKUS” agreement, the most significant development of Australia’s national security since the post-World War II treaty with the United States and New Zealand.
He also oversaw the Australian withdrawal from Afghanistan and was the most prominent critic of the Morrison government of Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, as he has become more aggressive in the region.
Dutton’s winding road to the top
The new Liberal leader was Prime Minister under John Howard, serving as Minister of Labor Participation, Deputy Treasurer and Minister of Revenue.
He entered the cabinet under Tony Abbott as Minister of Sports and Health, then introduced controversial reforms to Medicare to establish copayments for GP visits that were eventually abandoned, as well as creating a $ 20 billion fund. for medical research.
But it was his appointment to the ministry of immigration and later to a specially created super portfolio, Minister of the Interior, that the now leader first became a serious candidate for the main job.
During that time, Dutton was responsible, he said, for “stopping ships, removing all children from detention, closing the Manus Regional Processing Center, and overseeing the special admission of 12,000 refugees from the Syrian conflict.” Iraq “.
Dutton was repeatedly fired as an alternate leader during Malcolm Turnbull’s prime minister, and after months of instability in 2018, Dutton tried to snatch leadership from Mr. Turnbull to make him prime minister.
That attempt failed, as Morrison managed to sneak through the middle to claim the lead.
Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison join hands in launching the Liberal Party’s election campaign. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Dutton says he “won’t change,” but he wants to show a different side of himself
Now, Dutton has claimed the title, taking over a Liberal Party that is out of government for the first time in almost a decade.
In his first press conference as leader, Dutton said he would work with the new Labor government where he had good politics.
“We will support good politics, we will oppose bad Labor politics,” he said.
“I want to give you this guarantee, we have heard loud and clear from the Australian public.”
The new leader also said he “wouldn’t change,” but he wanted people to see “the whole person” he was.
“In the end, I was able to cancel the visas of some 6,000 criminals, people who had committed sex crimes against women and children, murders, serious crimes and expelled them from our country.
“It ‘s pretty hard to break a smile when you make this announcement.
“Hopefully, you can tell a different story that I’m not as bad as the ABC might report at times.”
Peter Dutton and Sussan Ley take over the Liberal Party when it enters the opposition. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
His deputy, the newly appointed Sussan Ley, is not aligned with the moderate or conservative wings of the party.
Party members felt strongly that they needed a woman as their deputy leader after she was punished in the election for a perceived ignorance of women and the security and equality issues that dominated Morrison’s tenure in government.
Speaking after she was appointed MP, Ms Ley said the Liberal Party had “listened” to women in the election.
“We’re listening. We’re talking. And we’re determined to regain your trust and your faith,” Ms. Ley said.
The Liberal Party, often described as a “broad church” of progressive and conservative political views, is outraged by a result that decimated its moderate ranks and nearly shut it out of the country’s urban centers.
Dutton’s first challenge will be to unite the party’s moderately wounded side with a Conservative side pushing the Liberal Party to the far right and regain its base.
Posted 2 hours, 2 hours ago, Monday, May 30, 2022 at 1:43 AM, updated 30 minutes ago, 30 minutes ago, Monday, May 30, 2022 at 3:29 AM