The truth behind Peter Dutton’s ‘strongman’ persona

##LECH:

One of the interesting things about Peter Dutton is that a lot of his politics tap into very specific traditions within Queensland politics in terms of strong men and even strong women leaders…

 

##Audio Excerpt – Peter Dutton:

“Mr. Speaker, honorable members who had an interest in the Dickson campaign would also know that I was a police officer for nine years.”

 

##LECH:

In his maiden speech, he kind of took a lot of the anger that Pauline Hanson had been expressing for a while and expressed it without making overt references to race.

 

##Audio Excerpt – Peter Dutton:

“And I've seen the sickening behavior displayed by those frankly who barely justify their existence in our sometimes over-tolerant society. We are seeing an alarming number of households where up to three generations have, in many cases by choice, never worked in their life.”

 

##LECH:

But the kinds of things that he was referencing certainly conveyed to the people that he wanted to hear, that he was going to be someone who was going to attack political correctness and attack civil liberties bodies. 

 

##Audio Excerpt – Peter Dutton:

“Mr Speaker, the silent majority, the forgotten people or the “aspirational voter” of our generation are fed up with bodies like the civil liberties bodies and the refugee action collective and certainly, the dictatorship of the trade union movement…

 

##LECH:

…he delivered, I think, one of the most incendiary speeches since Pauline Hanson herself. And he really launched himself into the public spotlight. I think that he presents as someone who is kind of free of contradictions and there isn't a lot to understand there. But there's heaps, like I think he's like one of the most complex politicians that we've seen. And that's not necessarily something that you'd think, he seems like a pretty simple and straightforward politician. I think he wants to be seen as being simple and straightforward.

 

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##ANGE:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ange McCormack - this is *7am* 

 

Peter Dutton is a lot of things. A right-wing firebrand, a former Queensland cop and a champion of what he believes are simple suburban Australian values. But he’s also a multi-millionaire, who colleagues describe as pleasant, shy, but fiercely ambitious. Lech Blaine spent months studying Peter Dutton’s past and political ascendency to discover who the leader of the opposition really is - and what’s underneath his ‘bad cop’ exterior. 

 

Today, author of the latest *Quarterly Essay* Lech Blaine, on what’s driving Peter Dutton’s strongman politics.

 

It’s Monday, March 18.

 

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##ANGE:

Lech, you've written an essay about arguably the most powerful Queenslander in the country, which is the opposition leader, Peter Dutton. How important is that when we talk about Peter Dutton, to talk about where he's from? 

 

##LECH:

Extremely important. Being a Queenslander is a very distinct thing and it's partly Queensland being a more isolated state, like culturally and historically. Like if you go back through the history of Queensland, there's like a real reason for the inferiority complex of the people. Like it was kind of seen as the ugly cousin of the Federation. And so there's a lot of anti-elitism. And that's something that is really strong for Peter Dutton, although it's interesting because he doesn't present in the same way as what these other Queensland leaders might have presented. He doesn't have the kind of twang. He's not folksy. He's not sort of like, someone who naturally fits in, like the, you know, more down to earth places. He's a fairly shy, awkward sort of individual. And that's not, that's not something that you necessarily associate with that more folksy tradition. 

 

##ANGE:

And when did Peter Dutton's time in politics actually start? What kind of drove him into that political ambition, do you think? 

 

##LECH:

Yeah, well he graduated from high school in 1987. His dad had been a bricklayer who became a builder and his parents actually got separated in his final year of high school so had a lot of contempt for Paul Keating and that came out of some of the economic conditions in the late 80s and early 90s…and so I chatted to someone who went to school with him just to get like a perspective. At school, Peter Dutton, he wasn't a jock. He wasn't a nerd. And by his own admission, he wasn't into academics at school. He was more interested in making money. So he went off to university and did a business degree. Didn't do very well because at the same time, he joined the Young Liberals and he decided to actually run for state parliament, in the seat of Lytton on  Brisbane’s Southside. So he was 19 when he ran for state parliament.

 

##Audio Excerpt – Peter Dutton:

“I see myself as young probably not so much as older people do but a good mixture of young and old particularly within parliament, seeing a lot of issues do affect the young I think is essential”

 

##LECH:

That’s like a very unique thing to do even by the standards of some of the most ambitious politicians we can think of so it shows that he had political aspirations especially at the time because both parties were on a hiding to nothing at that election. So he was going into an election where he had no real prospect of actually winning the seat. 

 

##Audio Excerpt – Passerby:

“Hahaha that was a big mistake to run an 18 year old in a seat where 50% of the people are over 50”

 

##Audio Excerpt – Lech:

“Yeah, it's a bit hard isn’t it. Asking a lot I think. Boy wonder indeed.” 

 

##LECH:

He's sort of spoken about the fact that even after he went into the police force, he always had politics in the back of his mind. So, he is a really, professional politician. 

 

##ANGE:

I do want to ask about Peter Dutton's career as a cop, because, you know, it's very well known that that was part of his former life before politics but what was his time in the police force like…what did you discover about that part of his life?

 

##LECH:

He moved through a few different units in the nine years that he was in the police force. But I think one of the significant things and he made a lot of mention of this last year during the voice debate, was him going up to North Queensland as a young police officer and dealing with domestic violence and death within Indigenous communities. And that ultimately shaped his response to things like the apology. He cited those experiences as like a reason why he was against the apology. He was one of the only Liberal politicians in the shadow frontbench who abstained from that, and it had a profound effect on him in the way that he views race relations and the way that he views, so-called elites within the inner city who promote, more tolerance and who promote more of a ground up approach to reconciliation rather than a top down approach.

 

##Audio Excerpt – Annabel Crabb:

“Nice and cosy”

 

##Audio Excerpt – Peter Dutton:

“Yeah it really is”

 

##Audio Excerpt – Annabel  Crabb:

“Ooh nice oven”

 

##Audio Excerpt – Peter Dutton:

“Yeah it is a good oven”

 

##LECH:

Peter Dutton has started to speak a little bit more openly about the horrific nature of some of his experiences within the police force, and even last year, he was really unusually vulnerable on an episode of Kitchen Cabinet with Annabel Crabb. 

 

##Audio Excerpt – Peter Dutton:

“You know I remember going to crime scenes where a young girl had been raped and to this day you can still remember the full name of the victim, the offender, the dates of birth the times an” you know still picture that scene because that was the most traumatic moment in that persons life and you’re sharing that journey with them.”

 

##LECH:

And talking about the possibility that he had undiagnosed PTSD from the police force. 

 

##Audio Excerpt – Annabel Crabb:

“Do you think you did go through a sort of form of PTSD?” 

 

##Audio Excerpt – Peter Dutton:

“I think probably every police officer does to be honest I just don’t think you can live that life without it having an impact on you.” 

 

##Audio Excerpt – Annabel Crabb:

“Or you can’t erase those images right?”

 

##Audio Excerpt – Peter Dutton:

“I think that's right”

 

##LECH:

Yeah, he certainly didn't allude to that throughout his career. But I see, I say the way that that, as I said at quite a young age, that to have that build up of being exposed to quite high stakes, high adrenaline, often shocking events can really profoundly change someone

 

##ANGE:

I always knew Peter Dutton was a cop. I think a lot of people would be aware of that, part of his story, but I actually don't know how or why his career in the force ended. What happened?

 

##LECH:

Well there'd always been conjecture around why Peter Dutton left the police force. And there was always an insinuation that there was some sort of conspiracy behind it, and Dutton never really dispelled any of that. And yet the clearest reason for him leaving the police force, at least at that particular time, was that he was in a car accident chasing after a criminal and he was injured. He wasn't seriously injured, but according to the court documents, it led to him struggling to drive. And he did have, like, some injuries, and he had to recuperate. And he sued the insurance company of the criminal and then that was cited in the court documents as the reason why he left the police force. So it's really interesting because there were numerous opportunities throughout Peter Dutton's career for him to kind of talk about that but it just kind of probably chafes against the image that he's created for himself as kind of, a strong man, in the sense that, yeah, there is a vulnerability there.

By the time that he finished his time in the police force, he kind of went full time into property development with his dad. And they renovated buildings in sort of suburban south east Queensland into childcare centers and did really well out of it. It was like, you know, his timing was immaculate, because it was just as Howard was, tinkering with the tax loopholes and making capital gains and negative gearing kind of more alluring for investors and more profitable for investors. And that's when, property prices in Australia started to really surge.and by the time that he did enter politics, like they had built, like a really successful family business. And he certainly kept on buying properties throughout his time in politics and did really, really well for himself.

 

##ANGE:

After the break: does Peter Dutton have what it takes to become prime minister?

 

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##ANGE:

Lech, everyone associates Peter Dutton with being a former cop. No one sort of says, oh, you know “Peter Dutton - that wealthy property investor”. How calculated do you think it is from him to kind of not put that forward as his image, like the rich guy from Queensland image. 

 

##LECH:

Totally calculated, all politicians develop a narrative that kind of suits their political ambitions. And he's no different to that, I think he's been very deliberate about cultivating the persona of himself as a police officer. I make mention in the essay about the Reader's Digest kind of occupation ratings amongst Australians and police officers are way up there.  I think that was sixth on the list of 30 and journalists were 29th and politicians were 30th. So there I think, a perception within especially progressive circles that everyone hates cops. And there is a tradition within Australia of being, like, a little bit anti-cop, but I don't think that that translates to, you know, the outer of suburbs and working class and middle class families, like they might have some animosity in specific situations about police officers, but generally they can see the world is quite a dangerous place, and they know that police officers have a place and they are certainly more popular than politicians and journalists. And I think that that feeds into why Dutton has constantly emphasized that occupation as a way for people to see him as not being part of that elite.  

 

##Audio Excerpt – Peter Dutton 1:

All I want to do is to make sure, though, that we don't forget about those in the suburbs. And I do think they are the forgotten people. 

 

##Audio Excerpt – Peter Dutton 2:

The reality is, you know, people are scared to go to restaurants at night time because they are followed home by these gangs. Home invasions and cars are stolen and we just need to call it what it is. Of course, it's African gang violence. 

 

##Audio Excerpt – Interviewer:

“Do you also feel that your political momentum is slipping away?”

 

##Audio Excerpt – Peter Dutton 3:

“Just such an ABC perspective if i might say um all the culture so far left within the ABC just seems to permeate through many questions when you go on to a program like this.”

 

##LECH:

So he's really relying on the kind of political issues that he's passionate about. That's the thing that he thinks can reach those out of suburban voters in terms of being quite controversial, and politically incorrect around matters of race.

 

##ANGE:

So obviously that yeah, that image plays well with a certain group of voters in like as you said, like suburban, outer suburban electorates and that kind of thing. Why is he interested in, in those, areas of Australia, out of suburban electorates? 

 

##LECH:

They’re parts of Australia that feel quite disconnected from the political system and from the cultural ecosphere of the country, even though, you know, a lot of the time they're located in the same cities as those hubs of political and cultural power. So, I think that there is like a real vulnerability there because Labour does hold a lot of seats in those areas. It's just a question of whether Dutton's personality can actually convey immediately to voters who are quite disengaged. Dutton doesn't really look or sound like a battler in a way that would be immediately seen by those people. So it’s interesting, like whether Dutton's personality really lends itself that much to people who are looking for someone who chafes against the more professional kind of politicians. And I would also say that like a lot of those, diverse communities are actually quite receptive to social conservatism until, you know, traditional liberal party values around small business. So it's not like that they're completely, they're completely allergic to it. But I don't think that the Liberal Party has really made any concrete attempts to court them, like they've started talking about it, but I don't think that they're necessarily nailed on to the Labour Party. And I think that there is a lot of disillusionment within a lot of suburban communities. But the Liberal Party hasn't really hasn't really made itself like a genuine alternative. 

 

##ANGE:

And earlier you talked about, the idea that there's contradictions to Peter Dutton you know, there's this idea that, he's a former cop, but also really, he's this rich, you know, property investor. He's this tough guy, but also underneath, he's actually clearly as vulnerable and has his own, you know, past traumas to deal with, like everyone else. What can we learn from those contradictions if we're establishing a picture of Peter Dutton, do you think? 

 

##LECH:

We can learn heaps? And I think that the the interesting thing about Dutton is that he kind of, like, embodies the changes in politics in Australia in the way that the shifts in the Liberal Party and the shifts in the Labour Party and the way that he taps into that, it kind of like provides both with his like family history in Queensland and then also with his entry into politics, he kind of like really encapsulates the changes in the Liberal Party. It is a massive shift in terms of the way that historically, the Liberal Party was seen as the party of the elites and the highly educated. And there was, there was a sense that they were the experts, and that's why they, were often rewarded with power because they were seen as being more responsible than the Labour Party, who was seen as being more kind of parochial and more blokey. There’s been so much discourse over the past few decades about Howard battlers, very few people who have risen to the heights of the Liberal party landscape and Dutton does.

 

##ANGE:

Do you think he's got what it takes to win the next election? 

 

##LECH:

I don't want to look into any crystal balls, but I think that it's going to be pretty hard for him to get a majority at the next election. I think Labour has real vulnerabilities and there's a lot of people out there who are extremely pissed off, especially about the cost of living. And that's why I think the obsession with cultural issues that can be profitable for him politically in some senses, but it also kind of attaches him to the sense that he is like a culture warrior rather than someone with a serious economic vision for the country. And that's a difference to John Howard, who definitely tapped into a lot of those issues around race. But it was always underpinned by this really single minded economic vision for the country, and that he was going to make these so-called Howard battlers Rich. How does Peter Dutton propose to do that? It's really unclear, because how does a battler in modern Australia possibly get onto the property ladder, like it's really hard. So I don't really sense any, major, vision emanating from Peter Dutton.It’s really tough ask and it takes a really specific kind of political skill and I’m not sure Peter Dutton has that kind of once in a generational political talent. 

 

##ANGE:

Lech, fascinating to speak with you. Thanks so much for your time today. 

 

##LECH:

No worries at all. Thanks a lot for having me. 

 

##ANGE:

If you want to read more about who Peter Dutton is, where he comes from and how that all plays into his political career, I highly recommend reading  Lech Blaine’s *Quarterly Essay*, called “Bad Cop: Peter Dutton’s strongman politics” and it’s out today. 

 

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##ANGE:

Also in the news today…

 

The Labor party has suffered disappointing results in Queensland over the weekend, in state byelections and local council elections. The state party is likely to lose the once safe seat of Ipswich West and suffered a substantial swing in the seat vacated by former premier Antastacsia Palaszuk — while the LNP will retain control of the Brisbane city council, with the Labor vote down and the Greens gaining support.

 

And…

 

NSW Crime Commissioner Michael Barnes has publicly taken aim at the ‘upper middle class’ for fueling the cocaine trade.

Barnes said affluent users were glamourising the drug, which contributed to what authorities estimate is a 12.4 billion dollar market for illicit drugs in Australia.

 

I’m Ange McCormack, this is *7am*. We’ll be back again tomorrow. 

 

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