EFFIE BATEMAN | Lifestyle | Contact
Opposition leader Peter Dutton is alleged to be considering an expensive referendum that would give the government the power deport convicted criminals who hold dual citizenship, despite only recently making a pledge to cut up to 26,000 public service jobs to ‘cut wasteful government spending.’
Having spent most of 2023 attacking PM Anthony Albanese for spending $450 million on the ‘divisive’ Voice Referendum, Dutton is now floating the idea of spending the same amount of money on a referendum that isn’t likely to affect many people.
Dutton originally floated the referendum idea last month after a video of two NSW nurses threatening to kill Israelis surfaced online, stating that “If we need to amend the Constitution, then I think that’s a debate that our country is mature enough to have.”
When questioned this morning by Sunrise host Natalie Barr on why he would spend millions of taxpayer dollars to please a small minority, when 80 % of Australians report their greatest concern is the cost of living crisis, Dutton replied, “if we believe that we want to keep people safe, I don’t think you can put a price on that.”
Former Liberal attorney-general George Brandis says a referendum to overturn the high court without bipartisan support would be futile, and that ‘if it is indeed under consideration, that consideration should stop right now.”
As the polls begin to lift for Labor, voters are expecting more of this type of brain-snap populism, as Dutton’s electability begins to crash after a nightmare fortnight that has seen him criticised by his own local electorate for fleeing from Cyclone Alfred to mingle with billionaire Liberal Party donors.
His plan to force young mothers to take half pay for flexible work hours has also gone down like a lead balloon with female voters.
This is before the media even bothers interrogating his dodgy share trading history, or worse, his million dollar for-profit childcare centre empire.
With the federal election roughly two months away, Dutton still hasn’t given any framework what he plans on doing to actually help working class Australians, other than continued to stoke fear and copy everything from the Trump playbook.
More to come.
