He Wants It Too Much

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT

The Liberal Party’s poll numbers continue to plunge in the final weeks of the 2025 Federal Election campaign, as Peter Dutton continues to put his foot in it.

Political commentators put the shift in mood down to voters suddenly realising that this is an election between Prime Minister Albanese and Peter Dutton, rather than Prime Minister Albanese versus ‘anyone else’.

Unlike the Indigenous Voice referendum, where Peter Dutton’s Coalition succesful dismantled a once-popular proposal for the constitutional recognition of First Nations people, it seems that winning a Federal Election isn’t quite as easy as standing behind Jacinta Price for three months while she shouts horrible things about her own people in front of cheering crowds of angry baby boomers.

But now the spotlight is on the Federal Opposition leader, who is struggling to cut through with no real policies.

In fact that only thing that Peter Dutton is bringing to this election campaign is his burning desire to be in complete control.

This kind of entitlement does not go down well with Australian voters, particularly Queenslanders, who take great pleasure in frustrating the political ambitions of men in suits.

New polling shows 45 per cent of voters listed Peter Dutton’s ‘personality’ as their top reason they wouldn’t vote for the Coalition, up from 35 per cent since February.

His current ‘Vote For Me Because…’ campaign can only really be compared to the US Democrats uninspiring and unsuccessful race to the White House in 2016.

He believes the role of Prime Minister is his for the taking and he shouldn’t have to work for it. He’s giving off the same vibe as Hillary Clinton did when she lost the unloseable election to the current US President.

This is ironic, given that Peter Dutton is bleeding female voters at a rapid rate, because they think he is too much like Trump.

After working closely with their friends in the Australian media for three years, the Coalition had done a good job of not reminding Australians that Peter Dutton is the former Immigration Minister who oversaw the unprecedented cruelty towards the women and children who had been detained in offshore processing centres over the last two decades. But throughout the course of the 2025 election campaign, that man has come back into view.

Voters now remember all the little things that have happened throughout the course of his career, as Dutton placed his political ambitions above all else.

Namely, the fact that he called two leadership spills against Malcolm Turnbull in his unsuccessful attempts to become Prime Minister without having to face the voters in 2018.

He didn’t get what he wanted back then, but after gifting Prime Minister Scott Morrison to Australia, and then finally taking leadership after a landslide election loss in 2022, he is now as close as he’s ever been to the top job.

Will Australians once again send him back home on a flight to North Brisbane empty handed?