CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
After a nightmare first two weeks of the 2025 Federal Election campaign, the Liberal Party is now in a panic.
Both the Coalition powerbrokers and their friends in the media had assumed that Peter Dutton would thrive in the lead up to voting day. However, it seems that the Opposition Leader struggles when he can’t find an appropriate minority group to use as a punching bag.
After demolishing the Indigenous Voice proposal in 2023, colleagues had hoped that Peter Dutton would be able to emulate this success on the campaign trail.
Unfortunately, this time around, he cannot hide behind the Coalition’s Indigenous firebrands like Warren Mundine and Jacinta Price. In fact, he’s probably blocked their phone numbers now that they have expended their political usefulness.
And it now seems that Labor have used Peter Dutton’s strengths against him, by highlighting his inability to connect with the broad spectrum of voters that are needed to win back the 20 seats required to form government.
The 2025 election has turned into a referendum on Peter Dutton’s character. And after 20 years of pot shots at different minority groups, it seems the chickens are coming home to roost.
His time as health minister made him an enemy of frontline workers, his time as Home Affairs minister made him an enemy of immigrants and ethnic community groups. His time as Federal Opposition leader has made him an enemy of public servants, female voters and the journalists he continually disrespects by labelling them as ‘detached inner city elites’.
Aboriginal people and their friends remember when he walked out of the National Apology, and actively destroyed their one chance at constitutional recognition. Immigrants remember when he labelled their vulnerable children as ‘anchor babies’ – and women remember when he said that working mothers should take a pay cut if they want flexible hours.
With Dutton trying to undo all of this damage in the space of five weeks – he’s starting to look like an unpredictable and inconsistent version of Labor – as he matches Albanese on every policy except the psychotic nuclear plan that he has recently stopped talking about.
So today, with polls numbers nosediving and the odds shortening on another Labor majority government, Liberal Party of strategists have decided it’s time for Dutton to play to his strengths, and hope that there’s still enough xenophobic baby boomers watching Sky News to win over the swing seats.
He’s cracked open the emergency dog whistle kit. Chinese-Australians, Muslims and the Indigenous are now going to be at the centre of this campaign.
Anyone who has problem with the divisive bigotry he’s about to start wheeling out at daily press conferences are woke soy latte sipping communists.
