He tried laughing it off, but Thursday saw the most bruising and brutal press conference of Peter Dutton’s campaign. Weeks of evasive answers, contradictions and sloppy language from Coalition supporting players finally caught up with him, as the Liberal leader whacked away blunt questions which, nine days from election day, he is still struggling to answer.
The opposition leader was in Hobart, announcing a major and worthwhile policy on domestic violence. This critical issue has not received the attention it deserves in this campaign, as women continue to die at the hands of partners; the Coalition should be applauded for bringing it to the fore of the election.
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But the announcement was overshadowed entirely by Dutton’s brash rebuffs and tricky answers to fair questions. Thursday’s Q&A session read like a shopping list of dodged policy information and basic errors that needed clarification:
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“Is it concerning to you that your pick for immigration minister doesn’t appear to know the current migration settings?”
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“Was your answer yesterday on West Jerusalem a mistake? Your office had to clarify.”
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“You’ve been able to visit 13 petrol stations so far during this campaign, and you haven’t visited a single nuclear power site. Are you going to do one before polling day, or are you worried that this nuclear energy policy is losing you votes?”
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“Why should people vote for you when you give the air of a guy that’s turned up not having done his homework on time?”
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“41,000 [public service] jobs in Canberra? That’s a huge amount.”
Dutton shrugged each one off, with varying levels of success – as did Coalition campaign headquarters. Asked to confirm Dutton’s statement that all 41,000 public service job reductions would come from Canberra – as well as why the Liberals’ lead ACT Senate candidate, Jacob Vadakkedathu, recently said on radio “those 41,000 are not all based in Canberra” – a spokesperson simply sent a link to their previously announced policy.
In doing so, the Coalition campaign declined to defend or explain the ACT candidate’s claims about a key policy affecting Canberrans, or to clarify the position.
But back to the presser. Dutton’s response to several questions about his Monday comments on electric vehicles – where he appeared to say the Coalition would not reverse Labor’s fringe benefits tax (FBT) exemptions for EVs, before on Wednesday confirming they would indeed change them – was to claim he’d been misunderstood, and that it was a “difference of opinion” with journalists.
Dutton stressed again there had been no change to his EV policy; the shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, claimed on the ABC that “Peter misheard the question” initially, in a “raucous” Monday press conference.
The Coalition has long opposed the FBT break, so you could fairly imagine Dutton simply jumbled his words. But in a campaign where the Coalition has already scrapped its own work from home policy and has not taken up calls to repeal the “same job same pay” IR legislation, another backflip wasn’t out of the question.
The Monday question was pretty clear, incidentally. Here’s the transcript issued by Dutton’s office:
Q: Would a Coalition government repeal the EV tax break?
Dutton: No, we’ve said that what we’re opposed to is the Government’s big tax on hybrids.
On Thursday, Dutton tried fobbing off repeated EV follow-ups with gags about Anthony Albanese’s way of answering questions, and by joking with journalists. Outwardly at least, he appeared in high spirits – not easy when all the published polls are pointing to another three years in opposition, and potentially against an Albanese majority government – a fantasy for most Labor MPs just weeks ago.
But the case remains: barely a week from polling day, even on some of the Coalition’s core policies, basic questions are still floating in the breeze.
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Thursday brought another answer, to return to this example, on the planned public service cuts – all from Canberra, Dutton said, adding he had “been clear about that”.
Nothing about this policy has been clear, least of all how tens of thousands of public servants could be cut without a hit to government services – and less clear still is how one would even find 41,000 positions without affecting defence, national security or “frontline services”, as Dutton has previously pledged.
He has, to be fair, long claimed Labor had added “41,000 Canberra-based public servants” and that the Coalition would reverse or reduce that. Labor, however, says two-thirds of public servants – and three-quarters of the new positions – are outside the ACT.
Dutton noted some jobs were “projected” and hadn’t been filled yet – that is, the Coalition wouldn’t be cutting 41,000 human beings from the APS, but 41,000 positions, in a combination of currently filled and currently projected roles.
The Australian Public Service Commission said as of December 2024, 69,438 people were employed by the public service in the ACT. Getting tens of thousands of reductions from that cohort purely by natural attrition would take some time.
Andrew Leigh, a Labor MP for the ACT seat of Fenner, called Dutton’s Thursday position “insane”, claiming: “Dutton makes Doge look restrained.” Speaking to my colleague Henry Belot, the assistant minister gave a taste of what the scale of reductions would look like if confined solely to Canberra.
“Even if Dutton closed the head offices in Canberra of 12 departments … he’d still have less than 41,000 job cuts,” Leigh said.
Dutton keeps pointing towards yet-to-be-announced costings on his APS policy. But days out from when he could be in The Lodge, his air of making it up on the fly is not subsiding.
