Category Archives: Peter Dutton

Could the Coalition’s spectacular backdown be the circuit breaker that Peter Dutton needs?

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Junking a signature policy to focus on his pet areas could help get his rocky campaign back on track

As mid-election mea culpas go, it was a big one.

After campaigning for months on a crackdown on those “entitled” Canberra public servants, those fat-cat bureaucrats supposedly taking hard-working Aussies for a ride with their generous work-from-home conditions, Peter Dutton’s latest policy backdown has seen the Coalition spectacularly concede defeat on plans to “bring our public servants back to work” and apologise for raising it.

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Dutton playing ‘Donald Trump anti-migration card’ in plan to slash international students, higher education peak body says

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The Coalition would retain Labor’s cap on the private sector but cut an extra 30,000 places at universities

The Coalition has been accused of using the “Donald Trump anti-migration card” with its election policy to slash international students, as the university sector warns it favours the private vocational education and training (VET) sector.

On Sunday, Peter Dutton announced he would reduce the number of international students to 240,000 a year, a reduction of “over 80,000 in annual new overseas student commencements compared with 2023 levels”, he said.

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‘We’ve made a mistake’: Peter Dutton backs down on work from home policy

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The Coalition has also walked away from plans to sack 41,000 public service employees, raising questions about how it will pay for major election policies

The Coalition spectacularly reversed its policy to restrict work from home arrangements and sack 41,000 government employees, walking away from plans to make major changes to the public service.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has admitted he “made a mistake” and “got it wrong” with the unpopular plan, backing down on the signature policy and raising questions about how the Coalition will pay for major election promises it said it would fund with savings from cutting the public service.

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Port of Darwin operator says Albanese and Dutton are treating it like ‘a political football’ in election

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Labor and Coalition would both end Chinese company Landbridge’s long-term lease of strategically important asset

The Chinese company that controls the Port of Darwin has accused Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton of treating it like “a political football” in the middle of a federal election campaign.

Federal Labor and the Coalition have both announced that if elected on 3 May they would end Landbridge’s long-term lease of the Port of Darwin, arguing it is strategically important and should be controlled by an Australian entity.

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‘Game on’: Kim Williams has ‘no doubt’ a Coalition government would initiate a review of the ABC

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ABC chair backs public broadcaster after Peter Dutton’s comments warning it would need to demonstrate ‘excellence’

The chair of Australia’s public broadcaster says he has “no doubt” a Coalition government would initiate a review of the ABC, but that the organisation has nothing to apologise for in its quest for “excellence” and “efficiency”.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt within the event of Mr [Peter] Dutton acceding to office that there would be a very early call for an efficiency and, apparently, an excellency review for what the ABC does. Game on,” Kim Williams said during a speech at the Melbourne Press Club on Thursday.

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Guardian Essential poll: Albanese’s approval rating takes a hit but Labor inches ahead of Coalition

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Voters scored both PM and Peter Dutton poorly on key leadership questions including trust, competence and being out of touch

Labor has ticked ahead of the Coalition on a two-party-plus basis in the first Guardian Essential poll of the election period, as Anthony Albanese turns the blowtorch on Peter Dutton in the opening days of the campaign.

Essential’s “2PP+” measure, which allows voters to remain undecided, put Labor ahead 48% to 47%, with 5% undecided. The survey of 1,100 people was of a piece with recent major polls from Newspoll, Resolve and YouGov, which showed small movements toward Labor in recent weeks.

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Peter Dutton’s plan to move to Sydney instead of Canberra if elected ‘arrogant’, Labor says

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Opposition leader confirms he would move into Kirribilli House if elected PM – a statement Anthony Albanese says shows ‘a fair bit of hubris’

Labor frontbencher Katy Gallagher has accused Peter Dutton of “arrogantly measuring the curtains at Kirribilli House” and disrespecting the national capital.

Peter Dutton has confirmed he and his family would move into Sydney’s Kirribilli House – a harbourside mansion overlooking the Opera House – rather than the Lodge in Canberra if elected on 3 May.

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Dutton flip-flops on proposals for three separate referendums if Coalition wins election

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Opposition leader floats – then walks back – polls on Indigenous recognition, four-year parliamentary terms and stripping citizenship of dual nationals

Peter Dutton has floated – then quickly walked back – proposals for three separate referendums if he wins office, shutting down ideas he had raised to change the constitution for Indigenous recognition, four-year parliamentary terms and stripping citizenship of dual nationals.

The opposition leader had told The Australian newspaper in an interview published on Saturday that he was open to referendums on the three issues if there could be bipartisanship found with the Labor party. “I hope at some stage there will be common ground,” Dutton told the newspaper.

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Bowen says Dutton ‘making it up as he goes’ on gas plan as experts question lack of detail

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Opposition leader promises to release secret modelling within days as former ACCC chair urges Coalition to explain how they would lower prices

Energy minister Chris Bowen claims Peter Dutton is “making it up as he goes” with his gas plan, as experts question how a Coalition government would force gas producers to sell to Australians at cheaper prices.

In his first public comments on Dutton’s plan to bring more gas into Australia’s energy market, Bowen claimed the Coalition was simply dusting off a plan created under the former Morrison government.

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Protesters turn up at Dutton’s events despite secret travel plans – as it happened

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This blog has now closed

We are currently waiting on the PM, who is due to hold a press conference in … Dickson, which of course is Peter Dutton’s electorate.

Dutton claims comparisons to Trump show PM doesn’t have a plan

If the PM has that attack, know that they don’t have a plan.

If the PM had done a better job over the past three years, if the country was better off, the economy was better off, the PM will be telling a different story.

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What a $5,000 ticket will and won’t get you at one of Canberra’s budget night fundraising soirees

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As you decipher how the budget may alter your life on Tuesday night, your politicians will be raking in the cash by wining and dining donors and lobbyists

As you decipher how the federal budget may alter your life on Tuesday night, your politicians will be raking in the cash by wining and dining donors and lobbyists in Canberra.

This year’s budget night fundraisers – often concealed from the general public – could be something of a final hoorah. New laws capping campaign spending will soon make these budget night soirees less important, at least financially.

Tickets will have to be publicly disclosed as gifts, meaning there will be a record of those who sipped champagne with politicians and filled the party coffers. But these changes won’t apply until 2026. For now, the show goes on.

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Dutton calling Albanese ‘limp-wristed’ over Chinese ships ‘unsurprising’, Wong says

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Opposition leader criticised for using historical slur against gay men, with a spokesperson for Dutton saying ‘no offence was intended’

Penny Wong says it’s “unsurprising” Peter Dutton would use an historical slur to attack the prime minister’s response to China, noting the opposition leader had opposed marriage equality.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Dutton said: “It was a phrase that shouldn’t have been used, and no offence was intended from Mr Dutton.”

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Guardian Essential poll: Albanese scores highest approval rating in almost 18 months as support for Dutton slips

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PM’s approval rating increases to 46%, up four percentage points since the last poll, as Labor and Coalition run neck-and-neck on a two-party preferred basis

More Australians approve of Anthony Albanese as the country’s leader than disapprove of him for the first time in almost 18 months since the referendum on the proposed Indigenous voice to parliament.

Albanese’s approval rating has increased to 46%, up four percentage points from earlier in March, the latest Guardian Essential poll shows, while his disapproval rating fell to 45%.

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Alfred may have blown Albanese’s election plans off course, but now the PM can show he has the common touch

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The prime minister has more reason than most to be the boots on the ground after 63% of voters said he is not in tune with ordinary Australians

Anthony Albanese might have expected to have been on his campaign plane on Monday, flying between marginal seats on the first day of the election trail proper.

Instead he’s sloshing around in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred – the weather event that was meant to bear his name and blew his election announcement plan right off course.

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Peter Dutton defends attending Hemmes fundraiser as Cyclone Alfred approached Queensland

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Opposition leader says critics seeking ‘political advantage’ after Murray Watt says Dutton ‘sold out his constituents’ by attending Sydney soiree

Peter Dutton has defended his decision to attend a lavish fundraiser in Sydney as then Tropical Cyclone Alfred approached Queensland last week, claiming those criticising his decision were seeking “political advantage”.

The opposition leader’s Monday morning interview on Sky News came after Queensland Labor senator Murray Watt claimed Dutton had “sold out his constituents” by not staying in his Dickson electorate.

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Guardian Essential poll: RBA rate cut too little too late for many as Albanese’s rating dips again

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As the official start of the election campaign nears, almost one in two Australians don’t know who they will vote for or might change their mind

More than half of Australians believe last month’s cash rate cut was too little too late and a sign the Labor government’s economic plan is not working, but voters think Anthony Albanese is better placed than Peter Dutton to deliver cost-of-living relief and higher wages and safeguard Medicare.

Voters have again marked down Albanese, with his net approval rating dipping to minus eight in the latest Guardian Essential poll. But Australians believe his party would be better – or at least no worse – than the Coalition on some key issues.

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Australian politicians unworried by Trump’s ‘what does that mean?’ response to Aukus question

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US president was questioned about defence deal during meeting with UK prime minister Keir Starmer

Australian politicians have played down a slip from Donald Trump, who initially failed to understand a question about Aukus posed by a British reporter.

The US president was questioned about the Australia-UK-US defence deal during a meeting with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, in the Oval Office.

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Australia news live: Woodside doubles profits thanks to record production of oil; funnel-web spider shortage threatens antivenom program

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Australia’s largest oil and gas producer has doubled its profits to $5.6bn. Follow today’s news live

Senate estimates will be back under way today, and AAP has flagged a little of what we can expect:

Creative Australia bosses, including the chief executive, Adrian Collette, will front an estimates hearing and it’s expected they’ll be questioned about the selection body’s shock decision to ditch the Venice Biennale team.

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Dutton says Coalition will pay to match Labor’s $8.5bn Medicare boost by cutting thousands of public service jobs

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Opposition leader claims plan to reduce workforce by nearly all jobs added under Labor would save $6bn annually

Peter Dutton claims the Coalition would pay for a $8.5bn boost to Medicare by cutting thousands of public servant jobs, providing yet another different answer on the Coalition’s as-yet-undefined plans for the public service.

After weeks of contradictory statements from senior shadow ministers about how many positions the Coalition would cull if it wins government, Dutton has now stipulated his plan could save $6bn annually – potentially representing nearly all of the new positions created under Labor.

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Coalition to match ‘dollar for dollar’ Labor’s plan to make GP visits cheaper in $8.5bn Medicare boost

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Less than half of Australians were always bulk billed when they saw a GP in 2023-24, government data says

The Coalition says it will match “dollar for dollar” Labor’s landmark $8.5bn proposal to dramatically increase Medicare bulk-billing rates for GP visits, pledging to meet Anthony Albanese’s commitment to make nearly all doctors’ appointments free.

Doctor’s groups have welcomed Labor’s pledge to fund 18m extra bulk-billed GP visits annually, but have warned some patients will still miss out because government rebates are sometimes still too low to cover the cost of all appointments. The health minister, Mark Butler, says nine out of 10 GP visits will be covered by 2030 under Labor’s plan, and has accused the Coalition of “cooking the books” on bulk-billing statistics during their time in office.

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