VIDEO: Defining Dutton: Can the Liberals succeed under Peter Dutton?

DEFINING DUTTON

  
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: It’s been a bleak winter for the Liberal party.  
 
RADIO UPSOT: Newspoll is out today… It has the Government riding high and the Coalition and Peter Dutton losing ground.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Its MPs and Senators are contemplating years in opposition as they regroup from electoral defeat. 
 
RADIO UPSOT: It's pretty black for the Coalition at the moment.  
 
SANTO SANTORO, LIBERAL SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND 2002 – 2007: The early days of an opposition leader are always hard days, and perhaps the hardest, But this abyss is not a bottomless abyss.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton has struggled to cut through ... with the spectre of his predecessor hanging large over him.  
 
UPSOT QUESTION TIME 
SPEARKER: The Leader of the Opposition will cease interjecting…   
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Apparently the Westminster system is alien to those opposite…   
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Transparency!  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: The extraordinary revelations about Scott Morrison’s secret ministries put Peter Dutton on the backfoot.   
 
UPSOT QUESTION TIME 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: I’m not going to take lectures on transparency, from those opposite! Who didn’t know who the treasurer was, didn’t know who the finance minister was…   
 
JASON FALINSKI, LIBERAL MEMBER FOR MACKELLAR 2016 – 2022: He's in an incredibly difficult position where he doesn't want to throw the previous prime minister under a bus.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Four Corners spoke to Liberal party insiders about whether Peter Dutton has the right stuff to lead them back into government.  
 
WARREN ENTSCH, LNP MEMBER FOR LEICHHARDT: When we first talked about him coming into the role that he is now, everybody's saying he is going to drive him to the far right, the ultra-far right. I call bullshit on that. 
 
TONY ABBOTT, PRIME MINISTER 2013 – 2015: He has character, conviction, courage, energy, and judgement. And if the luck goes his way, he could very easily be our prime minister.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: We also spoke to his critics about why his 20 year record in the parliament shows he’s not the right man for job.   
 
TERRY O’GORMAN, VICE-PRESIDENT, QUEENSLAND COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES: In relation to law-and-order politics, in relation to the narrow-minded police view of the world, unfortunately, Mr Dutton hasn't developed much at all.  
 
NYADOL NYUON, LAWYER AND HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE: So there is a good chance he might become the prime minister of this country, but many of us are not going to feel safe in a country led by Peter Dutton. I certainly will not.  
 
UPSOT INTERVIEW  
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Mr Dutton.  

PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Hi Sean, how are you?  

SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Welcome. Very well.  

PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Nice to see you.  

SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Yeah. Take a seat please.  

PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Thank you.  

SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Why have you decided to do this interview?  

PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Well, I think it's so important to be able to tell more of my story and allow Australians to see a little bit more of my background, sometimes the public only see a snapshot of you through a very quick grab in a news package or during question time. And in this role, you can show people a little bit more of the true … the full picture.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton has coveted the Liberal leadership for years … now he’s inherited a party struggling to define itself after being rejected by voters.  
 
The hard man of Liberal politics wants to win them back by proving that he’s more than a former Queensland cop turned political enforcer.  
 
The question is, will Australians buy it … or see it as a cynical political makeover?  
 
TITLE CARD: DEFINING DUTTON  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: The Coalition’s leadership team is gathering for its daily strategy meeting.   
 
DAVID LITTLEPROUD, NATIONAL PARTY LEADER: By jeez, you boys are up early! What did you wet the bed?   
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Only a few months ago they were powerful senior government ministers … today they’re still getting used to the culture shock of opposition.  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Well colleagues, thank you. Last day of this sitting fortnight, er, of this sitting week, first sitting week. And I think it’s gone pretty well particularly in regard to issues I just don’t think the government’s got a plan for. Families are suffering in relation to cost of living pressures, interest rates have just gone up again. 
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: In reality, it’s been a testing time for Peter Dutton.  
 
Within weeks of becoming leader he’s had to deal with revelations that Scott Morrison had secretly been sworn into multiple ministries.   
 
Peter Dutton went on the offensive...   
 
UPSOT PRESS CONFERENCE 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Normally these sort of attacks, these individual attacks on members of parliament on the other side are normally left to the head-kickers within the Labor Party but the Prime Minister has rolled his sleeves up on this and he sees political advantage…   
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: A day later he shifted his position.   
 
RADIO UPSOT 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Scott’s apologised rightly ... because what he did clearly was the wrong thing.  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: I think probably the macabre attraction of politics is you just don’t know, what's gonna be thrown up at you each day. It's an unfortunate circumstance, but I think that the value of leadership and I think the strength of character is demonstrated in these events that come along every day and the way in which I've responded to it, I think has been appropriate. I think it's been measured. It's frustrating. But you deal with those events and there'll be more.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: One of Peter Dutton’s first big leadership tests was on the issue that’s split the Coalition for years… climate change.   
 
Under Peter Dutton the Opposition voted against a 43 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030.   
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Is it time to end the climate wars?  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: What the Liberal Party stands accused of is not continuation of climate wars, it's the ability to poorly market what we've achieved and what we've invested in. The projects that you see today, the battery, the investments into solar, the investments into renewable energy, the investments into hydro, all happened under a Liberal Government over the course of the last nine years.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: The voters rejected the former government's target of 26 to 28% reduction by 2030. Don't you need to go further than that?  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: I'm sure climate was an element for some people, particularly in inner city seats, but in many other seats, there were other issues that were at play. The thought that we lost the election because of one issue, of course, it just doesn't make any sense. The target that we took the '22 election was up to 28%. It'll be higher than 28%. There's no doubt about that.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: This week Peter Dutton’s test is whether to back the Government's proposed national anti-corruption commission.   
 
Bridget Archer is one of the surviving moderate voices in the Liberal party room after the election. Last year she crossed the floor to support a federal ICAC ... defying the party line.   
 
BRIDGET ARCHER, LIBERAL MEMBER FOR BASS: People talk to me about this all of the time, and they don't necessarily couch it in terms of we need a federal ICAC or we need an institution that's going to deal with integrity. They just talk about it in terms of trust. And they talk about it in terms of lack of trust in political leaders, lack of trust in public officials. And I think that's a real problem. There has to be a willingness to be open to these things and to examine the way forward with an open mind, and be prepared to do something different because if you just do the same thing, you'll get the same result. 
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL LIBERAL LEADER: Well, I've said very clearly from day one that I support an integrity commission. I don't have any tolerance for corruption whatsoever, and I've indicated publicly and privately to the prime minister that we will support to a sensible integrity commission. I don't want a show trial. I don't want people's lives destroyed.   
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Do you believe that you need something tougher than what you were planning to offer as a member of the former government?  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: I think the two issues that we had as a former government with the Integrity Commission, one about public trials and that's the show trial element, which is still problematic and the government concedes that point. And secondly, I think the other difficulty that we had was some of the breadth, and I think that's being addressed by the government as well. I think they're fairly pragmatic in their approach and as I say, we're working constructively with the government. They'll have a bill shortly and I suspect we'll be in a position to support that.  
 
BRIDGET ARCHER, LIBERAL MEMBER FOR BASS: it should be abundantly clear from the seats that we lost and the candidates that were elected on platforms of integrity and climate and the treatment of women. I think the signposts are pretty clear about some of the things that you ought to be turning your mind to.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: And are you confident that Peter Dutton is the man to do that?  
 
BRIDGET ARCHER, LIBERAL MEMBER FOR BASS: Well, I am certainly prepared to give him the opportunity to do it.  
 
UPSOT NEWSREADRER: The state’s youngest candidate is 18 year old Liberal Peter Dutton… 
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton cut his political baby teeth in 1989, when as a fresh-faced Young Liberal he put his hand up to run in the Queensland election.  
 
The state was still scandalised by the Fitzgerald inquiry into corruption that had flourished under Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s National Party government … which was facing almost certain electoral wipe out.  
 
UPSOT ARCHIVE 
JOH BJELKE PETERSEN, FORMER QUEENSLAND PREMIER: I have decided to resign as Premier and resign from parliament, effective immediate... I’m going to be free.  
 
PETER DUTTON: I see myself as young, probably not as much as older people do. But I mean a good mixture between young and old particularly within parliament seeing that a lot of issues do affect the young, I think is essential. A lot of the older politicians perhaps are stuck in their way, young blood has to come through and hopefully this will start the ball rolling.   
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: What motivated you to get into politics? Because you were pretty young.  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Look, I think a couple of things. I mean, the end of the Bjelke-Petersen government was sort splashed all over the pages with the Fitzgerald inquiry in the late eighties. I was sort of fascinated by that period. But I've gotta say at a younger age, there was a lot of talk around the kitchen table. Not much love for Paul Keating in my household, high interest rates and high unemployment, etcetera was often discussed. And it was a difficult time for the building industry in which my father worked at the time. So there was a lot of discussion about that. So I think in hindsight, that's probably where the seeds were planted.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton barely made a dent in the Labor stronghold … attracting just 17 per cent of the primary vote … as the National Party was swept from power.  
 
UPSOT ARCHIVE 
It was a big mistake to run an 18-year-old in a seat where 50 per cent of the people are over 50.   
 
ANDREW OLLE, PRESENTER: Yeah, a bit hard isn’t it? Asking a lot I think. Boy wonder indeed! 
 
SANTO SANTORO, LIBERAL SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND 2002 – 2007: It taught him a lot about campaigning, about the rigours and the challenges and the pain of hard campaigns, but it also gave him profile. It also told people in the Liberal Party, and equally important in the community, that he was serious about politics.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton’s fall-back was the Queensland police.  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: I think as a younger kid, my aim was to become a police officer. I think I was never interested in sort a nine to five bank job where I'd be sitting in an office shuffling papers. I mean, that working life never really appealed to me.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Like the Queensland Nationals, the reputation of the post-Fitzgerald police force also lay in shreds.  
 
TERRY O’GORMAN, VICE-PRESIDENT, QUEENSLAND COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES: The time that Peter Dutton was involved, the Queensland Police was starting to slightly change.  There were a significant number of police who fought hard against the Fitzgerald inquiry findings, that a significant number of police did lie, did verbal, did fabricate evidence. So, it was into that scenario that Peter Dutton became a police officer and served most of his policing career.  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: I remember being called the new breed when I came out of the academy, that we were the post Fitzgerald new breed. So we were treated with suspicion because integrity was a big part of that reform. So, I mean, if that culture had appealed to me, then I wouldn't have been going in at a time when it was being turned in the complete opposite direction.   
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton became a detective in the drug squad and the sex offenders’ squad. He’d also been splitting his time working in the Dutton family business developing childcare centres.  After nine years he quit the force.  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: I left the police because we just opened a third childcare centre. It just became too much to handle because I was working in covert surveillance area. So we were travelling away and out of Brisbane and it made it hard for me, obviously impossible for me to be in the business at that point. And also because I'd harboured the desire to go into politics. And I believed that if I wanted to do that, I needed to be able to campaign full time.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: The opportunity arose for Liberal party preselection in the Queensland federal seat of Dickson. 
 
Conservative powerbroker Santo Santoro was a key backer.  
 
SANTO SANTORO, LIBERAL SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND 2002 – 2007: By then, Peter's record in the community was a very strong and impeccable image and presence. He had been a successful policeman, detective. And what people judged about Peter was that this was a guy who knew the problems that existed in the community. He had seen the bad stuff. He had dealt with the bad stuff. And he had life experience.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton was no sure thing in Dickson. A Labor heavyweight, then shadow minister Cheryl Kernot, was defending her seat.  
 
CHERYL KERNOT, LABOR MEMBER FOR DICKSON 1998 – 2001: Yeah, he sort of came out of nowhere. He wasn't visible in the electorate prior to that. But the first time I really saw him in person, I was having a little small press conference outside a post office agency that was under threat of closing, way back then. And this... I was halfway, I just started really, actually, and this van screeched up, and this person that I knew to be now, Peter Dutton, jumped out, joined in, started making comments during the press conference, and arguing. And oh, that's how it started and that's how it continued. And I think something of that continues today.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: The Liberals threw everything at the fight.  
 
UPSOT NEWS ARCHIVE 
It’s an impressive election tally … the number of federal ministers campaigning in Dickson hitting double figures. The Liberals are becoming increasingly hopeful of their candidate’s chances of toppling Cheryl Kernot.   
 
PETER COSTELLO, FORMER DEPUTY LEADER OF THE LIBERAL PARTY: He’s doing pretty well, isn’t he? He's doing very well. Yeah. 
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton played hard on immigration … a burning issue after the September 11 attacks on the United States and the Tampa affair. Mailouts accused Labor of being “soft on illegal immigrants” who were violent.  
 
CHERYL KERNOT, LABOR MEMBER FOR DICKSON 1998 – 2001: The wall-to-wall coverage of ‘illegal’ immigrants, even though Dickson had practically no ethnic diversity and really was not under threat, it was something that cut through. And I understand that people were a lot more worried about where this was going to lead, but it was definitely exploited. 
 
UPSOT  
NICK MINCHIN, FORMER LIBERAL SENATOR: Peter Dutton in that seat, the Liberal candidate’s fought a terrific fight and taken that seat from Labor, it’s really a terrible night they’ve lost a senior shadow minister. 
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton – the candidate who came out of nowhere - took Dickson with a six per cent swing.  
 
UPSOT ARCHIVE 
REPORTER: Mr Dutton isn’t it?  
PETER DUTTON: That’s right.   
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton’s first speech left no-one in doubt about his convictions.  
 
PETER DUTTON, MEMBER FOR DICKSON: Thank you Mr. Speaker  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: It was a glimpse into his political future … as the rookie MP took aim at some key targets.  
 
UPSOT 
PETER DUTTON, MEMBER FOR DICKSON: Mr. Speaker, The silent majority, the forgotten people – or the aspirational voter of our generation, as some like to term them – are fed up with bodies like the Civil Liberties Council and the Refugee Action Collective, and certainly the dictatorship of the trade union movement.   
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: What did that make you think?  
 
TERRY O’GORMAN, VICE-PRESIDENT, QUEENSLAND COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES:: Well, it made me think that here is a police officer who's now entered Parliament, who still carries the narrow-minded police worldview and indeed a narrow-minded minority police worldview into politics. Now, you expect and hope that people, the longer that they're in Parliament, will change, will mature, will develop. Well, in relation to law-and-order politics, in relation to the narrow-minded police view of the world, unfortunately, Mr Dutton hasn't developed much at all.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: So, what is different if anything, between the Peter Dutton of today and the policeman of just over 20 years ago?  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Look, I think some of the harder edges come off as you get older. I think as you mature and see things from different perspectives than just one, I think sometimes too and in that job where you're dealing with victims of crime each day and where you're dealing with offenders who have committed those offences against individuals in particular and particularly children, I think that becomes your world. And once you leave it, there's obviously greater exposure to the other 90, 95% of the public who are very good people.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Cameron Herpich worked with Peter Dutton in the police force and has known him for over 30 years. 

 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: What are your impressions of how he is regarded as a public figure now, as somebody who knows him?  
 
CAMERON HERPICH: Look, I purposely don't listen to what other people say. And the reason is, because the people that they try and make Peter out to be is not the person I know. And no one's going to change my view about Peter.He's a man of his word. I believe he's honourable. I've never once doubted his honesty or his integrity. And it takes a fair bit of strength not to comment on people who've got a negative view of Peter, because my view is that they don't know the real Peter Dutton.  
 
WARREN ENTSCH, LNP MEMBER FOR LEICHHARDT: Well, when you have a look at all of the satire, the satirists, if you like, the cartoonists, they basically present, project him as an undertaker. and I just dismay... he's got no control over how the cartoonists and the satirists see him. And I think they've had a lot to do with this influence and the way it is.  
 
UPSOT MAD AS HELL  
SHAUN MICALLEF: Brion Pegmatite, Chief War Boy to Peter Dutton [APPLAUSE] you must be delighted that Peter is finally leader of the Liberal party.  
 
BRION PEGMATITE: Oh what a day! What a lovely day!  
 
SHAUN MICAELLF: But he has changed his whole approach hasn’t he? He’s vowed to show his softer side.  
 
BRION PEGMATITE: These are just simple things. Smiling, listening to music, holding flower—   
 
TREVOR EVANS, LNP MEMBER FOR BRISBANE 2016 – 2022: I think Peter's rise to the leadership has been dominated by his time in portfolios like home affairs and immigration. And by all objective standards, he's done a very credible and competent job in administering those portfolios. But I think it has given rise to this one-dimensional caricature that many of his political opponents like to portray him as, and I think to an extent that's permeated in some of the public's consciousness. 
 
NYADOL NYUON, LAWYER AND HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE:  To me the relevant question is how has Peter Dutton conducted himself publicly? How has he used power publicly over his 20 years record?  His rhetoric around immigration, around issues of race, around issues of inclusion? it's a constant trend of somebody who is incapable, truly incapable, of imagining how a diverse country, as modern Australia, operates. And I think that's always going to be dangerous, because he is just not equipped for modern Australia.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: What is your vision for Australia? What kind of Australia would you like to see?  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Well, the first thing is to keep our country safe and as people are realising, we are living in a very uncertain time, not just because of what's happening in Europe, but I think for our generation, the actions of China and the South China sea and the direction that China has taken by President Xi will define the coming decades. I think that's the reality. So, the first thing is to make sure that we have strong leadership and that we have the right policies that will keep us safe as a country.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton became immigration minister in 2014 during a dark chapter in Australia’s refugee history. Almost two thousand asylum seekers were indefinitely detained in camps on the islands of Manus and Nauru.  
 
DR KERRYN PHELPS, INDEPENDENT MEMBER FOR WENTWORTH 2018 – 2019: Now, many of these people had been there for many years, since 2013, with no hope of resettlement, there was no resettlement plan. So while people had been processed and acknowledged as refugees, there was no plan for where they were to go next. So that was the first problem, what to do about these people. Then the urgent problem was what was happening about the medical crisis. Now, the doctors and the psychologists and the social workers were telling us that there was a mental health catastrophe happening, particularly among the children.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: In 2018, the issue of access to medical treatment for asylum seekers in offshore detention was dividing the country. Then independent MP Kerryn Phelps co-sponsored a bill, known as Medevac, to change how applications for medical assistance in Australia were assessed.  
 
DR KERRYN PHELPS, INDEPENDENT MEMBER FOR WENTWORTH 2018 – 2019:. What Medevac sought to do was to remove the sole discretion of the minister to make medical decisions on who got to be transferred if they couldn't be treated on Manus Island and Nauru.  So what we sought to do then was to say, "This needs to be a medical decision. Let's take it out of the hands of the minister and the bureaucrats." And the minister still retained the discretion to stop that transfer if there was a national security reason for that.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton railed against Medevac … accusing some asylum seekers of faking rape claims to get to Australia.   
 
UPSOT SKY NEWS 
PETER DUTTON: Some people are trying it on. Let’s be serious about this. There are people that claimed that they’ve been raped and come to Australia to seek an abortion because they couldn’t get an abortion in Nauru. They arrived in Australia and then decided they were not going to have an abortion. They have the baby here. Then the moment they step off the plane their lawyers lodge papers in the federal court which injuncts us from sending them back.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Do you regret saying that?  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: I don't. I mean that's what was happening and that's exactly the facts. Now, if I say something that is factually incorrect, I'm happy for people to point that out and I'll apologise. If I've said something that is inconvenient for people to hear or they don't want to believe it's true, then that's a different scenario and I can't apologise for that. The fact is that people were making false claims. That's the established facts and the difficulty is that it made it hard for those people who were making legitimate claims.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: A refugee activist, Shane Bazzi, later shared an article about the comments, with a tweet, “Peter Dutton is a rape apologist.” Dutton sued Bazzi for defamation.   
 
SHANE BAZZI, REFUGEE ADVOCATE: When I first found out, my thoughts were, how was I going to fight this? What would happen if I couldn't afford to defend myself? What would happen if I lost? Would I be bankrupt? You know, this is an incredibly powerful man. The power imbalance is huge. I've received hate mail, harassment. I've got hundreds of racist and homophobic messages online from far-right people. There was one specific incidence where a white supremacist was harassing me for a number of months. I feared for my safety and my family safety.   
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: You have parliamentary privilege. Why do you need to seek recourse in the courts?  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Look, I mean, my wife and children have received death threats online. I receive all sorts of abuse. And in regard to myself, I'm happy to accept some of that because that's the robust nature of politics, but the same laws should apply online as they do in the real world. And so there is a red line and to call somebody a rape apologist, particularly given how strongly I feel about the protection of women and children, that was unacceptable. I mean, call me all sorts of things and I've got a pretty thick skin, but I thought that was unacceptable.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton ultimately lost the case but had plans to take it to the High Court. Last week the case settled. Dutton withdrew his High Court application and Bazzi agreed not to pursue costs.   
 
SHANE BAZZI, REFUGEE ADVOCATE: It's had a tremendous toll on my mental health. I have depression, anxiety, PTSD. There's been days where it's been difficult to get out of bed. I have been suicidal. I've wanted to end my life. It's been an incredibly difficult and stressful time it's been sorry . . . I’m really sorry. 
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: In 2018 Peter Dutton’s actions affected an entire community.   
 
NYADOL NYUON, LAWYER AND HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE: I think Peter Dutton changed my life, and not in a good way.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Nyadol Nyuon arrived in Australia aged 17 with her family, as refugees fleeing war-torn Sudan.   
 
NYADOL NYUON, LAWYER AND HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE:  I went to year 11, finished year 12, went and did a bachelor degree, got to Melbourne Uni, and then actually got my dream job. And I got admitted into legal profession in 2016. I think it was 10th of May 2016. And I practised as a commercial lawyer at a wonderful, wonderful firm. And then, of course, it was 2018. I think the Victorian election, and Peter Dutton leads the charge about African gangs. And it became so hard to have the luxury of, a mind capable of just going into a law firm and being a lawyer. And I thought, at some point we have to say something back at this.   
 
UPSOT 2GB RADIO 
PETER DUTTON: People are scared to go out to restaurants of a night-time because they're followed home by these gangs, home invasions and cars are stolen, and we just need to call it for what it is, of course it’s African gang violence, it’s not the whole community, there are many good people in the community…   
 
TERRY O’GORMAN, VICE PRESIDENT, QLD COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES: He was not a member for Melbourne. He was not even a Federal member for Victoria. He was a federal member for a suburban seat of Brisbane. He was the Home Affairs Minister. And yet you saw the same narrow-minded, intolerant police attitude of trying to, in effect, beat the law and order drum to try to make law and order politics work to his advantage during the slow news season for that summer. It told me that the leopard had not changed its spots. He still remains the leopard.   
 
NYADOL NYUON, LAWYER AND HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE: You couldn't go to a shop, as a person who looked like me, without feeling visible and different. And then you began to see how it seeps into the life of the people that were immediate to you, besides the racist abuse you got. But it was people like my brothers being asked whether the car they were standing next to was the one they've stolen, because they were now seen as African gangs. Or my own mother coming back from a shopping centre and saying, had been called a black dog. So what for Peter Dutton was a political strategy, it was, to many of us, more than that.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Nyadol Nyuon questions Peter Dutton’s suitability as a political leader.  
 
NYADOL NYUON, LAWYER AND HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE: That, to me, for a multicultural society, that record speaks for itself. So there is a good chance he might become the prime minister of this country, but many of us are not going to feel safe in a country led by Peter Dutton. I certainly will not.  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Well, I could line up 10 people to that one to say that they have the complete opposite view. I've never met her. She's never asked me a question about what it is that I would do to keep our country safe. I was the defence minister. I was the home affairs minister. I've stopped terrorist attacks from taking place in our country. I've put record resourcing into all of our intelligence and defence agencies to keep us safe. I don't know about political affiliations and other motivations that people have to make statements. But I think if you look objectively at my record and what I stand for, I think it's a statement that frankly just has no foundational justification at all.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Abul Rizvi was a senior executive in the federal immigration department for 16 years, including two as deputy secretary. He has a damning assessment of Peter Dutton’s tenure as immigration minister.  
 
ABUL RIZVI, SENIOR EXECUTIVE, DEPT OF IMMIGRATION 1991 – 2007: Under Peter Dutton, the number of undocumented people living in the country increased.  Under Peter Dutton, legal migration was reduced. Under Peter Dutton, backlogs and processing times blew out. Under Peter Dutton, legal migration declined. Under Peter Dutton, employer-sponsored visas, which are critically important to the efficiency of any modern economy, became clogged up, bureaucratic, and slow. I think that's a pretty poor report card. On the raw statistics, Mr Dutton was undoubtedly the worst immigration minister we've ever had.  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Well I mean, he's an habitual critic of the coalition government.  I mean, I can get you a former secretary or deputy secretary of the department that would tell you the exact opposite of that. I was very clear in the direction that I wanted to take the department that resulted in a record number of people arriving through the humanitarian programs, the Yazidi women, the uplift of people from Kabul. Many other examples I can point to where we had great efficiency and I'm incredibly proud of the work that we did as a country to bring people here of good character, to deport those of bad character and to add to what I think is an amazing migrant story of our country.   
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Despite the public persona formed by Peter Dutton’s immigration days, his supporters point to one episode that challenges that perception.   
 
WARREN ENTSCH, LNP MEMBER FOR LEICHHARDT: I noticed when I know when we first talked about him coming into the role that he is now, everybody's saying he is going to drive him to the far right, the ultra-far right. I call bullshit on that, quite frankly. Nothing could be further from the truth. And I think same-sex marriage is a classic example of how Peter gets the balance right.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: When the parliament was deadlocked over marriage equality legislation … Peter Dutton is credited by many colleagues with finding a pragmatic way through the impasse.  
 
TREVOR EVANS, LNP MEMBER FOR BRISBANE 2016 – 2022: My very firm view is that marriage equality was only achieved in 2017 in Australia because of the productive role that Peter Dutton played. That might surprise people.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Former Peter Dutton staffer Trevor Evans went on to become Queensland’s first openly gay MP … and led the “yes” campaign in that state.  
 
TREVOR EVANS, LNP MEMBER FOR BRISBANE 2016 – 2022: Certainly the prime minister of the day, Malcolm Turnbull, would see marriage equality as one of his great achievements in office. Indeed it was. But Peter Dutton's evolving views on marriage equality, and the very firm conclusion he clearly drew, that it was time for this issue to be resolved, clearly was sufficient in convincing a significant number of people inside of the party room that indeed it was time to get that reform done, irrespective of their personal views.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton advocated for a postal survey of Australians to resolve the issue, despite personally opposing same sex marriage for years.   
 
WARREN ENTSCH, LNP MEMBER FOR LEICHHARDT: Not only did he actually enable the process by putting that up and getting it through and not having to push it through the Senate, but he reflected the views of his constituency. And he didn't excuse himself from the chamber as many did and go outside and abstain. He wasn't one of the four or five that sat on the no side. He actually voted yes for it.   
 
DR KERRYN PHELPS, MEMBER FOR WENTWORTH 2018 – 2019: I don't recall Peter Dutton having a particular role in promoting the cause of marriage equality. And if you ask anyone in the LGBTQI community about the impact of that postal survey process on their lives and their wellbeing, it was very damaging. 
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: What do you think his motivation, his key motivation for doing what he did was?  
 
WARREN ENTSCH, LNP MEMBER FOR LEICHHARDT: I think he believed it was the right thing to do. My conversation to Pete, "Entschy, we got to deal with this. We got to get it off the agenda. We got to get it out of the road. We just got to deal with the darn thing, give people an opportunity to have a say and let's move on. There's other things that we have to deal with." And that was his motivation. And to me that says all about him.  
 
JASON FALINSKI, LIBERAL MEMBER FOR MACKELLAR 2016 – 2022: I think that what that said to me is, and I'd make this point to everyone, which is, it's not where people start, it's where they're going. And I think that what Peter Dutton has demonstrated over his time in parliament, or certainly on this planet at least, is that he's incredibly capable of growth and of evolving as a human being into a better person.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton has taken the leadership at a time of deep reflection for the Liberals. At this year’s parliamentary mid-winter ball, the presence of teal independents was a reminder of how they spoiled the party in some of its formerly heartland seats. Many women turned their backs on the Liberal Party at the last election.   
 
BRIDGET ARCHER, LIBERAL MEMBER FOR BASS: There are more women here in the parliament, but on our side, we've got a lot of work to do in terms of encouraging women to get involved and for women to see that it is a welcoming environment for them to be involved in.  I think that looking from the outside, women would say, "Why would I want to be involved in politics at all?" To be honest. And I'd probably struggle to tell them it was a great career path as well, but it should be. And we won't have the views of women adequately represented until they have a place in here, and so I think that the party does need to turn its mind to that.  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: I've demonstrated through the inclusion of 10 women in our shadow cabinet, 17 in the broader ministry that we have a very significant place for women, an equal place for women in our ministry, in the party. I want more candidates at the next election who are women, young women. Women who have been in all walks of life to be a part of our Liberal Party offering at the next election. I think it's a very important part of who we are as a party, and I commit myself to making sure that we do more.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: How do you plan to win back female voters, especially those who might have abandoned the Liberal Party for the so-called teal independents?  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: I want to make sure that we've got the right policies that appeal in terms of aged care, childcare. And there would be other policies that particularly around participation.  I want to make sure that we have a policy suite, which speaks directly to women. That we value their engagement. That we want to make it easier to get the balance right between family and work.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: It’s mid-morning at a community sports centre in the Dickson electorate.  The annual seniors’ expo organised by Peter Dutton has helped him hold this marginal seat for over 20 years.   
 
UPSOT 
WOMAN: I just think you’re so wonderful.    

PETER DUTTON: Thank you. Thank you.   

WOMAN: Can we get a selfie?   

PETER DUTTON: Yes, of course.   

WOMAN: Can you do it?   

PETER DUTTON: Yes I can do it. Or Jordan might do it.    

JORDAN: 3,2,1…   

WOMAN: Get a nice one. Is it a nice one? Thank you.   
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Part of Peter Dutton’s appeal here is his story of being a self-made man.   
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: It was because of the work of my mum and dad to support that. And I want kids to be able to buy their first house at 19 or 20 if they've worked hard. That is an increasingly difficult dream for a lot of Australians.    
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton has built his own wealth in real estate.   
 
In the past 30 years he’s wholly or partly owned and sold at least 21 properties in Queensland… including childcare and shopping centres… and a $6 million home in a part of the Gold Coast known as “millionaires row”. He currently owns … a $3 million Brisbane luxury apartment… and a cattle farm.   
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: you are a very wealthy individual. You don't talk about that much.  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Well, first point, I think that's overstated.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Why?  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER: Well, because I think people make all sorts of assumptions about assets. You've, don't take into account the mortgages that you might have. I mean, so people make those assumptions, but I did work hard and I bought my first house at 19 or 20 or something like that. And I was able to invest in shares and renovate houses.   
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Peter Dutton says he wants to help create the same opportunities for others.   
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION LEADER:   To make sure that we have an economic environment where young kids who come from poorer backgrounds can go on to a tertiary education. I was the first person to receive a tertiary education in our family and I'm proud of that. I want to make sure that we have a country where people have choice about their education, about their work opportunities. And that's I think the approach that I want to display before the next election.   
 
UPSOT 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Do you think he’d make a good prime minister?   

WOMAN: Well that would be a big no from me. I just don’t think he’s a people person, actually. I would prefer to see … to me he just doesn’t seem genuine.   

WOMAN: I like what he’s been trying to do to protect our borders and help protect the country. 

MAN: I think it’s too early to tell. Five years ago he was far too tough and unbending. But Scomo seems to have let the side down, I don’t know why. I don’t know if he’d make a good prime minister or not. 
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: The Coalition is way behind the government in the polls, and Peter Dutton’s personal approval rating is low.   
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: Early opinion polls have him at, some people are calling him ‘Mr 17 per cent’. I mean, how long will the party give him to prove himself?  
 
TONY ABBOTT, PRIME MINISTER 2013 – 2015: At least three years.  So look, I don't think anyone should pay very much attention to the opinion polls at this early stage. Politicians need character, conviction and courage. Successful politicians also need energy and luck. Now I think Peter has character courage and conviction in abundance.  Let's see whether he has got the luck.  
 
SEAN NICHOLLS, REPORTER: As he presents himself as the alternative prime minister, Peter Dutton is hoping his old public persona won’t overshadow the new.  
 
UPSOT 
PETER DUTTON: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for being here. I hope that you enjoy the day… Thank you so much.  
 
PETER DUTTON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION. LEADER: I think people can look at me, look at my record, look at what I've done in my life. And they can make a judgement on whether they think I'm a suitable candidate to lead this party or our country. And I believe very strongly that I have the attributes and the skills to be able to fulfil that. And I intend to demonstrate it through our policy and through my conduct and through my offering to the people by the time of the next election.