Hard copy Will Dutton's admiration for Trump backfire?

Peter Dutton, the man who would be prime minister of Australia, is one of the hard men of the country’s politics.

- By Anne Davies SYDNEY

So, with a federal election looming on 3 May, it was not a huge step for him to start road-testing some of the language and policies of Donald Trump.

The burly former Queensland policeman courted controversy more than once during spells as immigration, home affairs and defence minister, none more so than when he wrongly claimed in 2018 that Melbourne residents were too terrified to go out to dinner due to African gangs in the streets.

Since becoming leader of the opposition after the last election in 2022, Dutton has taken the once-broad church of the Liberal party - the larger of the two parties that make up the conservative Coalition - further to the right. Dutton has added red meat: campaigning on migration and crime, big cuts to the “wasteful” public service, an end to “indoctrination” of schoolchildren, and attacks on renewable power in favour of his landmark election promise to add nuclear power to Australia’s energy mix.

In late 2024 it looked as though the strategy was working, particularly following Dutton’s success in campaigning for a no vote in the 2023 referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament.