Peter Dutton's Trumpist playbook proves he is all talk

The Opposition Leader's election campaign claims have shown voters the Liberals have nothing new to offer them, writes Dr Victoria Fielding.

OPPOSITION LEADER PETER DUTTON has spent this election campaign looking like a husk of a man, nervous, bumbling and gaffe-prone.

The electorate seems to be able to sense his fear, the fear of a politician who has nothing to offer and nothing to say. To be clear, this is not an image problem. The problem is Dutton’s Liberal Party has nothing positive to offer Australia and the policies they would implement if they won power are unpalatable.

Dutton has been wedged this election by being too much like Dutton.

Dutton’s problems have been exacerbated by U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump has shown the world the worst-case scenario when the hard-right gains power. What this has meant for Dutton is that Trump has exposed the Liberals for what they are: a movement of people who will say and do anything to get into power, and once they get there, will just serve their billionaire donors.

Coalition's resurrection hopes slump as punters dump Temu Trump

It would take a miracle of messianic proportions for Peter Dutton to defy the odds and secure victory in the forthcoming Federal Election.

Yet the Liberals’ problems run much deeper than Trump.

Despite the world looking very different in 2025 than it did 30 years ago, Dutton is still running a John Howard-era Liberal election campaign. Stuck in a strategy cul-de-sac, the Liberals have not innovated beyond their run-of-the-mill attacks on the Labor Party. These include attacks on the ALP's economic credentials, their attempts to turn people against immigrants and minorities through fear campaigns, attacks on the public service and their stubborn opposition to climate action. The Liberals also haven’t modernised their party to make it reflective of modern society; they are still a crowd of toxically masculine men in matching suits.

Cost of living pressure was always the obvious anxiety Dutton would exploit, just as every other Liberal leader has always claimed Labor cannot manage the economy. Dutton thought he could once again call Labor“the Bill Australia can’t afford”. Yet, voters are aware that Labor inherited an inflation crisis three years ago. Since then, Labor has competently managed the economy, bringing inflation back down to the point where interest rates have started falling and voters are benefiting from a range of cost-of-living policies, including tax cuts.

Voters, particularly young people, recognise that the Liberals have never been better economic managers than Labor. This idea has been driven home by Trump’s tariff fiasco, showing Trump-like Dutton is not a superior economic manager, but rather an economic risk.

Dutton has also tried to recycle the old-school Liberal strategy of public servant bashing, promising to cut public servants and to stop public service staff working from home. Where once the Liberals got great mileage out of claiming public servants were lazy and a waste, again, the public is not having the wool pulled over their eyes on this.

People increasingly recognise the public service serves their needs and positively contributes to their standard of living. Voters also recognise that whenever the Liberals sack public servants, they replace them with expensive labour-hire staff from big consultancy firms.

As previously reported on IA:

'This, claimed Dutton, would save $24 billion over four years. However, he neglected to mention that fewer public servants mean more private sector consultancy contracts, which cost $20.8 billion – or the equivalent of 56,000 employees – in just one year of the last Coalition Government.'

This practice not only costs the government more, but also opens up the possibility of corruption, like the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) tax scandal. So unpopular was Dutton’s attack on working from home, seen as yet another Liberal attack on working women, Dutton cancelled it mid-election, contributing to the public’s fears that he is not on their side, and will say one thing and do another.

Turning people against minorities, including immigrants, has also been a staple of Liberal campaigning forever. Dutton’s opposition to the Voice Referendum successfully used a fear campaign based on lies. This no doubt buoyed his hopes that he could rinse and repeat in this Federal Election, promising to slash immigration, blaming rising house prices on migrants and cutting international student numbers.

These strong-man culture-warring anti-minority tactics, however, have done nothing to soften Dutton’s image amongst moderate Liberal voters — the groups he needs to win back if he is to win Teal seats to form government. Indeed, at least four of the Teal seats voted "Yes" for the Voice. The "No" campaign cemented Dutton’s image as a Trumpist, divisive, polarising figure who uses hate as a political weapon. Since Trump showed the world the result of this strategy, there is nothing Dutton can now do to undo this damage.

And that brings us to the issue of climate change — the key issue that led to the rise of the Teals in the first place. Just as they have for the past 20 years, Dutton’s Liberals are going into another election without a plan to tackle climate change. After all the climate-driven catastrophes Australia has experienced – bushfires and floods – and after all the work the country has done to embrace renewables and transition our economy, the Liberals are still getting in the way of climate action.

85 reasons why Peter Dutton is unfit to be PM ... and counting

Independent Australia's catalogue of major reasons Peter Dutton should never be prime minister now numbers 85. Michelle Pini updates the list of cons.

Dutton’s climate obstruction includes his unpopular nuclear policy. The public hates this policy because it is unnecessary, slow and expensive and also because it is clearly designed to undermine renewables and in turn prop up fossil fuels. After dropping nuclear, Dutton has even resorted to advocating for the gas industry again. As if he wants to further prove he is yesterday’s man, he is pictured with a fossil-fuel hose in his hand as often as he can be, promoting fuel excise cuts, which no one cares about. Since post-Trump chaos, fuel prices are dropping anyway.

All Dutton has done during this election is prove once and for all that he has nothing positive to offer Australians.

When he and his tired-old-going-through-the-motions Liberals promised to get Australia "Back On Track" — echoing Trump’s "Make America Great Again" slogan, Australians heard loud and clear that the Liberals do not want to serve a modern Australia. The Coalition just want to go back to a world where they win elections using simple anti-Labor attacks and divisive fear campaigns.

Then the Coalition will do what it has always done — use its power to serve its fossil fuel billionaire mates.