Peter Dutton Is An Alarming Politician
Peter Dutton is that boy who keeps crying ‘wolf!’ The alarmist leader of the opposition has been busy warning about Russian planes possibly landing in Indonesia. Penny Wong, the Foreign Minister, tells us that ‘Temu Trump’ just made up stuff purporting to come from the Indonesian President. The ex-cop from Queensland wants Aussie citizens to be worried and alarmed, so that he can beat his chest. Apparently, a teenager from his home state went on the Internet to look up how to blow Pete up, according to the Queensland Police. Not sure if this has been independently verified or old mates in the force are helping spread the alarmist message? Peter Dutton is an alarming politician.
Divisive Dutton No Friend To Multiculturalism
Spreading fear and anxiety is an old political stratagem. Especially if your looks mean that you would have never been the lead singer in a boy band. No, playing the strongman is Pete’s MO. Putting the wind up old ladies and making babies cry in fright. Warning about out of control stateless criminal refugees rampaging across the nation. Disseminating disinformation about dark skinned people getting too much autonomy. Condemning Aborigines to Voicelessness. Making racism great again downunder. Putting the ‘X’ in xenophobia. Peter Dutton has put his stamp on Australian politics via his divisive behaviour.
“OPPOSITION LEADER Peter Dutton‘s rhetoric and policies incite hate and division, having an adverse effect on social cohesion in Australia — referring to the ability of a society to maintain harmony, trust and cooperation among diverse groups.”
The Scare Tactics Of Temu Trump Downunder
We know from recent history that effective opposition leaders do not make great Prime Ministers. Tony Abbott, the former PM, is the perfect example of this and his own party had to pull the rug out from under him before he wrecked the country. Abbott was famous for his attempts to Americanise Australia in the worst excesses of privatisation and neoliberalism. Fortunately, most of them failed. Trump’s America is much more up the Coalition’s street than Labor’s. The LNP tried to kill off Medicare and socialised medicine for 30+ years. The desperate desire to put profits before people is a right wing thing. Peter Dutton has taken the Liberal Party further Right than it has ever been. Robert Menzies would not recognise the party today.
The Alarming Peter Dutton
Australia is an island of whiteness in a sea of potential threats from yellow and dark skinned folk. This kind of paranoia lives deep in the blood of many Anglo Aussies. Peter Dutton exploits the old fears whenever any opportunity arises and even when they don’t. China is the throbbing ‘red light’ danger in this playbook from the neocon canon. How dare these non-Anglos rise in economic power from poverty. How dare they equip themselves with a modern military and navy. China is viewed from the perspective of a fearful middle power. White folk see them through the lens of ‘what they have to lose.’ It is fashionable to damn the rise of China in the Anglosphere right now. The Trump regime is hell bent on avenging America on China. The blame game is entering a frenzy, with finger pointing, name calling, perhaps, preceding actual aggression. Of course, local racist thugs in Oz have long been venting their brutality on innocent Chinese Australians. Bashing a foreigner, an Asian, has never really lost its appeal among these sons of the Southern Cross. When Dutton directs his ire at them it is like a kind of tacit approval goes out into the streets. Peter Dutton is an alarming politician.
Israel’s Champion
Peter Dutton is an alarming politician. The latest right wing stratagem is to call all those who protest the genocide in Gaza by the IDF as antisemitic. 50, 000 dead children, women and men, not soldiers, are neither here nor there for champions of Israel like Peter Dutton. It is, as if, Arabs don’t really count as human beings. Destroying an entire city on the pretext of wiping out the terrorist group Hamas is somehow OK. Blowing up hospitals and claiming that the terrorists are hiding there is fine by the Anglosphere, it seems. Starving the remaining Palestinian refugees by not letting any emergency aid in is OK in this new world order. Millions of desperate people have been made homeless by the most vile and inhuman acts ever witnessed in recent times. Peter Dutton has repeatedly attacked Australians that protest the genocide. His junket tour to Israel, paid for by the Netanyahu regime, has had Dutton bullying the timid federal government to impose draconian new laws against antisemitism and protest in Australia. This is not antisemitism it is anti-Zionism – the imperialistic actions of Israel over Palestinians. Human rights abuses by Israel have been identified by the International Court of Justice repeatedly during the war in Gaza.
The Culture Wars
Culture wars are big on the Right, as they have identified vote winning strategies on this score. Gendered politics promoting a macho divide have been mined and continue to be so by Pete and the LNP Coalition. Channel 7 championing Bruce Lehrmann and Ben Roberts Smith – the rapist and the killer of unarmed Afghanis. Fossil fuels over renewables. The nuclear power option. Anti-woke campaigns against diversity and DEI have been popular until Trump 2.0 may have sullied this fertile ground through extreme manifestations of the Trump reversal in America. Attacking elitism and inner city lefties remain LNP themes to win regional and outer suburban seats. Dutton and the Coalition bank on the shallowness of their voter targets by blaming Labor for the cost of living crisis, when in reality it was 10 years of LNP federal governments that have brought us here. Economic policies take many years to effect things in the real world. The hypocrisy of politicians like Angus Taylor is breath taking really. Voter disengagement and dumbness are traits encouraged by right wing parties – much easy to manipulate folk on this basis via scapegoating the blame to others. The Coalition has groomed Australians by telling them that it is fine to be greedy and selfish. To be primarily concerned with your own wealth and to victim blame those disadvantaged. American Republicans have long emphasised that poor people have only themselves to blame. This is the main difference between those on the Right from those on the Left.
Not Fit To Govern
The Coalition were the arch instigators of Robodebt, which was an ideological attack on poorer Australians. For 6 years 500, 000 Australians were wrongly accused of owing large amounts of money to Centrelink. This was done on the belief that vast numbers of people were welfare cheats and that dole bludgers were rorting the social security system. This was proved to be completely false. Some innocent vulnerable Australians killed themselves in despair over this. A Royal Commission found 6 senior public servants and LNP politicians deserved further investigation to see if criminal charges were warranted. A settled class action cost us, the tax payers, $1.8 billion against the government. The total cost of Robodebt would be much higher than this now, it would be in the many billions. These judicial enquiries via the NACC are still going on. This is the legacy of the last LNP Coalition federal government.
Peter Dutton is an alarming politician. Like his hero, Donald Trump, he will never let the truth or factuality get in the way of spooking the electorate for any advantage. The reality is right now that many Australians are concerned about the uncertain nature of the world, thanks to Trump. Keeping calm and not getting too wound up is advisable. They say that this election is a choice between timid or terrible. Anthony Albanese may not be the most heroic PM Australia has ever had but he is not crying ‘wolf’ every 5 minutes either. In a real crisis chest thumping is not useful, it is, rather, empty grandstanding when smarts are required. Perhaps, Peter Dutton should take to the stage if he is naturally predisposed to making melodrama. Give the politics away mate! Do it for Australia.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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