Peter Dutton has flicked the switch back to culture wars in the final week of the election campaign. He may be almost lucky that hisclaim that Indigenous welcome to country ceremonies are “overdone”will be the main headline on Monday morning, rather than the fact he couldn’t accurately name the price of a dozen eggs.
Just hours after boasting of his plan to blitz teal seats in a last-ditch effort to scrape into government, the Liberal leader downplayed the need for the ceremonies, and repeated his political mentor John Howard’s take on the “black armband” view of history.
How that will go over in the affluent, more socially progressive teal seats of Mackellar, Goldstein and Kooyong – let alone Bennelong or the other suburban seats he will land in this week – is yet to be seen.
But it may help in some suburban fringe or regional seats where One Nation or Trumpet of Patriots might be on the march. Liberal sources have whispered that an unexpected wave of support for Pauline Hanson in a handful of key seats could have big effects on some critical regions, and the overall result, and those voters being reminded of the Coalition’s role in sinking the Indigenous voice referendum may be enough to tip a few races Dutton’s way.
“We need to stop the teaching of some of the curriculum that says that our children should be ashamed of being Australian, effectively,” Dutton said in the Channel Seven debate on Sunday, when asked about Australia Day.
“We have made mistakes in our history, no question about that, but we cannot live with that shame for ever. We need to accept that mistakes were made and need to make sure we celebrate our national day.”
Days after Melbourne’s Anzac Day dawn service wasinterrupted by far-right extremists heckling an Indigenous welcome to country, both Dutton and Albanese strongly criticised those actions; but the Liberal leader said while he backed welcome to country ceremonies at major events, he thought they were being used too much.
Dutton’s latest round of red meat for the conservative base came only a few hours afterhe had referred to the ABC and Guardian Australia as “the hate media”, because he said the two outlets had written that the Liberal campaign was not on track to win. It’s unclear which other outlets he also deems “hate media”, considering The Australian’s Newspoll again put Labor ahead 52-48 on a two-party basis just moments before the debate began; a similar margin toother published pollsby the Nine newspapers, the Australian Financial Review and more.
The Liberal senator James Paterson attempted to claim after the debate, when asked about Dutton’s comments on the media, that the leader gave a “tongue in cheek” comment, and that the hate claim was made “in jest”. It’s debatable whether that argument holds any water, considering Dutton’shistoryof makingsimilar comments.
It’s not the first time in the campaign Dutton has leaned into culture wars. In the first week of the debate he wasconcerned about a so-called “woke agenda” in schoolsand would not rule out ABC cuts if elected. But the comments on Indigenous affairs will overshadow a few more revealing moments from the final debate – in a cost of living election, 65% of people on Seven’s panel of undecided voters said Albanese was better equipped to deal with that issue.
Further, when shown a carton of 12 eggs, the leaders gave different answers about what they thought it cost. Dutton said $4.20; Albanese $7. Seven put the price at above $8.
To be fair, Albanese had the advantage of answering second, after the host, Mark Riley, had joked that Dutton’s answer was more accurate for a half-dozen. It wasn’t quite Albanese forgetting the interest rate on day one of the 2022 campaign, or Scott Morrison flat-outdeclining to name the price of bread or petrol. But it won’t exactly endear Dutton to voters as the champion of cost-of-living relief.
Dutton’s pivotal moment as opposition leader was killing the voice referendum. No referendum has ever succeeded in Australia without bipartisan support, so his simple decision to oppose it might have been enough to sink it regardless of how he campaigned. But as support for the referendum tanked, and with it the approval ratings and support for Albanese’s Labor, Dutton’s stocks rose.
The referendum went down 60-40. Reaching into the drawer of greatest hits in a bid to drag some of that support to his Liberals, when all published polls are pointing to a slim Labor minority or even majority government, isn’t surprising.
But once again,Indigenous Australiansand welcome to country ceremonies are being used as a political football.