They are neither as leafy nor as affluent as much of the Liberal heartland, but Peter Dutton believes the outer ring-roads of Australia’s capitals provide the most direct route to power. He has been telling his MPs these once-safe Labor-voting suburbs are where the 2025 election can be won.
From the moment the Queenslander assumed control of the Liberal Party in 2022, he was intent on this suburbs-first strategy, even if it seemed historically unlikely and involved repositioning his formerly business-loyal party as the new tribune of the working class. As he told Minerals Week in September 2023:
The Liberal Party is the party of the worker. The Labor Party has become the party of the inner city elite and Greens.
