Peter Dutton has vowed to lead a Liberal Party that will not be “Labor lite”, aiming to win back government by appealing to suburban voters’ aspirations and blaming Labor’s climate policies for power price rises.
After winning the Liberal leadership unopposed at a party room meeting on Monday, Dutton attempted to soften his image by conceding he “made a mistake” by boycotting the apology to the Stolen Generations.
Dutton and Sussan Ley, elected unopposed as deputy Liberal leader, willtake the reins of a much-depleted Liberal-National Coalition, likely to hold just 58 or 59 seats in the House of Representatives.
The Nationals also determined their leadership on Monday, with Queensland MP David Littleproud successfully ousting Barnaby Joyce as leader and NSW senator Perin Davey to serve as his deputy.
Since the Morrison government’s defeat at the 21 May election, Dutton, the leader of the conservative faction, has argued the party needs to “come together”, promising to lead a broad church that is Liberal rather than just moderate or conservative.
In his first press conference as leader, Dutton described suburban voters as the “forgotten people” and promise to reconnect with small business people.
Asked about the need to win places like Kooyong, North Sydney, and Wentworth, Dutton signalled he would also aim to win back those blue ribbon seats in metro areas.
“To win the next election we’re not going to abandon any seat,” he replied.
Ley told reporters the Liberals were “listening” and “talking” to women to win back their support, after they in large part drove the party’s defeat in metro seats to ‘teal’ independents.
“We know that we didn’t receive the support of all women at the last election, and my message to the women of Australia is we hear you.”
Dutton said the Liberals would aim to “take proper care of those Australians who short term or long-term can’t take care of themselves” and credited Australia’s “rich and proud Indigenous heritage and migrant story”.
Dutton claimed his “background and experience” as a Queensland policeman informed his decision to boycott the apology, explaining that he only wanted the apology given when “problems were resolved” in Indigenous communities.
On an Indigenous Voice to parliament, Dutton said he would consider Labor’s proposal but he wanted symbolism “accompanied by practical responses”.
“I want to understand how we’re going to reduce the incidence of child abuse within those communities.
“I want to understand how it is that we’re going to allow more young girls to go on to education, how we can address infant mortality, and many other indicators.”
Dutton claimed to be “a very passionate believer in making sure we have the appropriate response to the issue of our emissions reductions”.
Dutton did not directly express a view on particular targets but described Labor’s 43% cut by 2030 as a policy that would “make energy less reliable and more expensive”. “I’m very supportive of serious policy, but I want us to get the balance right.”
“By the time of the next election in 2025 we will have presented a plan to the Australian people which will clean up Labor’s inevitable mess and lay out our own vision,” he said. “We won’t be Labor lite.”
Dutton asked Australians to “look at me and form your own judgment” rather than listen to Labor premiers, such as Mark McGowan who labelled him a conservative “extremist”, accusing them of having pulled down and attacked Morrison.
Dutton is viewed as a hard-head due to controversial remarks about African gangs and Muslim Lebanese migration.
Dutton argued his track record had also included bringing Syrian and Yazidi refugees to Australia, who he said would “be wonderful Australians”.
He said that many multicultural communities are in favour of hard borders because they don’t want family members’ places in Australia “taken by somebody who’s come here illegally”.
Earlier the Liberal whip, Bert van Manen, announced the Liberal leadership result, thanking Scott Morrison “for his service and his leadership of our party over the last three and a half years”.
He also thanked outgoing deputy Josh Frydenberg, who lost the blue-ribbon seat of Kooyong, taking him out of contention for the leadership.
After leaving the party room meeting, Scott Morrison “heartily” congratulated the new leadership team, who he described as “enormously experienced”.
“They’re well-versed and deeply committed Australians both to Liberal cause and the cause of the nation,” he told reporters in Canberra. “They’ll do an outstanding job.”
Dutton served as the minister for health then immigration in the Abbott government, eventually consolidating his power in the home affairs portfolio before an unsuccessful tilt at Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership paved the way for Morrison to take over the party.
Ley is a former minister for aged care and sport. She took the environment portfolio and re-entered cabinet in May 2019 after a few years in the political wilderness over a parliamentary expenses scandal.
Earlier on Monday the leader of the Liberal moderates, Simon Birmingham, said that Dutton and Ley would provide the party “a new start”, adding that it had “lessons to learn” from its defeat.
Birmingham described Dutton as “a good man, a good guy”, arguing that his personality was “more complex … than many people would appreciate”.
