Do we like Peter Dutton?
Our score: 2 out of 10. A long recorded run of votes against marriage equality, LGBTI protections, trans rights and climate action, with only a little real good alongside it.
Dutton grew up in a Brisbane building-business family and worked with his father before joining the Queensland Police at 18. He became a detective, working in the drug and sex offender squads and the National Crime Authority. He won the seat of Dickson in 2001, beating Labor's Cheryl Kernot, and went on to hold the health, immigration, home affairs and defence portfolios. He became Liberal leader in 2022, then lost his own seat in May 2025, the first Opposition leader ever to do so.
The scandals are mostly about power and process. In 2018 leaked departmental emails reported by SBS showed he used his ministerial powers to stop two au pairs being deported, one after a request from a former police colleague. He denied any wrongdoing, saying he decided cases on their merits, and the article reports no suggestion he acted outside the rules. He also sued a refugee advocate over a six-word tweet, won $35,000 at trial, then lost on appeal, and the matter ended with a costs agreement.
On the harm test, the record is his own votes. According to They Vote For You he consistently voted for a same-sex marriage plebiscite and against same-sex marriage equality, and almost never for increasing legal protections for LGBTI people or transgender rights. In 2025, with Trump's two-sexes orders in the news, he rejected Nationals calls to copy them, saying there were no plans to change the Coalition's position. That's a lot of no votes, and a pause on one dubious new idea doesn't undo them.
Then there's what he said about migrants and Muslims. In 2024 he backed a blanket visa ban on Palestinians fleeing Gaza, saying it was about keeping the country safe, while independent MP Zali Steggall told him to stop being racist. A group of complainants later lodged a Racial Discrimination Act complaint with the Human Rights Commission, which accepted it; he denies targeting any religion and no outcome has been reported. In 2016 he called it a mistake to settle Lebanese Muslim refugees, and community leaders say they never received the apology he claims to have made.
On Indigenous Australia, he was the only Liberal frontbencher to skip the 2008 National Apology. In 2023 he said he had failed to grasp its symbolic significance, though advocates asked why it took 15 years. He then led the Liberals against the 2023 Voice referendum, and says he would still not deny the public a say on recognition.
The recent story is his fall. On election night he said he accepted full responsibility and was sorry. A Liberal review later leaked, describing a campaign micro-managed by his office, with a state director quoted saying he made himself captain, coach and ballboy. His own side kept it private, which says plenty.