Editorial
Dutton’s safe harbour

Peter Dutton shrugged as he answered. You could see the political calculation playing across his face. Underneath the studio lights, he looked like a smooth and blinking Chupa Chup. “The question,” he said, “is what we can do about it as a population of 27 million people.”

In that moment, Dutton was still making up his mind: would he pretend he didn’t believe in climate change, or would he argue instead that there was no point in fighting it?

He decided on both. Dutton said floods were part of the “history” of the country. He wouldn’t speculate on whether they were getting worse. He’s not a scientist. Most people don’t have an opinion, he said.

“I’ll let scientists and others pass that judgement … I don’t know, David, because I’m not a scientist and I can’t tell you if the temperature has risen in Thargomindah as a result of climate change or that the water levels are up in Thargomindah as a result of climate change.

“I think the honest answer for most people is that they don’t know. There are scientists who can provide advice. What I need to do as the alternate prime minister in this country is to put forward our plan about how we’re going to help families.”

The next morning, he clarified what he meant. He does “believe in climate change”. That is not the question, however. The question is whether he sees political value in pretending the science is out or immaterial. Clearly he does. His political future is more important to him than the country’s.

Straight climate denial is too fringe even for the Liberal Party. The last prime minister to actually doubt the reality of climate change was Tony Abbott, who thought it was crap. The new line is to subtly tell voters you won’t get caught up doing much about it.

Dutton goes a step further: it’s not his problem; it’s for scientists to worry about. He’s just a simple bloke worried about household energy bills. The same man who claims to understand nuclear fission doesn’t understand air temperature.

This is the safe harbour of ignorance. It’s Dutton’s most concrete promise, the right not to think too hard. It is “if you don’t know, vote no”. It’s leadership as blind eye, the turned back of a man who walked out on history.

At the heart of this is consequence and its lack. In the first week of the campaign, Dutton talked about speeding in an interview with Kyle and Jackie O. Most of the attention was given to his comments about living in Kirribilli House, but another statement was more revealing.

Dutton suggested drivers should be allowed to go faster because cars are more sophisticated than they were when speed limits were set. He said he thought it made sense, but experts disagreed. It was said partly in jest, but it ended with a telling thought: “I used to be a policeman a long time ago. You’ve got a get out of jail free card.”

This is Dutton’s world view in nine words. It is the reason he has no policies. It’s not about what you can achieve but what you can get away with. He’ll leave the rest to somebody else.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on April 19, 2025 as "Dutton’s safe harbour".

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