19 February 2025

ALAN HAYES

 

WITH the federal election fast approaching, and Peter Dutton in support of the Australian Retailers Association’s application to the Fair Work Commission to cut penalty rates, backed by major retailers including Coles, Woolworths, Kmart and Costco, could mean thousands of workers on the Central Coast could lose crucial penalty rates and workplace entitlement.

 

The Coalition’s record in office is out there for people to see. Peter Dutton voted eight times in Parliament in favour of cutting penalty rates – it would seem Dutton and his cohorts want to bring in cuts to penalty rates for workers and allow free lunches for bosses.

 

ACTU Assistant Secretary, Joseph Mitchell said “Australians deserve to know whose side their politicians are on. Are they on the side of big business profiteers seeking to cut working peoples’ wages, or on the side of cost-of-living relief measures that have got wages moving again?”

 

But it could get even worse for household budgets, the national budget and the broader economy - Dutton wants workers to pay for their bosses’ lunch. The Liberals’ taxpayer-funded long lunches policy would smash the budget.

 

Peter Dutton said, “A Dutton Coalition Government will cut red tape for small businesses by introducing a capped tax deduction of $20,000 for business-related meal and entertainment expenses.”

 

Not surprisingly, like most other policies that Dutton announces, there are no costings. Yet Treasury costings show tax breaks for food and entertainment would cost the budget $1.6 billion per year. This becomes more than $10 billion a year if all eligible businesses claimed what they’d be entitled to.

 

According to Treasury advice, there are significant risks the policy would cost much more.

 

If take up and average claims are higher than expected or if businesses rort the system by illegitimately claiming food and entertainment that is personal, not for business, the cost of the policy would increase substantially.

 

So, after three years, the best the Coalition can come up with is billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidise long lunches and entertainment. And this is what Brendan Small – Opposition candidate for Dobell – and Lucy Wicks – Opposition candidate for Robertson – want you to vote for: the party of rorts and waste.

 

A threat to social cohesion

 

When it comes to politicising antisemitism, there are plenty of guilty parties. But Dutton has seemingly gotten up every day since October 7, 2023 and worked hard to exploit the issue to attack Labor, smear Palestinians and undermine basic rights.

 

In December, Dutton complained that Victorian Labor MP Josh Burns, who is Jewish, hadn’t spoken out enough on antisemitism, despite a long list of speeches by Burns on the issue.

 

Burns attended a joint media conference with Coalition Senator James Paterson, where Paterson was to read out a joint statement because Burns had lost his voice. Dutton intervened to prevent Paterson from doing so.

 

Dutton then mocked Burns, saying “Josh lost his voice long before the weekend”.

 

But this type of behaviour wasn’t a one-off – Dutton complained that a Labor MP wasn’t opposing antisemitism enough while simultaneously trying to prevent them from saying anything about antisemitism. He ordered his manager of parliamentary business to take the extraordinary step of trying to also gag Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, who is the grandson of Holocaust survivors and the great-grandson of Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.

 

No-one has gone remotely near the extraordinary lengths of Dutton to weaponise accusations of antisemitism as a mechanism for attacking opponents, fostering social division and shutting down criticism of Israel.

 

But it goes even further! Dutton's comments, particularly about refugees, asylum seekers and African-Australian communities have had the effect of alienating these groups. When people feel targeted by the rhetoric of powerful figures, it can lead to a sense of exclusion and resentment.

 

This marginalisation weakens their ties to the broader society, creating an “us versus them” dynamic. It can also make minority groups feel less valued, respected and supported, which undermines their sense of belonging and trust in societal institutions.

 

This kind of language inflames prejudice and fosters divisions between communities, making it harder for people from different backgrounds to engage positively with one another.

 

Dutton's divisive style is contributing to a more polarised political environment. By framing issues such as immigration, crime and national security in alarmist or confrontational terms, he is reinforcing a binary approach to politics, where complex social issues are reduced to simplistic ‘good versus bad’ narrative. Over time, this will weaken the fabric of a multicultural society by making open hostility or prejudice more acceptable - leading to civil unrest or increased public demonstrations, which, in turn, creates a more fragmented society. The resulting atmosphere is one where conflict between different social groups becomes more pronounced and the sense of unity and common purpose is eroded.

 

The hollow announcements

 

Peter Dutton says he’ll do more if he becomes Prime Minister, but, true to form, says he’ll announce more of the Coalition's election policies in the coming weeks – "Let's Get Australia Back on Track," is his catch-cry. But that track, as evidenced, changes with the wind, except for his alternative energy policy: "ramp up" gas production and look to nuclear.

 

Ramping up gas production is great for those foreign-owned mining giants extracting the gas – their profits will continue to soar, since they do not pay royalties or taxes on a resource owned by Australians.

 

Aussies are expected to pay world-parity prices for the gas they own! Domestic gas prices will skyrocket as will the cost of electricity from gas-powered generation plants. Yet Dutton said he will deliver "lower, simpler, fairer" taxes – but no taxes or royalties on mining gas.

 

Dutton also said he would defund the Environmental Defenders Office, a non-government organisation that provides legal support on climate change and environmental issues. Communities will be left at the mercy of the Liberal’s mining mates, unable to challenge the probity of mining projects.

 

But it’s Dutton’s desire to go nuclear that should be of concern – just like all of his policies, the beating of the nuclear drum deserves ridicule, but at least they are all memorable.

 

There is no doubt, however, that Peter Dutton is still trying to ‘distract’ Australians from his ‘lack of policy agenda’ – nuclear power is still the forerunner.

 

Amidst all the Dutton banter, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has doubled down on his call that Peter Dutton is not only “dangerous” but the “most divisive leader in Australia’s modern history”.

 

Minister for International Development and the Pacific of Australia, Pat Conroy, asked Dutton: “Tell us what your policies are around the nuclear power option?"

 

There was no definitive answer from Dutton! The chorus line from ‘The Sidestep’ song, sung by Charles Durning, in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, could almost be expected as Peter Dutton continued to avoid the issue of funding:

 

Ooh, I love to dance a little sidestep

Now they see me, now they don't, I've come and gone and

Ooh, I love to sweep around the wide step

Cut a little swathe and lead the people on.

 

Peter Dutton needs to come clean about his ‘penury-driven’ nuclear policy. But he won’t! Why? Because Australians can’t afford to finance a scheme that would see an unaffordable and expediential rise in electricity costs – electricity would become a luxury, not a necessity.

 

And while Dutton continues to espouse a nuclear Australia, he thumps home his plan to cut the public service and spending by appointing Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as the Shadow Minister for Government Efficiency (SMOGE?)- describing her new job as to cut “wasteful spending”.

 

While Dutton isn’t explicitly referencing as its inspiration the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency in the US (DOGE), he’s elevating the mission within his ranks just as the Trump administration takes over. Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has long urged the Coalition to emulate the MAGA policy agenda.

 

Yet these plans are at odds with the scale of bureaucracy and consultants needed to support Dutton’s nuclear power proposal, the Minister for Public Service says.

 

A “huge” new bureaucracy, numbering thousands of extra public servant positions, would need to be created by the Coalition to establish and support an Australian nuclear power industry, according to the minister for public service, Katy Gallagher.

 

There is little doubt that the scale of the Coalition’s nuclear proposal is a far cry from Australia’s experience with its sole reactor, the 20-megawatt nuclear medical reactor at Lucas Heights in southern Sydney.

 

The Coalition’s current nuclear costings use a very low estimate for maintenance and fuel costs. The CSIRO estimates that these costs would range from about $40 to $60 per megawatt hour, considering fuel, maintenance, waste management, and other operating expenses. Dutton’s costings currently assume only $30 per megawatt hour – with no explanation.

 

Using the CSIRO’s more realistic and evidence-based estimates reveals that the true cost of this nuclear scheme is at least $5 billion higher than promised and could reach up to $20 billion by 2050. These high maintenance costs would persist throughout the reactor’s lifespan, leaving Australia with a high-cost nuclear fleet for decades.

 

Dutton’s nuclear fantasy would produce 1.6 billion tonnes of climate pollution by 2050, over a billion tonnes more than Australia’s current plan.

 

While we may not immediately feel the financial impact, we will pay the price with a future characterised by more frequent and severe unnatural disasters, lower economic prosperity, reduced agricultural yields, and increasingly unbearable outdoor working conditions.

 

Australians cannot afford a future where climate change remains unchecked. Australians cannot afford a Trumpian-style leader like Peter Dutton!

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