There’s always some strange moments in an election campaign but one of the strangest is the recent announcement by Peter Dutton that he’d move into Kirribilli rather than The Lodge if he were to become the Prime Minister.
Of course, Murcoch Minion, James Morrow, defends this decision because being in Canberra, Dutton would be “divorced from the real life of the country”. I guess that living in a mansion on Sydney Harbour will keep Dutton in touch with the everyday millionaire and make it easy to hold fundraisers without the need to fly out of a flooded electorate.
Just for the record, Kirribilli was never the “second residence for the PM”. It was first used by John Howard because he didn’t want to uproot his family when his kids were still at school. And, while other Liberal PMs have used a similar excuse for living there, none have expressed the desire to live there because of the great harbour views which is the reason Mr Dutton gave for wanting to work from his potential new home.
So we have a potential PM telling us that he doesn’t need to be living in his electorate and he doesn’t need to be living in Canberra. He’s going to be living in Sydney because, well, he’d rather be there because he really doesn’t like Canberra all that much or, we can infer, his own electorate. Even if he’d suggested that he wanted to be closer to Melbourne, it might have been a potential vote winner in Victoria.
Whatever, the election is still too close to call according to everyone who knows something about these things. At these stage, when nobody has voted, I guess it’s hard to argue with that… in much the same way that at the start of a football match both sides are on zero, so it’s still close until the game actually starts.
The Coalition seem to think that they’re on a winner by talking about how the government is causing inflation with all their spending and they’ll put an end to it by getting rid of 41,000 public servants. This is one of the moves that’s very popular with lots of people until they have some need to deal with the public service and can’t understand why nobody’s answering the phone or processing their passport.
And when Peter Dutton tells us that there isn’t a real need for Canberra public servants to be involved in education because they don’t run schools, it has a nasty echo of Trump abolishing the US Federal Department of Education. I’m not sure most Australians are looking to Donald as the way to Make Australia Great Again…
As for the “woke agenda”, I’m still at a loss to understand what it is. Are teachers meant to start embracing Jordan Peterson and tell everyone that they need to make their bed, replacing school rules by his 12 rules for life? Does it mean that we ban LGTBI students from class until they embrace Andrew Tate? Is NAIDOC Week to be replaced by A Salute To The Great British Empire?
Of course, when they say they intend to get inflation back under control nobody in the media ever seems to point out that headline inflation is within the RBA’s target figure, so exactly what figure would be getting it “back on track”? Are they planning deflation where prices start dropping?
Labor, on the other hand, had the Budget that they weren’t planning to have where they announced the tax cuts that were a “cruel hoax”, which is a strange description. I can think of all sorts of things to call them such as pathetic or not enough or too late, but why a hoax, I wondered. Apparently, as someone explained, they’re a cruel hoax because if the Coalition get in, they’ll repeal them.
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Dutton does not want to live in The Lodge.
We can grant him that wish.
A lot of unemployed people would love a job and be willing to move to wherever the job takes them. Many have to move at their own expense.
If someone goes for a job interview and is asked “Are you willing to move?” and answer “No”, they will not be given the job.
Dutton has a huge property portfolio, so he could live in any of those. Refusing the Lodge is an insult to the homeless and those struggling to pay rent. Dutton would get The Lodge rent free. Refusing to live there is an insult to many people and shows he has no connection with ordinary people.
For those not in Australia, ‘The Lodge’ is the Prime Ministerial residence in Canberra, like 10 Downing Street, or The Casa Blanca.
As for “Woke indoctrination in schools” —
Education is about giving people the means to think, to see many different sides and to make good decisions.
This anti-woke movement from Trump to Dutton, etc is about making people think in only one way — their way.
I’m not sure that Dutton would be welcome in Canberra as he asserts that the 41,000 public servants he will sack are all coming from there : he won’t hurt the regions will he ?
Dutton and his crew of misfits are a disorganised, unprepared rabble not fit for office.
Peter Duckwit-Futton, a huge skinful of dried dung, is Un-Australian, vain and swollen with pustular pride. What allows this nematode to imagine he can bleed taxpayers for a top view of his choosing, the lazy imcompetent, ignorant arsehole! Is this rambling rubbish to impress the big V. A. Gina? Imagine the two on the verandah, Blob and Slob.
Only two things stand in Boofhead’s way…first he has to retain his own seat,1.7% margin (doubtful), and two,the shit for brains coalition has to win a majority of seats,(18 needed, with no losses).Extremely unlikely.
So,he’s pissing into the wind about where he’d live.He’s more likely to get a butler gig at Petunia Rinehart’s palace in Singapore…I’m sure the offer of a uniform would be enticing.What a repulsive arsehole.
There is also what could be the primary reason he does not want to live in Canberra – assuming of course the unthinkable actually happens and he gets elected PM……….after he goes out and sacks 41k public servants in Canberra he would not want to be seen dead anywhere near this place. He could never go out in public for fear of being publicly lynched.
P Duddy has said that if he is elected he will move to a early 19th Century crypt in St Thomas’s Cemetery because it reminds him of his earlier life as a living corpse before the Blue Liberal Fairy turned him into real boy.
There have been strange rumblings and groans emanating from the graveyard since he made the announcement. It also appears that some people have seen bodies rise from the ground, remove their coffins and drag them from the site.
Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor today declined an invitation from the National Press Club to debate Treasurer,Jim Chalmers prior to the election. He seemed to be saying that he would debate Chalmers (at another venue) but not the Press Club.
So is he suggesting an easy ride from SKY ?
In answer to Terry Mills, Angus Taylor wouldn’t dare debate Jim Chalmers. Chalmers knows his facts and numbers and also is a master at just the right ‘put down.’
@ GL:
Herewith some ghoul news from US Congress filibuster land:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-160380239
Prince Timmy of the Liberals talk to…gasp…an ordinary oik? Yeah, sure he is. Wanker. I sure hope he has a job lined up when the voters tell him where to go in no uncertain terms.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/03/tim-wilson-campaign-ad-tradie-liberal-party-frazer-hurst-questions-ntwnfb
Sorry, that man in the Wilson ad is just too clean to be a working tradesman. Perhaps a few tattoos and a days’ stubble would have provided artistic verisimilitude