Letter

In response to Federal Election: A different type of beauty contest

Clues to a Dutton Government

Jack Waterford, while fairly critical of Peter Dutton, omits the latest clue to the nature of a Dutton-led Australia. Jacinta Price, full of confidence, announced to a campaign rally on 12 April that the Coalition would “Make Australia Great Again”.

Dutton decided to go for broke at the ensuing press conference and gave Price free rein. She doubled down, saying ideologically-driven Labor was ruining the country, she would do an “audit” of government waste and “reset” the curriculum. Price openly aligns with far-right group Advance, which is committed to Australia being “centred once more on the founding freedoms of its mainstream values”.

One assumes “founding freedoms” do not refer to Indigenous rights. Those who use the word “ideology” as a pejorative seem unaware of their own ideological drive. Price may believe she is a conservative, but her temperament and vocabulary all speak to a much more radical, Trumpian hostility and divisiveness.

In the event of a Coalition win, she would work within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

— Fiona Colin from Melbourne