The opposition leader had no access to sensitive information when he invested in several banks shortly before a massive bailout was flagged to save them from the global financial crisis, according to his office.
Labor has raised questions about a number of investments disclosed by Peter Dutton between October 2008 and March 2009, including on the day before the $4bn package was announced by the Rudd government.
In particular, Labor figures focused on disclosures made on 23 January 2009, which show Dutton bought shares in Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac Bank. All three companies reported record lows on this day.
On 24 January, the Rudd government announced the Australian Business Investment Partnership. This stimulus package was never introduced as it was opposed in parliament, but did move markets in the short term.
Labor frontbencher Murray Watt highlighted the purchases, first reported by news.com.au, during a doorstop at Parliament House.
“I think there are some very serious questions for Peter Dutton to answer about his personal share trading,” Watt said on Tuesday.
“What access did he have to sensitive information that wasn’t available to the rest of Australian public?”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Dutton said he “had no access to any sensitive information on these matters, nor was he privy to government briefing on the global financial crisis”.
“If the Albanese government’s dirt unit spent more time being focused on fixing Labor’s cost-of-living crisis rather than obsessing about Peter Dutton, Australians might be better off.”
“All updates to Dutton’s register of interests were made at the appropriate time.”
Dutton held senior roles in the shadow ministry around the period his investments were made, including the shadow minister for finance position in the lead-up to the investments under scrutiny.
Labor’s attempt to highlight Dutton’s personal investments led to a fiery clash with Liberal senators in Senate estimates hearings on Tuesday, including a threat for Labor politicians to repeat their statements outside the chamber – and without parliamentary privilege, which protects them from defamation proceedings.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, asked officials from the Australian Public Service Commission for details on how its workers deal with commercially sensitive information.
“For example, if a public servant was to know, hypothetically, that the banks were to be bailed out during the GFC, and sought to buy up shares in all those major banks on the eve of that announcement, I imagine there would be serious consequences,” Gallagher said.
This line of questioning prompted a threat from the shadow finance minister, Jane Hume.
“Want to say that outside of parliamentary privilege, minister?” said Hume, who later called the Labor’s tactics “grubby”.
Liberal senator James McGrath, who was also in the Senate hearing, said “all you’ve got is mud”, before accusing Gallagher of seeking to “defame the leader of the opposition”.
“Go on Sky News, go on the ABC even, say it there … you’re throwing mud at Peter Dutton, that’s all you’ve got,” McGrath said.
Gallagher responded by asking whether it was a coincidence that the shares were declared a day before the major bank bailout was announced.
The deputy leader of the opposition, Sussan Ley, said she was confident Dutton had done nothing wrong and accused Labor of “powering-up” its “dirt unit” before the election was called.
“Is this really where this government, that is supposed to be bringing this country back from the brink of a cost-of-living crisis – are they really focusing on issues like this?” Ley said in a press conference on the Gold Coast.
