On Sunday the Coalition held its campaign launch in a conference room in western Sydney.
Peter Dutton, in his speech to three former Liberal prime ministers, his frontbench and the party faithful, said the western suburbs of Australia’s largest city were “one of the most important battlegrounds of our election”.
Attended by his family, the opposition leader commanded his supporters in a 50-minute speech that ranged from immigration policy to nuclear energy to tax to crime to Australian manufacturing.
Here’s 10 things to catch up on.
An audit into Indigenous spending
Fresh off the back of his lively joint press conference with Jacinta Nampijinpa Price on Saturday, Dutton doubled down on a “long overdue” spending audit of government-funded Indigenous programs.
Dutton said a Coalition government would put the program under a microscope to identify what was working and what was not.
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, stood up shortly before Dutton’s address, describing the Coalition’s campaign against the Indigenous voice to parliament.
The junior Coalition partner said the opposition chose to oppose the model based on a “simple principle” that it would “repeat the mistakes of the past”.
The reference was to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, or Atsic, which was abolished under the Howard government in 2005.
Classrooms should be for ‘education not indoctrination’
Dutton claimed education standards “have been in decline [and] it’s not an issue of funding”.
The opposition leader said a government he led would be committed to “ensuring that classrooms are places of education – not indoctrination”.
The Coalition has yet to outline what exactly it would change in school curriculums but Dutton added he believed “in the sanctity of parents and the role that they have in raising their children”.
A ‘significant’ defence investment is on the way
Dutton revealed that the Coalition would soon announce a “significant investment into defence”.
“We must equip our military at speed and scale,” he said. “In these uncertain times, that is just not an option.
“It’s a necessary investment in our security, in deterring aggression and in maintaining peace.”
No super or inheritance taxes
Dutton vowed to repeal a tax on superannuation balances over $3m. He also said there would be no tax placed on inheritances and no changes to capital gains tax discounts or negative gearing – policies the Greens are eager to push Labor on.
“A Coalition government will always deliver lower, simpler and fairer taxes,” he said.
The crowd wooed and cheered.
Dutton will be the ‘strong’ prime minister
There’s no denying the opposition leader has always leaned into his “strongman” image but he explicitly said so on Sunday.
“I’m ready to serve Australians as the strong prime minister and steady hand our country needs,” he said.
Dutton had said “weak” in reference to Labor six times during the speech.
‘Stopping the boats’ is back
You’d be forgiven for thinking its 2013 all over again but stopping the boats rated a mention in Dutton’s speech.
Dutton said his “focus and strong leadership will make your neighbourhood safer from crime”, pointing to bikie gangs, people smugglers, non-citizen criminals and repeat offenders.
“There are three former prime ministers in this country who I’ve learned a lot from in stopping the boats [Howard, Morrison and Abbott]. We will stop them, I promise you.”
Three former prime ministers show support
In the front rows of the auditorium sat three former prime ministers, John Howard, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison.
Absent was, of course, Malcolm Turnbull with the two famously not friends.
The ‘so-called’ Dr Chalmers
Dutton made sure to include a few jabs at the other side and one of those was at the expense of the treasurer, Jim Chalmers.
Chalmers completed a doctorate in 2004, earning him the title of “Dr”. In criticising Labor’s tax cut, Dutton called him the “so-called” Dr Chalmers.
The original speech handed to media before the remarks did not include this barb.
The first minister for western Sydney
Dutton was also keen to talk up his interest in western Sydney, calling it one of the “most important” battlegrounds in the election.
But he also pointed out that in a Coalition government Melissa McIntosh would become Australia’s first western Sydney minister. We wonder what Melbourne’s western suburbs or Perth’s eastern suburbs think about that.
A nuclear-power vision
Dutton declared Australia would become a nuclear-powered nation if the Coalition won government.
He said the controversial plan, which is unlikely to deliver a single power plant until the late 2030s, would make electricity bills cheaper and would not result in national parks, coastlines and farmland being covered in industrial-scale solar farms and windfarms.
