AU$225,000 campaign to dislodge Peter Dutton from Queensland seat
Anthony Smith is blunt in his explanation for why he wants his local MP Peter Dutton out of the Parliament.
“I don’t like racism,” he told the Guardian. “I think some of the things he has said have crossed that line. The things he’s said about refugees, one of the most vulnerable groups in our society.” Mr Smith, a 45-year-old engineer from Queensland, says he has never been a member of a political party or “even been to a rally”, but he’s part of a hardcore group of activists plotting the political downfall of the Liberal party’s rightwing standard bearer.
Yesterday the left-leaning activist group GetUp will formally launch its campaign to dislodge Dutton from the seat of Dickson after amassing a AU$225,000 (FJ$347,827.79) warchest from its members.
It might seem a far-fetched prospect given Mr Dutton’s status. Often touted as a future prime minister, the former Queensland cop’s role overseeing Australia’s strict border control policies have made him a source of hatred for the left but a galvanising figure on the right-flank of the Liberal party. But Mr Dutton’s position in Dickson is not as secure as his influence within the party.
The home affairs minister suffered a 5.12% swing against him at the last election, leaving him with a slim 1.6% margin. A recent redistribution improved his position slightly, but GetUp predict that it would only take another 1500 voters to change their mind for him to lose the seat
The real question though is whether GetUp can hit the right note in its campaign to unseat a man that its national director Paul Oosting believes is “more powerful than the Prime Minister”. Mr Dutton’s status as an emblem of loathing for the left in Australia has been long cultivated. From his decision to boycott the historic 2007 apology to the stolen generations, through to his claims while overseeing Australia’s indefinite offshore detention of refugees that white South African farmers were “persecuted” and could be given fast-track Australian visas, there is no shortage of material for GetUp to motivate their base.
But a senior Liberal National party source in Queensland told the Guardian that Mr Dickson was backed by “an issues-driven community” and that GetUp would need to find out what was making voters in Brisbane’s north-west tick. “His neck of the woods has been quite conservative, but there are a lot of new people who have moved in there who are not as conservative, and don’t care so much about those conservative touchstones,” the source said.