Peter Dutton facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Honourable Peter Dutton MP
Dutton in 2018
Leader of the Opposition
Incumbent
Assumed office 30 May 2022
Prime Minister	Anthony Albanese
Deputy	Sussan Ley
Preceded by	Anthony Albanese
15th Leader of the Liberal Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 30 May 2022
Deputy	Sussan Ley
Preceded by	Scott Morrison
Minister for Defence
In office 30 March 2021 – 23 May 2022
Prime Minister	Scott Morrison
Deputy	Andrew Hastie
Preceded by	Linda Reynolds
Succeeded by	Richard Marles
Leader of the House
In office 30 March 2021 – 23 May 2022
Prime Minister	Scott Morrison
Preceded by	Christian Porter
Succeeded by	Tony Burke
Minister for Home Affairs
In office 20 December 2017 – 30 March 2021
Prime Minister	Malcolm Turnbull Scott Morrison
Preceded by	Jason Clare
Succeeded by	Karen Andrews
Minister for Immigration and Border Protection
In office 23 December 2014 – 21 August 2018
Prime Minister	Tony Abbott Malcolm Turnbull
Preceded by	Scott Morrison
Succeeded by	David Coleman
Minister for Health
In office 18 September 2013 – 23 December 2014
Prime Minister	Tony Abbott
Preceded by	Tanya Plibersek
Succeeded by	Sussan Ley
Minister for Sport
In office 18 September 2013 – 23 December 2014
Prime Minister	Tony Abbott
Preceded by	Don Farrell
Succeeded by	Sussan Ley
Assistant Treasurer of Australia
In office 27 January 2006 – 3 December 2007
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Mal Brough
Succeeded by	Chris Bowen
Minister for Workforce Participation
In office 26 October 2004 – 27 January 2006
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Fran Bailey
Succeeded by	Sharman Stone
Member of the Australian Parliament for Dickson
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 November 2001
Preceded by	Cheryl Kernot
Personal details
Born	Peter Craig Dutton (1970-11-18) 18 November 1970 (age 53) Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Political party	Liberal (federal) LNP (state)
Spouse	Kirilly Brumby ​ (m. 2003)​
Children	3
Education	Queensland University of Technology (BBus)
Police career
Department	Queensland Police
Allegiance	Queensland
Years of service	1990–1999
Rank	Detective Senior Constable

Peter Craig Dutton (born 18 November 1970) is an Australian politician who is the current leader of the Opposition, holding office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia since May 2022. He previously served as the minister for Defence from 2021 to 2022 and the minister for Home Affairs from 2017 to 2021. He has been a member of Parliament (MP) for the Queensland seat of Dickson since 2001 and has held ministerial portfolios in the federal governments of Howard, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison.

Dutton grew up in Brisbane. He worked as a police officer in the Queensland Police for nearly a decade upon leaving school, and later ran a construction business with his father. He joined the Liberal Party as a teenager and was elected to the House of Representatives at the 2001 election, aged 30. Following the 2004 election, he was appointed as Minister for Employment Participation. In January 2006, he was promoted to become Assistant Treasurer under Peter Costello. After the defeat of the Liberal-National Coalition at the 2007 election, he was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Health, a role he held for the next six years.

Upon the victory of the Coalition at the 2013 election, Dutton was appointed Minister for Health and Minister for Sport. He was moved to the role of Minister for Immigration and Border Protection in December 2014, where he played a key role in overseeing Operation Sovereign Borders. He was kept in that position after Malcolm Turnbull replaced Tony Abbott as Prime Minister in September 2015. In December 2017, he was also given the restored role of Minister for Home Affairs, heading a new 'super' department with broad responsibilities brought together from other existing departments.

After the defeat of Abbott, Dutton became widely seen as the leader of the conservative faction in the Liberal Party, and began to be spoken of as a potential leader. In August 2018, after a period of poor opinion polling for the Coalition, Dutton unsuccessfully challenged Turnbull for the leadership. He then was defeated by Scott Morrison in a second leadership ballot days later after Turnbull chose to resign. He was retained as Minister for Home Affairs by Morrison, later becoming Minister for Defence and Leader of the House in March 2021. He went on to succeed Morrison as party leader unopposed after the Coalition's defeat at the 2022 election, becoming leader of the opposition. He is the first Liberal leader to come from Queensland, and the first leader since Alexander Downer to represent a seat outside of New South Wales.

Early years

Dutton was born on 18 November 1970 in the northern Brisbane suburb of Boondall. He is the eldest of five children, with one brother and three sisters. His mother Ailsa Leitch worked in childcare and his father Bruce Dutton was a builder. Dutton finished high school at the Anglican St Paul's School, Bald Hills. He is the great-great-grandson of the pastoralist squatter and politician Charles Boydell Dutton. He is also a descendant of Captain Richard James Coley, who was Queensland's first Sergeant-at-Arms, who built Brisbane's first private dwelling and who gave evidence confirming the mass poisonings of Aboriginal Australians at Kilcoy in 1842.

Dutton joined the Young Liberals in 1988 aged 18. He became the policy vice-chair of the Bayside Young Liberals the following year and chair of the branch in 1990. At the 1989 Queensland state election, the 19-year-old Dutton ran unsuccessfully as the Liberal candidate against Tom Burns, a former state Labor leader, in the safe Labor seat of Lytton.

Police career

Upon leaving high school, Dutton graduated from the Queensland Police Academy in 1990. He served as a Queensland Police officer for nearly a decade, working in the drug squad in Brisbane in the early 1990s. He also worked with the National Crime Authority.

In 1999, Dutton left the Queensland Police, having achieved the rank of detective senior constable. Documentation filed in the District Court of Queensland in 2000 describes his resignation as being prompted by a loss of driving confidence resulting from an incident in August 1998. He was driving an unmarked Mazda 626 during a covert surveillance operation, before rolling his car while in pursuit of an escaped prisoner who was driving erratically. Dutton also suffered numerous physical injuries during the accident, and as a result, was hospitalised briefly and bedridden for a week. He had sought damages of $250,000 from the escaped prisoner's insurance company but dropped the claim in 2005.

Business activities

On leaving the police, Dutton completed a Bachelor of Business at the Queensland University of Technology. He and his father founded the business Dutton Holdings, which was registered in 2000; it operated under six different trading and business names. The company bought, renovated, and converted buildings into childcare centres, and in 2002 it sold three childcare centres to the now defunct ABC Learning. ABC Learning continued to pay rent of A$100,000 to Dutton Holdings. Dutton Holdings continues to trade under the name Dutton Building & Development.

Howard Government (2001–07)

Dutton with Indian finance minister P. Chidambaram at the 2006 Asian Development Bank board of governors AGM in Hyderabad

Dutton was elected to the Division of Dickson at the 2001 election, defeating Labor's Cheryl Kernot. He was elevated to the ministry after the 2004 election as Minister for Workforce Participation, a position he held until January 2006. He was then appointed Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Revenue. He successfully retained Dickson at the 2007 election, which saw the government lose office. However, his margin was reduced to just 217 votes more than Labor's Fiona McNamara.

Opposition (2007–13)

Following the 2007 election, Dutton was promoted to shadow cabinet by the new Liberal leader Brendan Nelson, as Shadow Minister for Finance, Competition Policy and Deregulation. In 2008, he chose not to be present in the chamber during the apology to the Stolen Generations, which enjoyed bipartisan support. Later, in a 2014 interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Dutton said he regretted boycotting the apology: "I underestimated the symbolic and cultural significance of it."

In September 2008, Nelson was replaced as Liberal leader by Malcolm Turnbull, who appointed Dutton as Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing. He retained that position when Tony Abbott succeeded Turnbull as leader in December 2009. In June 2010, Dutton released the Coalition's mental health policy. The Australian described it as "the most significant announcement by any political party in relation to a targeted, evidence-based investment in mental health", but not all experts agreed.

Dutton retained his seat with a positive swing at the 2010 federal election, despite an unfavourable redistribution. In the lead-up to the 2013 federal election, he announced a range of Coalition health policies, which were received favourably by industry groups. The Australian Medical Association said "the Coalition has delivered a strong package of practical, affordable health policies that would strengthen general practice", while Cancer Council Australia said that "Dutton's promise to finalise the bowel cancer screening program by 2020 would save an additional 35,000 lives over the next 40 years."

Attempted seat shift

As the 2010 election approached, it looked like Dutton would lose to the Labor candidate due to a redistribution of division boundaries that had erased his majority and made Dickson notionally Labor. To safeguard himself, Dutton sought pre-selection for the merged Liberal National Party in the safe Liberal seat of McPherson on the Gold Coast (despite not living in or near McPherson). Some constituents complained, "The abandoning of a seat by a sitting MP halfway through a parliamentary term to contest pre-selection in a seat over 100 kilometres to the south is not looked upon favourably."

Dutton lost the McPherson pre-selection to Karen Andrews, reportedly due to misgivings from former Nationals in the area. He then asked the LNP to "deliver him a seat for which he does not have to fight other preselection candidates." Liberal MP Alex Somlyay (the chief Opposition whip of the time) said that Dutton's expectation of an uncontested preselection was "unusual." When the state executive did not provide Dutton an unchallenged preselection, Dutton reluctantly returned to campaign for the seat of Dickson. In the election, he won the seat with a 5.9% swing towards him.

Cabinet Minister (2013–22)

Minister for Health

Dutton retained his seat at the 2013 election. He was appointed to the new ministry by Prime Minister Tony Abbott as Minister for Health and Minister for Sport.

As Health Minister, Dutton announced the $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund. As announced, the capital and any ongoing capital gains of the Medical Research Future Fund will be preserved in perpetuity.

Under Dutton, projected funding in the health portfolio increased in the 2014–15 Budget to $66.9 billion, an increase of 7.5 percent from $62.2 billion in 2012–13, the final full year of the Labor Government. Projected expenditure on Medicare increased over 9.5 percent from $18.5 billion in 2012–13 under Labor to a projected $20.32 billion in 2014–15 under Dutton. Funding for public hospital services increased by nearly 14 percent under Dutton in the 2014–15 Budget to a projected $15.12 billion compared to $13.28 billion in the last full year of the Labor Government in 2012–13.

In a 2015 poll by Australian Doctor magazine, based on votes from over 1,100 doctors, Dutton was voted the worst health minister in the last 35 years by 46 percent of respondents.

Minister for Immigration (2014–17)

Dutton (left) meeting with EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos in 2016.

On 23 December 2014, Dutton was sworn in as the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection after a cabinet reshuffle.

Minister for Home Affairs (2017–2021)

Dutton (second from right) announcing the creation of the new Home Affairs portfolio in July 2017.

On 20 December 2017, Dutton was appointed the Minister for Home Affairs with responsibilities of overseeing the Department of Home Affairs which was established on 20 December 2017 by Administrative Arrangement Order. The Home Affairs portfolio is a major re-arrangement of national security, law enforcement, emergency management, transport security, border control, and immigration functions.

2019 federal election

Dutton was re-elected at the 2019 federal election.

Minister for Defence (2021–22)

Dutton with Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in Washington, D.C. on 16 September 2021

In March 2021, Dutton was appointed Minister for Defence.

On 11 July 2021, Dutton announced the end of Australia's military presence in Afghanistan.

In October 2021, Dutton said Australia will back up any U.S. effort to defend Taiwan if China attacks.

Leader of the Opposition (2022–present)

The Coalition was defeated at the 2022 federal election, with Dutton retaining his seat despite a swing against him. After Scott Morrison resigned as leader of the Liberal Party, Dutton was elected unopposed as the new leader, with Sussan Ley elected as deputy.

In parliament, in December 2022, Dutton repeatedly, after multiple corrections, referred incorrectly to Sharon Claydon as "Mr Speaker".

On 1 April 2023, a by-election was held in the seat of Aston, triggered by the resignation of Liberal MP Alan Tudge. In a surprise result, the Labor candidate Mary Doyle won the election, marking the first time since 1920 that an Australian government had won a by-election from the opposition. Having said during the campaign that the result would be a "verdict on the leaders", Dutton said afterwards that he accepted responsibility for the result, but still deserved to remain Liberal leader.

In April 2023, Dutton announced that the Liberal Party would be opposing the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum. Although members of the Liberal frontbench will be forced to adopt this position, party backbenchers are free to campaign for the referendum.

Dutton's stance on the refendrum was immediately met with opposition from within the Liberal Party. On 6 April, former Liberal MP Ken Wyatt resigned from the party in protest. The following week, shadow Attorney-General Julian Leeser quit the Liberal frontbench and moved to the backbenches so he could freely campaign in favour of the referendum. The next day, Simon Birmingham, the leader of the Liberal Party in the Senate, also announced that he would not be adopting the party position.

Following a shadow cabinet reshuffle, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was appointed the shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians on 18 April 2023.

Following allegations of assault made by independent Senator Lidia Thorpe, Dutton removed Liberal Senator David Van from the Liberal party room on 15 June 2023.

Political views

Dutton is aligned with the "National Right" faction of the Liberal Party, which he leads. He has been described as a right-wing populist. Dutton is opposed to an Australian republic. In December 2018, Dutton told Sky News that for the prior seventeen years he had regarded "parliament as a disadvantage for sitting governments".

Negative gearing

Dutton opposes any changes to negative gearing which offers tax breaks to property investors, saying in May 2017 that changing it would harm the economy. He owns six properties with his wife, including a shopping centre in Townsville.

Pledge of Allegiance

In 2018, Dutton said he supports Australian school kids taking the Oath of Allegiance in schools, as is done by new Australian citizens.

Same-sex marriage

Dutton opposes same-sex marriage. In his political career, Dutton has voted "very strongly against same sex marriage"; however, he voted in favour of the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017, which legalised same-sex marriage in Australia; 65 percent of his constituency voted "Yes" in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey.

Personal life

Dutton married his first wife when he was 22 years of age; the marriage ended after a few months. His eldest child, a daughter, was born in 2002 to another partner, and split time between her parents in a shared parenting arrangement. In 2003, Dutton married his second wife, Kirilly (née Brumby), with whom he has two sons.

On 13 March 2020, Dutton announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19, becoming one of the first high-profile cases of the pandemic in Australia.

Dutton suffers from the skin condition alopecia totalis.

Dutton supports the Brisbane Broncos in the National Rugby League, but also backed the eventually successful membership bid for a second Brisbane team in the league (the Dolphins).

Electoral performance

See also

In Spanish: Peter Dutton para niños