A recent opinion poll gave us the surprising news that people saw Peter Dutton as decisive and a strong leader…
This is understandable because Petey is very good at making decisions. If you remember when there was all that debate about the Voice, he decided that he needed more detail and then when he got more detail he decided that it wasn’t enough detail and that he’d be campaigning for “No”… but not because he was racist. No, he just thought that the Voice shouldn’t be ensured in the Constitution and he decided that there should be a second referendum before deciding that there didn’t need to be another referendum because he decided that it wasn’t necessary to give Indigenous people a Voice because they could just get elected to Parliament like Jacinta and then they could become part of the Canberra bubble which was one of the reasons that he decided that the Voice wouldn’t be representative.
Of course there are plenty more examples of Dutton’s decisiveness.
I mean, he was decisive when he said that we’d have SMR rather than large scale nuclear before telling us that we’d have large scale nuclear. And he decisively talked about not having a 2030 emissions target before being decisively pulled back into line by his party.
He was decisive when he called for a cap on international student numbers before being decisive in having his party vote against it in Parliament.
He decisively announced that we needed to cut net immigration to “around 160,000” before decisively refusing to commit to any target because if there’s one thing that a strong leader does is refuse to make commitments or stay around to answer questions about why you’ve changed your mind. No, a strong leader will tackle the journalist head on and say something like, “You’re from the ABC, aren’t you? I can tell by the way you expect me to explain myself when it’s you who has the agenda and I don’t have any, apart from getting elected!”
And then there was the time that he decisively announced that he would oppose changes to the Stage 3 tax cuts and followed this by decisively telling people that he’d re-introduce the tax cuts for higher income earners, which he followed by refusing to commit to any tax cuts… Although this is one area where we can expect decisive leadership after the election when he announces that Labor has stifled initiative and we must give people an incentive to take on the sorts of jobs that pay $300,000 plus… ones like being government minister or being a consultant to a firm who you used to deal with when you were a minister.
And when he was a minister, he was capable of making decisive decisions about things before he had all the facts… in some cases before he had any of the facts, like when he accused Senator Hanson-Young of being paranoid for thinking that she was being followed on Nauru just because security guards were following her, or when he suggested that it was concern for a small boy that led PNG soldiers to fire shots at the asylum seekers.
Yes, we should admire a decisive, strong leader; the sort who doesn’t think about a course of action before taking it – or even after – and who doesn’t listen to any criticism. Someone who knows that they’re right, just by the very fact of being who they are!
Of course, if a Labor or Greens leader were to change their mind so much, they’d get a reputation for being weak and unable to follow through, but that would be because they lacked the decisiveness of a Liberal who changes their mind with purpose and strength. That may seem unfair but then we have to remember that while Labor have been paying back debt with their last two Budgets, it’s the out of control debt that’s now a problem and why we’re being told that we need the Liberals to get this back under control.
It’s just the way things are!
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be greatly appreciated.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
