Andfinally to #1, by managing editor Michelle Pini, whoin January built on theearlier workof columnist Belinda Jonesto remind voters, ahead of the May Federal Election, why Peter Dutton was unsuitable to lead Australia. Well done Michelle and Belinda!

*****

Michelle Piniupdates IA'scatalogue of major reasons Peter Dutton should not be prime minister begun afew months beforebyBelinda Jonesnow numbering 75.

THERE IS an inescapable and sometimes unfortunate truth:

We also firmlybelieveno self-respecting democracy deserves Peter Dutton as prime minister. And so, as he appears to model his political career on Donald Trump (who was inexplicably re-elected) and given the Coalition'srecent success in thepolls,we felt it was time to update the many reasons why Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is unfit to be Australia's next PM.

The list is a collection of dodgy deals, rorts, lies and a plethora of racism, sprinkled with a dose of good old bigotry and misogyny, here and there.

Createdin August last year, Independent Australiaintends to keep this catalogue of misdeeds, rorts and assorted Trump-like behaviour regularly updated in the lead-up to the Federal election. (Indeed, if you believe you have evidence offurther reasonswe may have missed, please let us knowhere.)

Shown chronologically from the present day, our updated and by no means exhaustive list, now numbering 75, chronicles Dutton's illustrious 23-year political career.

2025: MORE MISOGYNY &DOG-WHISTLES... PLUS AN OLDIE BUT A BADDIE

75.Dutton kicked off the year with a new policy announcement!Free lunchesfor businesses, while his state counterparts in Queenslandrejectedfree lunches for hungry school children.

74.While outwardly bemoaning cost of living pressures, Dutton with anestimated$300 million personal fortune hasopposedpublic housing initiatives, increased funding for tertiary education,HECS debtreliefandfree TAFE. He has alsoinstigated increases to theMedicare surchargeand wants to axe the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

73.At age 54and 23 years on from his entry to parliament, Dutton is stilltryingto convince ushe has a human side.

72.In the style of Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)led byElon Musk, Dutton has pledged thecreation ofa government efficiency portfolio, led byJacinta Price, known as SCOGE, which willslashthousands of government jobs.

71.Dutton's previous government addedan unnecessary $617 billion to Australia's grossdebt.

70.As Australia's domestic violence national emergency kicks off 2025withthree womenalready dead, Duttonsaysmen are fed up with being treated as ogres.

69.Dutton consistentlyvotesagainstkey reforms to workers' rights and opposesparental leave,penalty rates, and disconnect laws. He has promised to "review" (read,dismantle) existing workplace reforms.

68. (Reminder)Back in 2018,it was revealed that a family trust of which Dutton, his wife and children were beneficiariesoperated two childcare centresthat received millions in payments from the Coalition Government.

2024 NUCLEAR NONSENSE, RACISM,THUGGERY & DISMANTLING WORKPLACE REFORM

67.Pete could befoundsupping on caviar andFrench Champagneatthelavish birthday soire of billionaire mining magnate, Gina Rinehart, in WA, beforeflyingback to continue his "vision" on cost-of-living pressures.

66. Taxpayers paid $6,000 for hisentourageto accompany Dutton toGina Rinehart's birthday bash.

65.Duttonwastold to "stop being racist"in the House of Representativesby Independent MP for WarringahZali Steggallafter he calledfor ahalttoacceptingrefugees fleeing from Gaza.

64.Australian cricketerUsman KhawajaaccusedDutton of fuelling Islamophobia after a remark about "Muslim candidates".

63.Herevealedseven sites for proposed nuclear plants a "policy" Duttonreleased without any details about costs or timeframe and without community consultation.

62. Duttonlinkeda peaceful pro-Palestine protest to thePort Arthur Massacre.

61.Former Prime MinisterMalcolm TurnbulldescribedDutton as a "thug"on an episode of ABCsNemesis.

2023 MORE LIES, RACISM AND SOME CONFECTED REMORSE

60.After the Voice Referendum failed, Duttonrenegedon his promiseto have another referendum on Indigenous Constitutional recognition.

59.A peak Islamic body saidDutton'scommentson cancelling the visas of pro-Palestinian protesters were designed to inflame tensions' and were grossly irresponsible.

58.Dutton promisedasecond referendumif the Voice to Parliament Referendum failed.

57.Heappeared on ABCsKitchen Cabinet, where he claimed he'dapologised for his 2016 comments about Lebanese immigrants althoughno Lebanese community leadercan recallDutton's apology. Said apology appears to have escaped media reportage.

56.Duttoncalledfora reinstatement of the Work for the Dole scheme even though it still existed.

55.He confirmedtheLiberals would opposethe Voice To Parliament Referendum thus supporting the 'No' campaign then demanded"detail"aboutThe Voice.

54.Fifteen years after the event, Duttonapologisedfor boycotting the Apology to the Stolen Generations in February 2008.

2022 DODGY DEALS, BULLYING, INCOMPETENCE AND, OF COURSE, RACISM

53.Duttonlost hisdefamation caseagainst refugee advocate Shane Bazzi.

52.It wasreportedthat Dutton's flood fundraiser funds appeared to go toan "unregistered group".

51.Dutton was featured in Friendlyjordies videoThe Baddest MP, which featured LNP candidateRyan Shawwho withdrewfrom the election race around the same time the video was released.

50.He wascriticisedfor setting up a fundraiser for flood victims instead of providing emergency assistance.

49.The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) foundDutton hadpork-barrelledRound 3 Safer Communities Funds to marginal seats in the lead-up to the 2019 Election.

2021BULLYING, RACISM AND MISOGYNY

48.The Biloela family'sthree-year-old, Tharnicaa Murugappan, wasmedically evacuatedfrom the Christmas Island detention centre the delay in her care, due to Dutton, was justlycriticised.

47.DuttonfiledFederal Court defamation proceedings against refugee advocateShane Bazziover a tweet.

46.He thendoubleddownon his "she said, he said"remark.

45.Dutton said in a press conference referring toBrittany Higgins' rape allegation that he "wasn't provided with the 'she said, he said' detailsof the allegations".

2020 LIES AND CRUELTY

44.His High Court bid to try and stop asylum seekers from suing the Federal Government for neglectfailed.

43.Duttonlauncheda verbal attackon the Biloela family, saying,They have used every trick in the book to make sure they can stay.

2019 BULLYING, RACISM, LIES AND MEDIA RAIDS

42.Duttonmade his infamous"anchor babies" comment about the Biloela family.

41.Heappearedina car dealership promotional video the same dealership was "featured" in a tell-it-like-it-really-is video byfriendlyjordies.

40.Duttonattemptedto deport the Biloela family from detention in Melbourne, which was interrupted mid-flight by a last-minute injunctionwhen theylanded in Darwin.

39.Heprobed into the reasona two-year-old Australian-born girl from Biloela neededfourbaby teeth removed(they had rotted while in immigration detention).

38.He was quoted as sayingthat some women refugeeswere "trying it on"by usingrape claimsand hencethe need foran abortionas a ploy to get to Australia.

37.Duttonconfirmedhe allowed two suspected Rwandan killers to settle in Australia.

36.The Australian Federal Police alsoraidedABC's Sydney headquarters.

35.The Australian Federal Police (within Australia's Home Affairs portfolio at the time)raidedjournalistAnnika Smethurst'shome. The High Court later ruled theAFP warrant invalid.

34.Dutton's wife does a News Corp interview just ahead of the 2019 Federal Election todeclarethat her husband is "not a monster".

33.He accused the disabled Labor candidate for Dickson,Ali France,of using her disability as an excusefor not movingto the seat of Dickson. France was living in a wheelchair-accessible home in an adjoining electorate.Dutton later apologised for theaccusation.

32.TheAustralian Human Rights CommissionwarnedDutton that his'proposal to lower the bar for stripping people of Australian citizenship could render people stateless and would be retrospective in application in possible violation of international law or the rule of law.

2018 BULLYING AND RACISM

31.Helaunchedan attackin Question Time under Parliamentary Privilege onformer Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg,accusing him of "grooming"a young woman.

30.It wasrevealed that in 2014, Duttonhad askedBorder Force CommissionerRoman Quaedvliegto help two Queensland policemen get jobs in the new Border Force.

29.Dutton wasquoted as sayingthat Sudanese gangs are a major law and order problem' in Victoria.

28.Home Affairsawardeda $423 million contract toPaladin, whose registered address was a beach shack on Kangaroo Island.

27.Greens SenatorNick McKimcalledDutton racist.

26.Dutton wasquotedas saying, Some of the crazy lefties at the ABC, GuardianandThe Huffington Post[who] draw mean cartoons about me they don't realise how completely dead they are to me.

25.The Federal Court ordered a ten-year-old boy on Nauru at risk of suicide to be treated in Australia;Home Affairsfought the injunction.

24.Reportedly, South Africa demanded Duttonretract commentsthat suggested white farmers were being persecuted and should receive fast-tracked humanitarian visas from a civilised country..

23.Heaskedthe Home Affairs Department to look into a 'special refugee intake of white South African farmers.

22.Duttonstated unequivocally,Victorians are scared to go out because of African gang violence..

2017 DODGY DEALS AND MAJOR BIGOTRY

21.Home AffairsawardedCanstructInternational Pty Ltd a Brisbane company worth$8 at the time a contract ultimately valued at $1.6 billionafter a "financial strength assessment" was carried outon the wrong company.

20.Duttonsaid,"I voted No but Yes will win"in the same-sex marriage plebiscite.

19.Home Affairs, under his watch,entered intoa "high-risk" arrangementwithNKW Holdingsbut did not sign a formal contract until a year later. Thestruggling company was paid $82 million to feed 209 asylum seekers the equivalent of $1,400 per day.

18.Duttonclashedwith ABC journalistBarrie Cassidyover inflammatory and untrue commentshe'd made about the case of a boy on Manus Island.

17.HetoldCEOs such as QantasAlan Joycewho campaigned in favour of same-sex marriage to "stick to their knitting"and to stop using shareholder money for campaigning for same-sex marriage.

2016 DODGY DEALS, RACISMAND BULLYING

16.Duttonstoodbyhis earlier Lebanese resettlement comments.

15.He saidformer Prime MinisterMalcolm Fraser'sresettling of Lebanese refugeeswas a mistake.

14.Dutton and his wife bought a shopping centre in Townsville, which hefailed to declarein his Register of Members' Interests, finally admitting the error in 2020.

13.Dutton was reportedly 'accusedof dirty politics after suggestingthe mother deliberately burntbaby Asha'.However,no evidence was foundto support his suggestion that the injury of the Nepalese mother's babywas non-accidental.

12.He intended to textshe's a mad fucking witch'to a former minister about journalistSamantha Maidenbutaccidentally textedMaiden instead.

2015 FAVOURITISM, BULLYING AND CRUEL JOKES

11.Duttonpersonally intervenedto stop a French au pair from being deported after being lobbied by AFL boss at the time,Gillon McLachlan.

10.He wascaught on a hot micjoking about rising sea levels in Pacific nations.

9.Duttons departmentrestoreda UK man's visa even though he'd been convicted of being an accessory to murder in a gangland killing.

8.Hepersonally intervenedto stop an Italian au pair who had come to Australia to work for the family of a former QLD police officer colleague from being deported.

7.Heled callsto urge ProfessorGillian Triggsto resign as president of the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).

6.Sydney Morning HeraldreportedthatDutton had SenatorSarah Hanson-Youngspied upon during a visit to Nauru in December 2013.

2013 BULLYING AND PETTY NASTINESS

5.He tweeted: Krudds fringe looks like it's been welded on this morn. More hair spray than Dame Edna. (In 2022, Duttonlatercomplainedabout "appearance shaming" afterTanya Pliberseklikened him toLord Voldemort. He was quoted at that time saying, "I just don't think you need to be nasty and mean".

2010 MAINLY MISOGYNY

4.During Question Time, Duttonsaidto MinisterNicola Roxon,"On your broomstick, Nicola!".

3.Hetweetedthis about a female journalist: Latika must have a date after qn time? Wearing big new dangly earings[sic] and big purple flower.

2008 RIGHTEOUS RACISM

2. Duttonwalkedoutof the Apology to the Stolen Generations, saying, at the time, that he regarded it as somethingwhich was not going to deliver tangible outcomes to kids who are being raped and tortured in communities in the 21st Century.

2002DOG WHISTLING BEGINS

1.HisFirst Speechto Parliament criticised courts and civil libertarians with claims that "unacceptable crime rates" were causing older Australians to "barricade themselves" in their homes. He attacked the unemployed: We are seeing an alarming number of households where up to three generations in many cases by choice have never worked in their lives.

If you believe you have evidence of further reasons we may have missed, please let us knowhere.

Followmanaging editor Michelle Pini on [email protected],Belinda [email protected]and Independent [email protected].

Another day, another barking lie from Dutton and his brazen band of disinformation dealers, now regularly guest-starring on theABC.

Related Articles

• #3 TOP IA STORY OF 2025: High Court logging appeal decision a game changer
• #5 TOP IA STORY OF 2025: 'March for Australia' is not common patriotism its Nazi-led mobilisation
• #6 TOP IA STORY OF 2025: ABC'S feeble defence confirms abject failure to report Labor fairly
• #8 TOP STORY 2025: Skilled visas expose cracks in Government immigration policy