bad cop: peter dutton's strong man politics: Quarterly Essay 93, by lech blaine

An excellent study in the Machiavellian cunning of Peter Dutton.

Lech Blaine is a Queensland writer and Journalist, whose previous work includes the memoir Car Crash and the Quarterly Essay, Top Blokes. It seems fitting that the Queenslander has been asked to take on the subject of Peter Dutton, former Queensland policeman and now leader of the Liberal Party opposition.

Blaine writes a witty and entertaining biography of Dutton (or “Dutts”, as he is known to his mates), yet beneath the japes lies a bubbling anger at the more notorious aspects of Dutton's politics. His treatment of asylum seekers, minorities and the Indigenous community, to name a few. Pauline Hanson has often been an admirer of Dutton, and that perhaps will tell the reader enough. Dutton also feels most at home in the company of shock jocks like Ray Hadley, railing against so-called cultural elites like the ABC. Most of Dutton's negative attitudes Blaine traces back to his time as a policeman, where he saw the worst aspects of criminal behaviour at close hand, including violence and the sexual abuse of minors. Blaine claims that Dutton sees the world through this dark prism. Progressive lefties may want to see the best of human nature, but Dutton has seen reality for himself. Do gooders in the form of social workers and the plodding judicial system have only coddled violent criminals.
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Pulling back the lens and taking an historical view, the essay also traces the transformation of the Liberal Party, from highbrow Menzies, through middlebrow Howard, to lowbrow Dutton. The party once appealed to moderate, middle class Australians, but now stokes fears of xenophobia and feelings of grievance. The party has wilfully abandoned blue ribbon inner city seats, making possible their take over by Teal independents. The future strategy for the Liberals is to pick up seats in outer suburban Australia. But as Lech Blaine argues, this is unlikely to work.

Bad Cop: Peter Dutton's Strongman Politics makes for a bracing read. Lech Blaine provides penetrating analysis and an historical perspective on events, with fascinating sections on Queensland culture and politics, most notably the notorious Joh Bjelke-Petersen years. The portrait that emerges of Dutton is of an almost Shakespearean villain, a modern day Iago, whispering dark suspicions into the nation's ear, yet a man destined to come undone by the mistrust and cynicism he has sown.  

Bad Cop: Peter Dutton's Strong Man Politics: Quarterly Essay 93, by Lech Blaine. Published by Black Inc. $27.99

Review by Chris Saliba

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