Peter Dutton’s boilerplate campaign video is most interesting for what it omits
Peter Dutton’s boilerplate campaign video is most interesting for what it omits
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The shots of sharing cuppas with constituents and laughing with his kids skates over the details of his ‘small family business’. Election season officially begins when the prime minister drives in the back of C1 to visit the governor general – but its unofficial commencement is when leaders start releasing soft-focus profile videos with their log cabin story, surrounded by family and backed by twinkling music.
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For an opposition leader especially, whose contributions can often be overshadowed by the prime minister whose job they covet, the productions – often short yet packed with meaning – are a vital chance to re-introduce or repackage themselves to a public who might not know much about them.
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Peter Dutton’s contribution to this catalogue, released on the Australia Day public holiday Monday, runs heavy on the main themes of his time leading the Liberal party: his time as a police officer and business owner, a family man, who cares about community safety and making tough decisions which “aren’t always popular”.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email. It calls to mind Dutton’s famous proclamation in 2018, during his unsuccessful bid to roll Malcolm Turnbull as Liberal leader, that he was looking forward to smiling more and “maybe show a different side” to his carefully crafted hard man persona. It’s also of a piece with one of Dutton’s first TikTok videos (months after his party suggested security concerns with the app) titled “3 things about me that you won’t see in the media” – featuring a photo of his dog “good boy Ralph”, his Honda dirt bike, and a photo of “me and my grandmother at my swearing-in ceremony”.
