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With even right-wing media criticising Peter Dutton for taking day trip from the Dunkley by-election to fly to Perth and spend 40 minutes at one other Gina Rinehart get together, the opposition chief’s slavish relationship with the mining heiress is garnering rising consideration.
Most distinguished main get together politicians have mates in enterprise. It was solely final month that the prime minister attended a personal get together hosted by Anthony Pratt in Melbourne that includes an look by Katy Perry. Pratt is a distinguished political donor — more and more to Labor — and his father was an enormous supporter of Albanese’s predecessor as Labor chief, Invoice Shorten. However Dutton’s common journeys to Western Australia to spend time at Rinehart gatherings appear uncommon.
Along with Dutton’s journey to Perth (at his personal expense) final Thursday through Melbourne (as revealed by Rear Window’s Mark Di Stefano), prior to now few years Dutton:
‘Mr Dutton is correct’: Information Corp papers grant nuclear energy glowing protection
Travelled to the Pilbara as a visitor of Rinehart (June 2022)
Was flown to Sydney by Rinehart to, based on his declaration, attend a Bali bombing memorial (October 2022)
Was flown by billionaire Tim Roberts to a Rinehart get together on the Roy Hill mine (November 2023)
On account of her common funding of, and conferences with, Dutton, Rinehart seems to have been rewarded with a key function in creating what passes for Dutton’s coverage positions. Or maybe it’s the opposite method round: Dutton has been graciously permitted by Rinehart to make use of her insurance policies.
After their June 2022 assembly, Dutton adopted Rinehart’s proposal to extend the edge of revenue pensioners would be capable of earn with out dropping funds — an final result proudly introduced on one among Hancock’s web sites. Rinehart additionally spruiked nuclear energy earlier than the final election, forward of the Coalition beneath Dutton embracing it in opposition. In August final 12 months, Rinehart issued a full-throated name for nuclear energy as an alternative of “bird-killing wind mills and big photo voltaic panel stretches”. Rinehart’s website carries a speech Dutton delivered to the minerals trade endorsing small modular reactors (a place now ditched by the Coalition) final 12 months.
Rinehart and Dutton additionally seem on a unity ticket on migration. Final Could, as Dutton was winding up his rhetoric about Labor’s “secret agenda for an enormous Australia”, Rinehart attacked migrants and linked them to “a housing scarcity for Australians … rents are escalating, our hospitals are insufficient with out including extra, police already can’t police crime and crime is escalating, electrical energy necessities will improve, including to unreliability and elevated prices”. This represents a major change of coronary heart for Rinehart: in 2012, the then Labor authorities gave Rinehart approval to usher in 1,700 overseas staff on non permanent visas to work at Roy Hill.
And Rinehart’s help for the No marketing campaign, which Dutton helped lead, is well-known.
Evidently, with rising calls for for the opposition to supply some coverage past nuclear energy and rising home costs by permitting individuals to entry their tremendous, Dutton has a ready-made coverage agenda at his disposal from Rinehart — albeit one which prices some huge cash to entry.
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