A Happy Dutton in Bomaderry, The Bugle, 18 June, 2024.

Must be nice to be voted Australia’s preferred Prime Minister for the first time in your long political career, as has just happened to Opposition leader Peter Dutton on 17 June.

He certainly appeared upbeat as he visited Bomaderry on Tuesday, 18 June. He was given a tour of the electorate of Gilmore by local Liberal aspirant Andrew Constance, including touring the Hanlon Windows factory. Dutton repeatedly stopped to talk to the workers on the site, asking them questions and shaking their hands. 

All of a sudden, a much-derided man has the gravitas of a man on the way to the Prime Ministership.

Certainly, he knows he’s on a winner when it comes to the hugely controversial question of wind farms off the South Coast, an issue which has been running hot for the past year. 

Dutton made it very clear that if the Coalition is returned to power at the next election, the offshore wind farms proposed by Labor will be stopped in their tracks. 

The South Coast doesn’t usually see such a parade of senior politicians, but we’ve seen Chris Bowen on Saturday (15 June) at BlueScope in Wollongong announcing the officially declaring an Illawarra Offshore Wind Zone, followed the next day by National Party leader David LIttleproud and now the leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton.

The National Party has already announced that it will block the development of the Illawarra offshore wind farm project if re-elected.

“We are part of a Coalition,” Dutton told The Bugle. “If you vote for the Coalition that project will not proceed. 

“We are representatives for the community. It is clear they don’t want the project to go ahead. It is cost prohibitive. 

“We listened to the community and their angst and concern.

“We know people just can’t afford higher electricity prices. And that is exactly what they are getting with this proposal. We have people on fixed incomes who can’t afford to turn on their air conditioners. 

“The environmental impact is staggering. For the Greens, they say they are about the environment. but they are not against these projects. It does have a detrimental impact on the environment. Certainly, on the sealife and the migratory patterns of birds as well, and that has been established.

“It is clear that the project shouldn’t go ahead. There will be a very big difference between the two parties, on that issue and many others. We will not have it as part of our policy.

As to the question of nuclear power, Dutton said: “Forget about the fear from a weak and visionless Prime Minister. It is part of our policy. 

“What we want is cheap, clean and constant energy. We don’t want to be paying the highest electricity prices in the world. 

“We should have a mature discussion about what our energy mix will be.”