Can Peter Dutton win over the prosecco mums of Australia?
Scott Morrison said the women who marched on Parliament House were lucky not to be shot. The opposition leader needs to take a markedly different approach. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has offered enthusiastic bipartisan support on submarines, and the budget cuts that will be necessary to fund them. Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley was back where the votes are, for the Liberal party, talking about women. Ley discussed the Coalition’s expansion of the superannuation early-withdrawal policy it took to the 2022 election, and said early super withdrawals could be used to benefit a cohort of older women impoverished by divorce and family violence.
Published : 5 days ago by Jacqueline Maley in Politics
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has offered enthusiastic bipartisan support on submarines, and the budget cuts that will be necessary to fund them – future budget cuts which should be a cause of some dread, but that’s a subject for another day.
Such ardent togetherness, such a shared sense of mission, is so rare in our politics, and it’s a shame Dutton can’t muster it when it comes to Liberal support for the Voice. But it was the most enthusiastic he had been in a while – talking about the submarines. A former defence minister and home affairs minister, Dutton was in his comfort zone. Military hardware, he could do.
Another day, and apropos a different war, deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley was back where the votes are, for the Liberal party – talking about women. In the context of the so-called superannuation wars, Ley gave a speech in late February to a Liberal business breakfast in Perth, where she talked up the Coalition’s expansion of the superannuation early-withdrawal policy it took to the 2022 election. She said early super withdrawals could be used to benefit a cohort of older women impoverished by divorce and family violence.
“Let’s look, for example, at a 58-year-old woman who has been the victim of domestic violence, who has sacrificed her career to build her family, who knows she is facing significant upheaval when she leaves a violent husband,” Ley said. “Imagine how many women would be economically empowered, how many would be able to secure their financial independence for life, if we took an expanded version of the last election’s Super Home Buyer Scheme to the next election.”
Topics: Australia