Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au
Peter Dutton wins seventh term in Dickson
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has retained his marginal northern Brisbane seat of Dickson despite what he says was a dirty campaign run by GetUp and Labor.
May 19, 2019
Peter Dutton has seen off an “unprecedented personal attack” by GetUp and Labor to claim victory in the marginal Queensland seat of Dickson.
The home affairs minister said despite the “mud thrown” he’d been able to run an effective campaign to win a seventh term in the northern Brisbane electorate.
“I want to quote a former prime minister. His name was Paul Keating and the quote was, ‘This is the sweetest victory of all’,” he joked as he addressed about 300 jubilant supporters in Brisbane on Saturday night.
Mr Dutton said there was an “amazing mood” across Australia in support of Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
“He’s distilled our message down to one the Australian people have been able to understand,” he said.
“And people have overwhelmingly accepted that.”
Mr Dutton entered the election with a wafer-thin margin of just 1.7 per cent.
His campaign got off to a rocky start when he claimed Labor candidate Ali France was using her disability as an excuse not to move into the electorate.
Earlier on Saturday, Mr Dutton said campaigning by the activist group GetUp had angered Dickson voters in the mortgage-belt seat.
He said he also sensed a lot of anger against Labor because of the tax changes they were proposing.
“People really had their baseball bats out for Bill Shorten,” he said.