Treasurer Jim Chalmers has doubled down on calling Opposition Leader Peter Dutton the most divisive Australian leader in modern history, saying the Liberal leader picks fights on national security because he “has no idea about economics”.
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Yesterday in a speech to mark the anniversary of John Curtin’s 1943 federal election victory, Chalmers accused Dutton of having a “pathological” desire to divide Australians.
This morning on ABC Radio National, Chalmers said Dutton divides deliberately.
“He divides deliberately, almost pathologically, and that sort of division in our leadership in our society right now is worse than disappointing. It’s dangerous, and in my view, it should be disqualifying,” Chalmers said this morning.
“I think any objective observer of Peter Dutton’s strategy and his behaviour in recent weeks, but indeed, over the couple of decades that he’s been in office, he is the kind of person that when he sees division in our society, instead of trying to heal that division, he tries to pick at it and prey on it.“
Chalmers added the reason Dutton picks fights on national security is because the opposition leader “has no idea about economics”.
“My job here is to roll out this cost of living relief, to set out our vision for the future of our economy, and to do that as part of a team that I’m really proud to be part of, and sometimes, not all of the the time, that requires all of us to bell the cat on this divisive and dangerous strategy that we’re seeing from Peter Dutton,” he said.
“We all know why he’s doing it, he likes to pick fights on national security because he has absolutely no idea about economics. He’s completely vacated the field on the cost of living, inflation and the economy more broadly.
“That’s why he picks these needless and unnecessary fights on national security, because he hopes nobody will notice that he’s hopeless on economics.”
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