Peter Dutton has explained his absence from the NSW election campaign and accused the Prime Minister of being out of touch, saying Australians “couldn’t give a toss” about who sits in the audience at a campaign launch.
Peter Dutton has explained his absence from the NSW state election campaign, dismissing Anthony Albanese’s attempt to make an issue out of it as “a beltway conversation.”
The Prime Minister attempted to highlight the Opposition Leader’s absence from the campaign during a press conference on Friday, telling journalists “Peter Dutton wasn’t even at the campaign launch of Dominic Perrottet.”
But Mr Dutton told Sky News Australia’s Erin Molan that this simply shows the Prime Minister is out of touch with Australian families.
“Do you think anyone is sitting around their kitchen table tonight…talking about who is sitting in the audience at the Liberal campaign launch? People couldn’t give a toss about any of that,” Mr Dutton said.
“They are worried about their own situation.
“Wondering how it is they are going to pay the bills this month, how it is they are going to afford to fill the car up before they go to sport tomorrow, how they are going to afford to pay the electricity bill that’s gone up by another 30 per cent under Labor.”
The Opposition Leader said the NSW Liberal Party had asked him to campaign but that his priority was the Aston by-election.
“I’ve got no interest in being down there, I want to be in Victoria… That’s where my priority is at the moment, as you would expect; it’s a federal by-election,” he said.
“I’ve been campaigning in Aston… not the state election in NSW. I’ve been in Victoria, and I’ve been there more times than the Prime Minister,” Mr Dutton said.
“I mean, yesterday I could have been in NSW, I was door-knocking with Roshena Campbell in Aston, because I want to win that by-election.”
Mr Dutton said Australians are smart enough to know the difference between state and federal elections.
“Australians aren’t stupid, I mean the Prime Minister might think they are…but people know there is a state election which is quite separate to a federal election,” the Opposition Leader said.
“At the federal campaign launch, I won’t be inviting Domonic Perrottet and the other states leaders because it’s a federal campaign.”
When host Erin Molan said she was “probably the only person in Australia” to watch the NSW Liberal Party’s campaign launch, Mr Dutton jokingly questioned how she managed to stay awake.
“How did you stay awake? You must have had a glass of wine,” he joked.
“I mean how did you stay awake? I’ve been to plenty of those campaign launches and I can tell you, on a Saturday or a Sunday I’d prefer to be with my kids at home,” Molan replied.
