Peter Dutton

Peter Craig Dutton (born 18 November 1970) is an Australian politician. He was the 15th Leader of the Liberal Party and the 35th Leader of the Opposition from 2022 to 2025. Dutton led the Coalition to a landslide defeat at the 2025 federal election, and lost his seat of Dickson to Labor candidate Ali France, becoming the first federal Opposition Leader to lose their seat at an election.

Political career
Dutton has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives representing the Division of Dickson, Queensland since November 2001. From 2017 to 2018, he was the Minister for Home Affairs. He served as the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection from 2014 to 2017. He was also the Minister for Health and Sport from 2013 to 2014.

In May 2022, after the Liberal Party lost the 2022 election and Scott Morrison resigned as party leader, Dutton announced his candidacy for the party leadership. He was elected party leader unopposed on 30 May 2022 and became Opposition Leader shortly afterwards. He is the first Liberal leader to come from Queensland.

During his time as Opposition Leader, stories of Dutton's leadership of the Department of Home Affairs started to be publish. It was revealed that a 2020 report had uncovered serious issues with the department's detention approach, but Dutton had chosen not to act. In February 2024, the independent Richardson Review was published, which found some failures of Dutton's role as minister. It was revealed that under Dutton's leadership the department had made multi-million dollar contracts with companies suspected of criminal activity, including drug smuggling, corruption, and went against US sanctions. Dutton had personally got involved with the department to allow a criminal to stay in Australia, saying that it would be in the public interest.

Dutton led the Liberal-National Coalition to the 2025 election. He ran what was considered by numerous commentators to be a poor campaign. At the election on 3 May, the Coalition suffered its worst ever defeat at a federal election, losing at least 18 seats while Labor won an expanded majority. Dutton lost his own seat of Dickson, with Labor challenger Ali France defeating him on her third attempt.

Personal life
Dutton was born in Brisbane, Queensland. He was a police officer before he entered politics. He has been married twice and has three children.

On 13 March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dutton was diagnosed with COVID-19.

References

Other websites



Category:1970 births
Category:Living people
Category:Australian police officers
Category:Government ministers of Australia
Category:Liberal Party of Australia politicians
Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives
Category:Politicians from Brisbane
Category:Leaders of the Opposition (Australia)