The National Times - Renewables sceptic Peter Dutton aims for Australian PM's job

The 54-year-old leader of the conservative Liberal Party has attacked centre-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's "weak leadership" at a time of rising prices.

Dutton -- the son of a bricklayer and himself a former Queensland drug squad detective -- accuses the government of mismanaging the economy, being weak on defence, and backing a "divisive", failed referendum on Indigenous peoples' rights.

But one of his starkest policy disagreements with the government is over how to tackle climate change.

He has criticised the scale of Albanese's plans to boost solar and wind-driven electricity to slash Australia's carbon emissions.

Dutton wants to ramp up gas production and overturn a quarter-century ban on nuclear power with a US$200 billion scheme to construct seven industrial-scale nuclear reactors.

"The renewables-only energy policy is a wrecking ball through the economy and it's driving up the cost of food, the cost of everything when you go to the supermarket," he said this week.

Dutton -- who has run defence and home affairs in previous conservative administrations -- had to apologise in 2015 after a quip about the threat climate change poses to the Pacific was picked up by a microphone.

"Time doesn't mean anything when you're about to be, you know, have water lapping at your door," Dutton was caught saying.

It is not the only time his rhetoric has caused controversy.

- 'Gang violence' -

In 2018, Dutton claimed people in Melbourne were "scared to go out to restaurants" because of "African gang violence".

As immigration minister for nearly four years from 2017, Dutton oversaw the country's widely criticised offshore detention regime.

After being chosen as opposition leader in 2022, Dutton expressed regret for boycotting a 2008 national apology to Aboriginal Australians forcibly separated from their families as children.

At the time he had failed to grasp the "symbolic significance", he said.

US President Donald Trump -- who Dutton raised earlier this year as a "big thinker" with "gravitas" on the global stage -- became a surprise challenge to his campaign.

Some polls suggested Dutton's polling took a hit after Trump slapped 10-percent trade tariffs on Australia.

The opposition leader reassured voters he would stand up for Australia.

"If I needed to have a fight with Donald Trump or any other world leader, to advance our nation's interest, I'd do it in a heartbeat," he said.

Dutton -- the married father of three adult children, Rebecca, Harry and Tom -- speaks with pride of his blue-collar roots.

"I was born into an outer suburbs working-class family -- mum and dad, a secretary and bricklayer, didn't have much money, but they worked every day of their life," he told party members.

Dutton said he worked after school delivering papers, mowing lawns and working in a butcher's shop.

Saving enough money to buy a house at the age of 19 was "one of my proudest achievements".

P.Johnston--TNT