Peter Dutton, the Minister for Everything except his own portfolio

Peter Dutton seems free and willing to comment on every part of government except his own - the mega Department of Home Affairs.

Peter Dutton (ABC News,: Jed Cooper)

Catastrophic bushfires season of 2019-20

Dutton was mostly silent during the catastrophic bushfires season of 2019-20 even though the federal body Emergency Management is now part of Home Affairs and their brief is to 

"lead the Australian Government disaster and emergency management response."

Dutton did make a false accusation that arsonists were to largely blame for the bushfires.

For the duration of the bushfires, Dutton was simply missing in action.

Early response to COVID-19 Pandemic response in Australia

Peter Dutton was also very quiet during the early response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

He did state that in response to people hoarding toilet paper that "We will come down like a tonne of bricks on those individuals because I think they’re the ones that have created this pattern of behaviour with hoarding and clearing shelves and normally sensible people have been wrapped in this because they’ve panicked when they’ve seen the shelves empty" 

On Friday 13 March it was announced the Peter Dutton had tested positive to COVID-19 after returning from the United States. He had met with other government ministers earlier in the week so there were concerns he may have spread the infection.

The Ruby Princess debacle

On 19 March the cruise ship Ruby Princess berthed in Sydney Harbour and thousands of passengers were allowed to disembark without any health checks or instructions to self-quarantine, despite the knowledge that people on the ship were ill with COVID-19 symptoms.

Australian Border Force, also under Home Affairs has responsibility at airports and seaports for: 

• "We protect Australia's border and enable legitimate travel and trade. 
• "We safeguard our border from people who seek to commit immigration fraud or threaten Australia's safety and security.
• "We use the Incoming Passenger Card as a declaration of person's entry into Australia, and to provide information on a person's health, character details and biosecurity information."

Yet the Ruby Princess passengers were allowed to disembark, apparently without any involvement from Border Force, or a decision within Border Force was made to allow them to.

The Ruby Princess cruise ship has been the epicentre of Australia’s COVID-19 outbreak, with 600 cases and 19 deaths recorded from passengers on board.

Dutton refuses to answer questions about this or to take any responsibility for the apparent errors made by Border Force. Instead he has attempted to shift blame to NSW Health and NSW Police.

The distractions

Since the Ruby Princess, Dutton has commented on various matters in other portfolios including:

• 16 April: Attacked the World Health Organisation (WHO) for recommending China's wet markets to reopen (Greg Hunt, Health Minister)
• 17 April; Demanding transparency from China on origins of COVID-19 outbreak (Marise Payne, Foreign Affairs Minister)
• 22 April: China's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic (Marise Payne, Foreign Affairs Minister)
• 22 April: Attacking China about COVID-19 origins (Marise Payne, Foreign Affairs Minister)
• 24 April: Attacking the Queensland State Government and teachers union about their approach to managing COVID-19 in schools (Dan Tehan, Education Minister)
• 24 April: Attacking banks for their lack of support to businesses waiting for wage subsidy payments (Josh Frydenberg, Treasurer)
• 30 April: The COVIDsafe app (Stuart Robert, Minister for Services)
• 1 May: Attacks Victorian Deputy Chief Health Officer over a personal tweet comparing impacts of COVID-19 & arrival of the First Fleet (Greg Hunt, Health Minister)

Peter Dutton weighs in regularly across multiple government portfolios, usually with a strong criticisms, yet he is seeminly unable to answer any questions about Home Affairs.

It is possible that all these attacks are distractions from his own responsibilities.  

Dutton's ambition to be Prime Minister might also be in play, he could be circling for a spill.

Dutton's aggressive stance on China, under the guise of a global #COVID19 investigation, has now started a trade war with China at a time Australia when we can least afford it.

The various ministers listed above should handle the matters they are responsible for and Dutton should focus on his day job.

LETTER: Balancing act on climate change

Here is another good letter by Peter Christoff published in The Age on April 25, 2007, reproduced in full.

Yesterday's lead story about China and climate change told only half the story.

True, China will become the planet's biggest national greenhouse gas emitter within a decade. But there was no comment that China's per capita emissions are approximately one tenth of Australia's, which are the world's highest and indicate the major difference in living standards between our two countries.

No comment, either, that the UN Convention on Climate Change places the onus and burden of significant initial emissions reduction on developed countries. The United States and Australia, signatories to this treaty, have substantively refused to abide by their commitments.

No mention that China - unlike Australia - will derive 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, has rejected nuclear power as a major energy option, and is the world's largest site of emissions-reduction projects, funded through Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism.

Nor that a significant proportion of China's emissions come from manufacturing goods to meet Western demand.

China is confronting both the substantial domestic impacts of global warming and the substantial challenge of overcoming real poverty and underdevelopment. This involves difficult moral and policy choices, not a "hard line".

It is very different from the situation Prime Minister Howard faces as he seeks, inappropriately, to avoid real action on global warming (including significant assistance to China) in order to preserve a completely different level of "economic prosperity".

Author: Dr Peter Christoff, School of Social and Environmental Inquiry, University of Melbourne