2 weeks Ago By Dominic Giannini
The pageantry of the Assyrian New Year provided the background for Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to spruik his vision for middle Australia - but not everyone was onside. Login or signup to continue reading Targeting Western Sydney seats within the city's mortgage belt, Mr Dutton spent Sunday with Liberal candidates from the area to promise the cost of living would be better if he was prime minister. How much better remains unknown as he has refused to release the figures he said prove his gas plan would reduce electricity prices.
Mr Dutton also leant on his time as immigration minister when the then-Liberal government committed to resettle an additional 12,000 people displaced by conflicts in Syria and Iraq. "It was a significant time because we were in the process of providing people who had come out of war-torn countries with an opportunity to live in the best country in the world," he told an Assyrian New Year festival at the Fairfield Showgrounds on Sunday. "It is an emotional story to tell because when I stood there with an Assyrian family and issued them their travel documents to come to our country - to call Australia home - there were tears in everybody's eyes.
" Despite his hardline immigration policy to cut migration by 25 per cent, Mr Dutton was largely well-received and routinely stopped for pictures and selfies with community members, young and old. The festival was in the seat of Fowler, which independent Dai Le wrested from Labor in 2022 and holds on a razor-thin margin. The Liberals, who haven't announced whether they will run a candidate, could run dead to bolster Ms Le's campaign to keep Labor out.
Assyrian National Council president Hermiz Shahen said the community was grateful for Mr Dutton's help as he called for more support. "We are facing discrimination, our people are pushed out of our homeland and we need a country to stand with us," he told AAP. The event was attended by politicians from across the aisle, including NSW Premier Chris Minns and Energy Minister Chris Bowen.
Mr Bowen visibly gritted his teeth as Mr Dutton arrived after attacking him directly over his energy policy at a brick manufacturing factory in his electorate of McMahon. "What Australians will know by the time of the next election is that our policy will deliver cheaper energy costs," Mr Dutton said at the Austral Brickworks. Mr Dutton has been hounded for not releasing any modelling underpinning his pledge to bring down bills by pumping more gas into the system - something Labor argues is already secured under deals it has made.
Mr Dutton also used his tour around western Sydney to announce $25,000 for CCTV for the Al Madinah Mosque in Leppington as he makes community safety a major policy pillar. But his cost-of-living message was thrown off course when he was forced to defend three referendum proposals after criticising the vote on an Indigenous voice for being expensive and divisive. Mr Dutton has floated holding a referendum on Indigenous constitutional recognition and another on giving a minister the power to bypass a court and strip a dual national of their Australian citizenship if they commit serious crimes.
Mr Dutton backed extending federal electoral terms from three to four years but said the referendums would only proceed with bipartisan support, meaning they are unlikely to go to a vote. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also supports four-year voting cycles but on Sunday ruled out holding any referendums in the next term if Labor was re-elected. Australian Associated Press DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team.
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