1 week Ago By James Massola
Peter Dutton’s father, Bruce, suffered a heart attack before the federal opposition leader took to the stage in the first head-to-head debate with Anthony Albanese of the federal election campaign. Bruce Dutton was rushed to hospital in Queensland, where he lives, following the heart attack and was receiving treatment, according to The Daily Telegraph . Peter Dutton arrives at the Wenty Leagues Club ahead of the debate as the news broke that his father had been taken to hospital.
Credit: James Brickwood The opposition leader was getting ready to take to the stage at the Wentworthville Leagues Club in western Sydney for the debate on Tuesday evening as the news broke. A spokeswoman for Dutton declined to comment on the condition of the opposition leader’s father. Bruce Dutton, 79, was born in May 1945 and worked as a bricklayer and builder for decades.
Along with his son, Peter, the pair built a successful business owning and managing childcare centres and buying and selling property through the 1990s and 2000s. Bruce Dutton and Ailsa Leitch, a secretary, had five children, including Peter, their eldest, and raised them in suburban Brisbane in the 1970s and 1980s, though the pair later divorced. Peter Dutton has spoken on numerous occasions about the formative role that his father has played in his life.
In 2019, Dutton tweeted that “Paul Keating almost destroyed my Dad’s small business with his heartless mismanagement of the economy”, hinting at one of the son’s motivations to enter federal politics. On a campaign trip to Tasmania last week, Dutton told a story of taking his father to a racetrack as a Father’s Day present. “It was about three or four laps, and about halfway through the second or third lap, the guy decided to put his foot down and really give Dad the ultimate experience,” he recalled.
“But instead, what happened is that the car – and I can watch this in my mind as I speak to you in slow motion – started to do 360s and the car started to spin off the track into the sand. “Now, the story ended well, so I’ve got a good story to tell, ultimately, but I did have this passing thought that out of an active sort of good son interest in thinking about my dad, that I’d killed my dad on Father’s Day.” Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis.
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