E&OE.
DAVE HUGHES:
While our Prime Minister is gallivanting around the world, just hobnobbing with the hoi polloi as he is over there and, he’s in England at the moment, isn’t he?
ERIN MOLAN:
Buckingham Palace, I think you’ll find. There’s a significant event – ‘a coronation’, they say.
DAVE HUGHES:
The Opposition Leader is back here boots on the ground style.
ERIN MOLAN:
On the ground. Western Sydney. Dealing with everyday Australians and their real issues.
DAVE HUGHES:
And he’s taken a moment out of his busy schedule to join us. Welcome, ‘Sir’ – as Erin calls you through the glass.
ERIN MOLAN:
Well see, this is a hard thing because when – you’ve been on my Sky show a couple of times, and when you were in government, I could call you, you know, ‘Minister’, but then when you’re not, I feel awkward saying ‘Peter’, because I feel like it doesn’t show enough respect and even my mother would message me, and so I say, ‘Sir’ and I think that shows respect.
DAVE HUGHES:
How would you like to be referred to?
PETER DUTTON:
I think Peter sounds good. There are two really sad stages in my life. One, when I recall very specifically stopped being asked for ID going into bars and nightclubs.
DAVE HUGHES:
Yes, that is tough. It’s tough.
PETER DUTTON:
Terrible stage of life. And secondly, and only recently, when people start to call me ‘Mr Dutton’. I just think am I that old?
DAVE HUGHES:
No, you’re not.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, thank you Hughesy.
DAVE HUGHES:
You’re in the prime of your life. And even though Erin did bring in this photo of you as a…
PETER DUTTON:
Oh please.
DAVE HUGHES:
…People go on the Instagram if they want to see a young Peter Dutton. How old are you in this photo, Peter?
PETER DUTTON:
I must be 18 or 19 in that photo.
DAVE HUGHES:
You look like you’re in, I reckon, what’s he look like he’s in?
ERIN MOLAN:
One Direction or Harry Styles or something like that.
DAVE HUGHES:
Yeah, it’s something of the, what are the, back in the day – Kids in the Kitchen?
ED KAVALEE:
Oh, well done.
DAVE HUGHES:
Kids in the Kitchen. Do you remember Kids in the Kitchen?
PETER DUTTON:
I do, I do. It’s a pretty metro look. I was ahead of my time basically.
ERIN MOLAN:
You really were.
PETER DUTTON:
I would point my kids to that photo. My boys are 18 and 17 and give me crap about having no hair all the time. And I say ‘mate, at your age, I had much more hair than you, so be very careful.’
ERIN MOLAN:
Oh, so they are screwed, essentially is what you’re saying?
PETER DUTTON:
Yep. Bad genes, bad genes.
DAVE HUGHES:
Was that a promo shot for something? Were you a…
PETER DUTTON:
I ran for a seat in Brisbane when I was 19, I think.
DAVE HUGHES:
Wow.
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah. Yeah.
DAVE HUGHES:
So, you’re a child politician.
ERIN MOLAN:
Were you elected or no?
PETER DUTTON:
I was free child slave labour. It was against a very popular Labor deputy premier, and I got smashed.
DAVE HUGHES:
Do you remember how many votes you got?
PETER DUTTON:
No I don’t, but bit more than single figure.
ERIN MOLAN:
Could you count them on one hand?
PETER DUTTON:
I think so.
ERIN MOLAN:
Okay. We put it up on our Instagram, we wanted some comments, so I’ll read you out a couple.
DAVE HUGHES:
People need to see. They need to go to the Hughesy, Ed and Erin Instagram.
ERIN MOLAN:
Yeah, you need to see it. Lovely. Okay. Rachkinred says ‘cute as a button’. 2004marts says ‘would know those eyes anywhere’. Justinedownling, ‘is that Tom Cruise?’. Jerrybrown ‘a young Peter Dutton. Reowr’. I’m guessing that’s like a Reowrrr.
DAVE HUGHES:
That’s hot. Yeah.
ED KAVALEE:
Yeah.
ERIN MOLAN:
And then Indigoldenretriever, ‘spunk. Looks so familiar – an actor?’.
PETER DUTTON:
I love your viewers. I love your listeners. I love them.
ERIN MOLAN:
They’re special people.
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah obviously. And the disparaging ones? Hughesy, have you got any bad ones?
DAVE HUGHES:
No, there is some. But…
PETER DUTTON:
You don’t want to go into the hates?
PETER DUTTON:
Instagram’s not the place for hate, people. Can I just put that out there?
ERIN MOLAN:
Actually there was very few hate. There was very little hate.
PETER DUTTON:
No there was only a few.
ERIN MOLAN:
There was one or two…
PETER DUTTON:
That’s okay. In this business you’re only pleasing one in two. If you can do one in two you win, right?
ERIN MOLAN:
Absolutely. Really good point.
DAVE HUGHES:
You know what, in basketball terms, I think what Michael Jordan’s hit rate for shots was, what? Was he, 40 per cent? 45 per cent?
ED KAVALEE:
Absolutely right.
ERIN MOLAN:
And how many occasions was he trusted to take the winning shot and miss. That’s a great quote too.
DAVE HUGHES:
Heaps of them and he didn’t get it very often.
ERIN MOLAN:
And he failed and failed and failed and that’s why he succeeded.
DAVE HUGHES:
So Peter, on a personal level, you are, you know, we’ve got to come back because we need to talk about your public versus private image and what we’re going to do about it. Fair to say? Alright. Alright.
ERIN MOLAN:
Yep. We’re here to solve this conundrum.
ED KAVALEE:
That’s next. New 2DayFM.
[commercial break]
ED KAVALEE:
Joined in the studio by Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.
DAVE HUGHES
Yes, Peter, we are very grateful you’ve turned up to our studio and we want to talk about your public versus private image because every politician we speak to, including Anthony Albanese…
ERIN MOLAN:
…correct.
DAVE HUGHES:
…says that you’re a great bloke.
ERIN MOLAN:
Well, he said that initially when he was first elected and you became Opposition Leader, I don’t know how he feels now.
DAVE HUGHES:
But you and him have had, you’ve had a good relationship with him?
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah, I would say the same of him. We can sit down and have a conversation about issues and there are some things that he’ll want to raise as Prime Minister and wants support that he might not want made public. So, I’ve got a good working relationship with him. I think there are policy differences that we have that we disagree on, but in terms of a personal relationship, I get on with him well. We text and have the ability to, you know, to pick up the phone if need be.
DAVE HUGHES:
Yep. So you get beyond your job and you see the bloke on a personal level sort of thing if you know what I mean.
PETER DUTTON:
I just think it’s childish otherwise.
ERIN MOLAN:
Absolutely.
PETER DUTTON:
I mean, you know, there’s enough sort of banter and back and forth in politics and there’s a place for that and ultimately we’re sort of defined by the nonsense of Question Time. But we live in the greatest country in the world, and there’s a lot that we should do together, which we do, and a lot that we can contest and argue about because, you know, we ultimately want to end up, I think, in the same place, but just a different path to get there.
DAVE HUGHES:
‘We are defined by the nonsense of Question Time’. That is, I like that.
ERIN MOLAN:
Oh completely. You look at the news, like the 6pm news which is your highest rating program on commercial TV every night and there might be a minute 30 on the politics of the day and it will be whoever scored the greatest point in Question Time, which is usually something that doesn’t actually impact everyday Australians for the most part, or it’s whoever was the biggest smartass or whoever made the funniest line or was the most offensive and that’s what gets the attention.
PETER DUTTON:
I always think it’s like, we’re sort of sitting down in the chamber and the press gallery are sitting up in the in the seats above us. I always feel it’s like going to Sea World, you know where they throw the pilchards out to the dolphins, and we jump out of the water and perform. I always feel it’s that sort of scenario.
DAVE HUGHES:
Do you feel like when you’re there, when you get up to speak in Parliament, that you’ve got to actually perform and try to get a reaction off your mob?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I don’t want to speak ill of the press, Hughesy, but unless you do that, you’re not in the package on Channel Nine that night, right? So it’s a catch-22.
DAVE HUGHES:
I suppose, I imagine you have times where you go out places and the press are there and then it doesn’t end up on the packages. You’d get annoyed, wouldn’t you?
PETER DUTTON:
Sure. Hours and hours of footage, even when I’m smiling. I got excited the other day, The Sydney Morning Herald, for the second time in my career ran a photo where I was smiling. I thought, this is a good day out.
ERIN MOLAN:
Well see, that leads us into this point. So Hughesy’s got this thing right because we know that you’re a really good bloke and that you care deeply for Australia and for Australians. You had a career in the police service and anyone who dedicates their life to service we think very highly of. But we’re looking at, you know, your popularity v Albo and it’s always hard when you’re in Opposition of course as well and you haven’t been Prime Minister, but Hughesy wants to somehow – what do you want to do?
DAVE HUGHES:
Well, how can we change people’s perception of you? People who don’t think about things and see the photos of you not smiling, which you know, are obviously prevalent in the press and…
ERIN MOLAN:
Because you did have a portfolio which was very serious. For many years you dealt with issues that most people would rather not even think about, but you had to make tough decisions and deal with those issues. So, in a lot of people’s minds, you’re a hard man, but we know that you’ve also got a soft side.
PETER DUTTON:
My mum used to always say, probably still does, you know, ‘would you smile more?’ and I said ‘mum, I’m giving an update about national security and, you know, terrorist incident’. I mean, there’s a one liner there somewhere, but I just don’t know it’s going to go well. So when do you break into tune, it’s hard?
DAVE HUGHES:
Do your people tell you to smile? I mean, apart from your mum?…
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah, of course they do.
DAVE HUGHES:
They all tell you to smile more?
PETER DUTTON:
And you do, and they click away and take 300 photos at a press conference and lo and behold, the one they use the next day is the one where, I don’t know, you’re about to blow your nose or something.
ERIN MOLAN:
What about the glasses? Because Hughesy thinks that’s something that you’re using to soften your image.
PETER DUTTON:
Well Hughesy, I mean, you talked about my appeal before.
DAVE HUGHES:
Yes.
PETER DUTTON:
It’s not just the baldness, but it’s also now the fact that my eyes are going, my hearing I think needs to get tested. I’m 53 this year, basically I’m falling apart…
DAVE HUGHES:
Mate, you’re a young man still, alright?
PETER DUTTON:
…So the glasses are okay, but they do help me see. I actually don’t like them, but it is better if you can see.
DAVE HUGHES:
What about cool hats? Can we get a cool hat on you?
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah sure, what…
DAVE HUGHES:
What sort of hat?
ERIN MOLAN:
Like a beret?
DAVE HUGHES:
A beret!
ED KAVALEE:
No, not the French.
PETER DUTTON:
We shouldn’t start with the beret, maybe we work up to the beret? Let’s not start with the beret.
ERIN MOLAN:
What about a fedora? Fedora, that’s relatable! Oh, no, no – Akubra. Oh no, Barnaby did that. Bloody hell. Barnaby takes everything.
DAVE HUGHES:
What about a cap?
PETER DUTTON:
I’d go the, I quite like a…
ERIN MOLAN:
A MAGA cap? A Trump cap?
PETER DUTTON:
I like the cap. I like the cap.
DAVE HUGHES:
Cap! There we go.
ERIN MOLAN:
But will you need something on it? And the other…
DAVE HUGHES:
Broncos!
ED KAVALEE:
Wonderful idea.
PETER DUTTON:
The Broncs, yeah.
ERIN MOLAN:
Because you see, Albo’s got Russell Crowe, right? So you need a big Hollywood celebrity in your corner. Who would you want? And we can make it happen.
DAVE HUGHES:
Johnny Depp?
PETER DUTTON:
I’m staring at them now, what can I say? You are the most famous people I know.
DAVE HUGHES:
Mate, I said Erin should be the one.
ERIN MOLAN:
Well, no I am. I sing your praises all the time. I’m a massive fan.
DAVE HUGHES:
Well, tell him you think he’s hot then?
ERIN MOLAN:
Oh for the love of god. Thank you so much Sir. You’re a great man.
PETER DUTTON:
Nice to be here with you. Thank you.
[ends]