Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. At last, a journalist turns the blow torch on Peter Dutton’s hollow carping and lack of any real policies (“ Dutton gets less scrutiny than Albanese but complains more. Time to toughen up ”, February 28).
The mainstream media as a whole has been soft on Dutton for too long, giving his constant negativity the headline treatment, continuously repeating his claim that Anthony Albanese is “weak”, with scant critical analysis of his only three “policies” – long lunches for businesspeople, the catastrophic nuclear policy and the copycat version of Labor’s Medicare reforms. Albanese’s purchase of a single property at Copacabana was mercilessly lambasted as “out of touch” with the current economic realities. Dutton’s history of $30 million in property speculation, and his buying bank shares at a time when the federal government was deciding to support the banks during the global financial crisis, have been treated very leniently.
Let’s hope other responsible journalists follow David Crowe’s balanced approach. Rob Phillips, North Epping The media has been soft for too long on Dutton and his lack of policies, says a reader. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen, Getty Images David Crowe laments that the election will not be a contest of ideas and suggests it will be a “brawl over character”.
In the spirit of unchecked “free speech”, it is more likely to be a contest of lies.