Can a leopard change its political spots? | Ray's Reasoning

As Dutton featured so strongly as Morrison's head kicker in chief, I'm particularly interested in whether he can become a much more collegiate politician.

Can he negotiate rather than act like a Morrison-type bulldozer?

So, today my analysis will go beyond the media's fixation on trivial issues such as whether Dutton can smile or show a kinder side, as his wife assures us is the 'real' him, and instead focus on what his history demonstrates, and his post-election speeches tell us.

Early signs are not encouraging.

Dutton's early remarks at his first leader's news conference made no attempt to sugar-coat his contempt for the new government.

He said, "make no mistake, the next three years under Labor are going to be tough for the Australian people".

As former Liberals leader John Hewson wrote in The Saturday Paper: "There was no evidence of the promised 'softer Dutton'. He was Trumpian, hinting at a leadership style similar to Tony Abbott's in opposition - more destructive than constructive".

His history during the coalition government of the past nine years is not encouraging.

As The Shovel satirically wrote: "It's pretty hard for people to judge me on the 80 or 90 times I've used asylum seekers as a political tool, or the 400 or so times I've made disparaging comments about various minority groups in this country. That was just a two-decade phrase I was going through. It's hardly a reflection on my character".

Briefly, he has downplayed the effects of climate change and consistently spoken against marriage equality. Perhaps most central to his reputation is his stint as immigration minister and, later, home affairs.

He was first elected to federal parliament in 2001. He would go on to hold various positions over the years, including minister for sport and minister for health.

In 2008, Mr Dutton was one of seven MPs who boycotted Kevin Rudd's Apology to the Stolen Generations. As assistant treasurer at the time, he was the only frontbencher to do so.

Dutton rose to the most senior ranks of the Liberal party room when he was promoted to immigration minister in 2014. During this time, he became the face of Australia's hardline border policies regarding asylum seekers who arrive by boat.

Also, during his time as immigration minister, Mr Dutton received international scorn when he was overheard joking about climate change and meetings in the Pacific.

"Time doesn't mean anything when you're about to have water lapping at your door," he told then-PM Tony Abbott and then-social services minister Scott Morrison.

Mr Dutton would later move on from immigration minister to running the home affairs and defence portfolios.

In 2017, asylum seekers detained on Manus Island and the Papua New Guinea police force accused Mr Dutton of lying about an alleged shooting incident at the camp.

In 2018, he fanned the "African gangs" panic - referring to crime incidents in Melbourne that Victoria Police found to be neither race-based nor criminally organised.

Just months after these comments about African Australians, Mr Dutton suggested granting humanitarian visas to white South African farmers in the wake of a widely discredited myth that farmers in South Africa were being murdered as part of a supposed white genocide. But back in 2019, Mr Dutton referred to the Biloela Tamil family's two daughters - one of whom would go on to contract sepsis on Christmas Island - as "anchor babies".

Post-election, he has been promoting nuclear power and has installed other like-minded MPs in his shadow cabinet.

After two decades in politics, perceptions of Dutton as a political warrior for the conservative Right, a hardline border protection minister and, more lately, a China hawk have set like cement.

Ariadne Vromen, a professor of political sociology at the Australian National University, says Dutton will have to "heal a divided party and a divided Coalition, and create a new persona for himself" as leader of the party for the Australian public.

But given his track record, it is doubtful if this leopard can change his spots. Or, to use another old adage, any smiles that appear might just signify that he is nothing more than mutton dressed up as lamb.