Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has launched a scathing rebuke of federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton following the Liberal Party’s comprehensive loss in the Aston byelection.
Speaking on ABC’sInsidersprogram earlier today,Dutton alluded to the furore surrounding controversial Victorian state MP Moira Deeming,who was suspended from the state party room for attending an anti-transgender rights protest in Melbourne that was crashed by neo-Nazis.
In his first media event since returning from China on Saturday,Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews let loose on federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party.
While key Liberal figures noted the controversy which engulfed the Victorian Liberal Party this week had not helped their chances in retaining the seat of Aston,Dutton weighed in today,saying that “people should have respect and the debate runs two ways”.
“Maybe not right here in the inner-city areas of our country,but in the outer metropolitan areas,this is an issue in terms of women’s rights and the gender issue that has parents and others very worked up,” he said.
Andrews described the opposition leader’s comments as “extraordinary”,rejecting the suggestion that suburban families are “up in arms” about transgender rights.
The Victorian premier said if you’re not willing to accept that life is not easy for transgender people,“then don’t pretend that you’ve got anything to offer other than your own insipid,nasty little version of bigotry”.
![Opposition Leader Peter Dutton with unsuccessful Liberal candidate for Aston,Roshena Campbell,today.](https://static.ffx.io/images/$width_300%2C$height_150/t_crop_auto/t_sharpen%2Cq_auto%2Cf_auto/cea3d77b7877bb1a91583519498936ca61d3285b)
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton with unsuccessful Liberal candidate for Aston,Roshena Campbell,today.Chris Hopkins
“(The) Liberal Party are a nasty,bigoted outfit,and people have worked it out. And that might be why they keep losing,” Andrews said at a press conference.
“To the extent that ordinary Victorians are concerned about issues of transgender Victorians,they’re concerned about extending a hand of friendship ... recognising the fact it’s not easy to be a trans Victorian.
“I think the people of Aston might also have remembered exactly what went on last year in the state election where the Liberal Party cuddled up and entered into a political partnership with racists,with extremists,people who have no place in mainstream politics.”
I think people have in Victoria,at least in Aston,have passed judgment on[Dutton’s] leadership and what he offers.[The Liberals have] a nasty brand of politics that is all about themselves.
For so long as the Liberal Party put forward a political offering that’s all about them,and not about hard-working Victorian families,then I think they will seldom be the choice of hard-working Victorian families.
Labor’s victory in Aston,a seat held by the Liberals since 1990,was the first time in a century that a sitting government has won a seat from the opposition in a byelection.
Andrews also congratulated Labor’s Mary Doyle,the newly elected member for Aston.
“[Doyle’s] a great local voice and she’s going to be a great champion for her neighbours ... she will work hard and that’s what every community is absolutely entitled to.”