DUTTON'S DEEP STATE
Peter Dutton is not the hero Australian conservatives were hoping for [2 Minute Read]
If you’re a fan of spy movies you will, at some point or another, have encountered the classic plot line in which the heroic protagonist is betrayed by his own government intelligence agency, whether as a result of infiltration or corruption and is forced to ‘go rogue’ to save the day.
In fact this plot has been repeated so many times it could not be described as anything other than cliche; James Bond, Jason Bourne, Captain America, Ethan Hunt (multiple times) and even Johnny English have all been forced at one time or another to tangle with their own traitorous intelligence agency. Now it seems another intelligence operative is being bought face to face with his own power hungry intelligence agency, only this time it seems unlikely the operative will turn rogue to save the day, and what’s worse - his story isn’t fictional.
This intelligence operative’s name is Peter Dutton and he is the new leader of the Liberal Party. Peter Dutton made headlines this week, as he often does, for voicing his ‘no-nonsense’ adversarial stance on China. Dutton has long been known for his hardline tough-talking when it comes to the rising military red power and being Australia’s minister for defence, this seems fitting.
What does not make sense is Duttons actions to counter this perceived threat by the foreign power. Under Dutton, anything within Australia’s surveillance agencies were expanded, their powers broadened and their budget increased.
In 2021 Dutton was a huge proponent of Scott Morrisons ‘anti-trolling’ bill, he did after all sue a small twitter user for defamation - the main function of the bill in question.
In 2020 Peter Dutton confirmed that the $1.6bn cyber security strategy included giving the Australian Signals Directorate the ability to target Australians for the first time.
In 2019 he was a proponent of giving the Australian Signals Directorate the ability to conduct “offensive cyber” operations domestically.
Of course, It would be remiss of me not to mention that Dutton was appointed leader of the department of home affairs in 2017 - a department that lists such agencies as the Australian Federal Police. ASIO along with 6 other bodies as its ‘child agencies’
All of these powers have been accumulated by Dutton for the federal government, often under the pretext of defending us from foreign threats. Just this week however we heard the the Liberal party is shifting its strategy away from sabre-rattling with China because it is loosing them Chinese-Australian voters. This begs the question, where do our bloated intelligence agencies turn their attention if not China? The answer: these powers will be turned inwards.
The Australian Signals Directorate has already led the raid of an Australian journalist, it would be foolish to believe this was a one off. These powers are now at the fingertips of the sitting Labor government, it does not take much imagination to hypothesise the hell that could be rained upon conservatives that become an inconvenience to the Labor party
Considering the incessant abuse America’s ‘deep state’ intelligence agencies level against conservative Donald Trump, it should be clear that strengthening similar agencies in Australia would be a bad idea. From the false allegations of russian collusion sourced from the ‘Steele Dossier’, named after FBI informant Christopher Steele to the recent unprecedented FBI raid on Trump’s home - in which every document on the property was seized for investiagation, it is hard to understand how Peter Dutton could not forsee how his actions could lead to similar problems for Australian conservatives in the future.
If Australia has a ‘deep state’ Peter Dutton certainly does not stand in opposition to it - I would even go so far as to say he would be one of its highest ranking members. If Dutton is the hero many on the right have hoped he will be this could be positive, however I believe Dutton is more loyal to the Liberal party machine than any conservative tenant or Christ’s church.