Home affairs minister says politicians should not think they’re ‘better than the public we serve’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Peter Dutton has returned serve against veiled criticism in George Brandis’s valedictory speech by suggesting the former attorney general thought he was better than the public and aspired to be “the smartest person in the room”.

In an interview on 2GB radio, the home affairs minister acknowledged that he and Brandis had “clashed over the years”, which he said was “obvious” from the speech on Wednesday.

In the valedictory speech, Brandis, who formally resigned from the Senate on Thursday, defended his legacy by saying he had “not disguised [his] concern at attacks upon the institutions of the law, the courts and those who practise in them.

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“To attack those institutions is to attack the rule of law itself.”

He said it was the attorney general’s role to defend the rule of law “sometimes from political colleagues who fail to understand it, or are impatient of the limitations it may impose upon executive power”.

The comments were widely interpreted as a criticism of Dutton, who has recently been rebuked by by the Law Council and the Law Institute of Victoria over his claims that Victorians were “scared to go out to restaurants” due to street violence and that “civil libertarian” judges were to blame for lenient sentences.

On Thursday the broadcaster Ray Hadley said the speech was “a direct attack” on Dutton and the Senate was better off without Brandis.

Dutton defended himself by saying he had been “very careful” in his comments, which reflected public concerns about “disgraceful” lenient sentences in Victoria.

“The legal system has let us down,” he said. “People can criticise, it can be veiled, they can have the determination to try and undermine what I’m doing.

“All of it makes me more determined to make sure we keep going ... In the end, I want a safer society for our country.”

Dutton said politicians should ensure that “we don’t think we’re better than the public we serve or that we’re the smartest person in the room, whatever it might be that motivates [my critics]”.

The home affairs minister said that some lawyers “believe that they’re better than elements in society”. Asked if this applied to Brandis, he replied: “People can draw their own conclusions.”

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Dutton said that he respected legal institutions because he had never suggested that politicians should influence decisions on guilt and innocence, or admissibility of evidence. He said the courts would be stronger if they enjoyed public support.

Last Friday the Law Council rebuked Dutton for a plan to allow public feedback on a shortlisted nominees for judicial positions, warning that the “quasi-election” model that would politicise the judiciary.

Brandis also said that successive tranches of national security legislation had succeeded because they were bipartisan.

“I have heard some powerful voices argue that the Coalition should open a political front against the Labor party on the issue of domestic national security,” he said, warning that to do so would undermine public confidence.

“Nothing could be more irresponsible than to hazard the safety of the public by creating a confected dispute for political advantage.

“To his credit, the prime minister has always resisted such entreaties.”

Before the attorney general’s portfolio was handed to Christian Porter, and Brandis announced that he would depart to London as Australia’s next high commissioner, he lost a stoush inside the cabinet for oversight of national security bodies, which has been transferred to Dutton’s new home affairs super department.