Dutton goes off script, labels Albanese a ‘child in a man’s body’

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has launched a strikingly personal attack on Anthony Albanese, deriding the prime minister as a fraud, an appeaser and a “child in a man’s body” as he vowed to override premiers opposed to the construction of nuclear-power plants in their states.

Dutton’s comments – delivered to an audience of Liberal Party politicians, administrators and party activists in Sydney on Saturday – represent a significant escalation in the opposition’s rhetoric and a potential preview of election campaign attack lines the Coalition will deploy as they try to paint Albanese as a weak leader.

Departing from written notes distributed to media outlets ahead of his speech, Dutton said that cartoon memes about the safety risks of nuclear posted on social media by senior Labor politicians in recent days – including of three-eyed fish and koalas – showed “the juvenile nature of our prime minister”.

“He’s a man with a mind still captured in his university years; he’s a child in a man’s body,” Dutton told the Liberal Party’s federal council, declaring that “we need a mature conversation in this country” on nuclear power.

Labelling Albanese “a political appeaser, not a leader of conviction”, Dutton said: “Whatever audience Mr Albanese is addressing, he tells them what they want to hear, not what needs to be said.”

He continued: “I think Mr Albanese is a decent man who cares deeply about his country, but I believe he is completely out of his depth as prime minister.”

Dutton said Albanese had told West Australians he was committed to the gas industry while assuring Canberrans that no taxpayer funds would be spent on gas projects under his Future Made in Australia plan.

“The people of the great state of Western Australia can pick a fraud from the east coast, there’s no doubt about that. And they picked a fraud in this prime minister,” Dutton said in another line that was not included in his speech notes distributed to the media.