Peter Dutton Biography, Age, Family, Education, Career And Net Worth

Peter Dutton Biography

Peter Craig Dutton (born 18 November 1970) is an Australian Liberal Party politician serving in the Morrison government as Minister of Home Affairs and has served for Dickson since 2001 as a Member of Parliament (MP). Dutton served in the government of Abbott and Turnbull as Minister of Health and Sport from 2013 to 2014 and as Minister of Immigration from 2014 to 2017.

He was appointed Minister of Home Affairs on 18 July 2017 and officially appointed on 20 December 2017 by the Governor-General to lead the Department of Home Affairs, a newly created portfolio to oversee ASIO, the AFP and the Border Force. Previously, he served in the Howard Government as the Minister for Workforce Participation and Revenue Minister and Assistant Treasurer.

Peter Dutton Photo

Despite his low popularity with voters and an ongoing grassroots campaign to depose him from Dickson’s seat, news outlets controlled by Rupert Murdoch have often hailed Dutton as a future prime minister.

He challenged Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for Liberal Party leadership in the first spill of August 2018 but was defeated by 48 to 35 votes. Following the spill, Dutton resigned from the Second Turnbull Ministry and rejected Turnbull’s invitation to remain in the Cabinet.

In the second leadership contest, Treasurer and Acting Minister of Home Affairs Scott Morrison defeated Dutton with 45 votes to 40. Following the Governor – General’s appointment of Scott Morrison as new Prime Minister on 24 August, Morrison reappointed Peter Dutton as Minister of Home Affairs, but relinquished his Immigration and Border Protection duties and responsibilities and appointed David Coleman as Minister of Immigration.

Peter Dutton Age

He is 48 years old as of 2018.

Peter Dutton Family Photo | Children

Dutton was born with one brother and three sisters in Boondall’s northern Brisbane suburb, the eldest of five children. His mother Ailsa Leitch was a childcare worker and a builder was his father Bruce Dutton. At the Anglican St Paul’s School, Bald Hills, Dutton finished high school.

In 1988, Dutton joined the Young Liberals. He became the Bayside Young Liberals ‘ political vice-chair the following year and the branch’s chair in 1990. The 19-year-old Dutton ran unsuccessfully in Lytton’s safe Labor seat as the Liberal candidate against Tom Burns (former state ALP leader) at the 1989 Queensland state election.

Dutton graduated from the Academy of Police in Queensland in 1990. He has been a nine-year Queensland Police officer, working in the early 1990s at the Drug Squad in Brisbane. He also worked with the National Crime Authority and the Sex Offenders Squad. He worked as a second job in a building business with his father.

In 1999, Dutton left the police force to become a businessman, graduating from Queensland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Business. He and his father founded the Dutton Holdings business, which was registered in 2000, operating under six different names of business and trading.

Buying, renovating, and transforming buildings into childcare centres, the company sold three childcare centres to the now-defunct ABC Learning in 2002. ABC Learning continued to lease a commercial lease to Dutton Holdings until at least 2007. Under the name Dutton Building & Development, Dutton Holdings continues to trade.

Peter Dutton Wife

Dutton married his first wife at the age of 22, but after a few months the marriage ended. His eldest daughter, born in 2002, splits time in a shared parenting arrangement between her parents. His second wife, Kirilly (born Brumby), with whom he has two sons, was married in 2003.

Peter Dutton Education

Peter Dutton Career

Dutton was elected to the Division of Dickson at the 2001 election, defeating Labor’s Cheryl Kernot. He was elevated to the ministry after the 2004 election as Minister for Workforce Participation, a position he held until January 2006. He was then appointed Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Revenue. He successfully retained Dickson at the 2007 election, which saw the government lose office. However, his margin was reduced to just 217 votes more than Labor’s Fiona McNamara.

Opposition (2007–13)

Following the 2007 election, Dutton was promoted to shadow cabinet by the new Liberal leader Brendan Nelson, as Shadow Minister for Finance, Competition Policy and Deregulation. In 2008, he chose not to be present in the chamber during the apology to the Stolen Generations, which enjoyed bipartisan support. He said “I regarded it as something which was not going to deliver tangible outcomes to kids who are being raped and tortured in communities in the 21st century.” Later, in a 2014 interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Dutton said he regretted boycotting the apology: “I underestimated the symbolic and cultural significance of it.”

In September 2008, Nelson was replaced as Liberal leader by Malcolm Turnbull, who appointed Dutton as Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing. He retained that position when Tony Abbott succeeded Turnbull as leader in December 2009. In June 2010, Dutton released the Coalition’s mental health policy. It received favourable reviews, with The Australian describing it as “the most significant announcement by any political party in relation to a targeted, evidence-based investment in mental health”. Dutton retained his seat with a positive swing at the 2010 federal election, despite an unfavourable redistribution. In the lead-up to the 2013 federal election, he announced a range of Coalition health policies, which were received favourably by industry groups. The Australian Medical Association said “the Coalition has delivered a strong package of practical, affordable health policies that would strengthen general practice”, while Cancer Council Australia said that “Dutton’s promise to finalise the bowel cancer screening program by 2020 would save an additional 35,000 lives over the next 40 years.”

Attempted seat shift

As the 2010 election approached, it looked like Dutton would lose to the Labor candidate due to a redistribution of division boundaries that had erased his majority and made Dickson notionally Labor. To safeguard himself, Dutton sought pre-selection for the merged Liberal National Party in the safe Liberal seat of McPherson on the Gold Coast (despite not living in or near McPherson). Some constituents complained, “The abandoning of a seat by a sitting MP halfway through a parliamentary term to contest pre-selection in a seat over 100 kilometres to the south is not looked upon favourably.”

Dutton lost the McPherson pre-selection to Karen Andrews, reportedly due to misgivings from former Nationals in the area. He then asked the LNP to “deliver him a seat for which he doesn’t have to fight other preselection candidates.” Liberal MP Alex Somlyay (the chief Opposition whip of the time) said that Dutton’s expectation of an uncontested preselection was “unusual.” When the state executive didn’t provide Dutton an unchallenged preselection, Dutton reluctantly returned to campaign for the seat of Dickson.

Cabinet minister (2013–present)

Minister for Health

Dutton retained his seat at the 2013 election. He was appointed to the Ministry by then Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and served as Minister for Health and Minister for Sport.

 

As Health Minister, Dutton announced the world-leading $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund. As announced, the capital and any ongoing capital gains of the Medical Research Future Fund will be preserved in perpetuity.

Under Minister Dutton, projected funding in the health portfolio increased in the 2014-15 Budget to $66.9 billion, an increase of 7.5 percent from $62.2 billion in 2012-13, the final full year of the Labor Government. Projected expenditure on Medicare increased over 9.5 percent from $18.5 billion in 2012-13 under Labor to a projected $20.32 billion in 2014-15 under Dutton. Funding for public hospital services increased by nearly 14 percent under Dutton in the 2014-15 Budget to a projected $15.12 billion compared to $13.28 billion in the last full year of the Labor Government in 2012-13.

In a 2015 poll by Australian Doctor magazine, Dutton was voted the worst health minister in the last 35 years by 46 percent of respondents. However, only 1,100 out of the magazine’s 20,000 readers voted.

Minister for Immigration (2014–17)

Dutton (left) meeting with EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos in 2016.

Dutton (third from right) at an Australian citizenship ceremony in 2017.

On 23 December 2014, Dutton was sworn in as the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection after a cabinet reshuffle.

In September 2015, Dutton cancelled the visa of anti-abortion activist Troy Newman, over remarks in his 2000 book Their Blood Cries Out.

In 2016, News Corp Sunday political editor Samantha Maiden wrote a column critical of Jamie Briggs. Dutton drafted a text message to Briggs describing Maiden as a “mad fucking witch” but inadvertently sent it to Maiden. Maiden accepted an apology from Dutton.

Before the 2016 election, Dutton said of refugees “many … won’t be numerate or literate in their own language let alone English”, and “These people would be taking Australian jobs”. Turnbull defended Dutton by stating he is an “outstanding Immigration Minister”. Against a statewide swing against the government of 2.9%, Dutton’s margin fell from 6.7% to 1.6%, leaving him with a margin of less than 3,000 votes against Labor candidate Linda Lavarch.

Sarah Hanson-Young

On 5 June 2015, Dutton denied claims made by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young that she was spied on during a visit to Nauru. At the same time, he called into question her credibility saying “she’s written to me on some issues which are completely fanciful when you have a look at the facts and she’s got a track record of making these things up.” He also claimed that “What Sarah Hanson-Young is about is publicity. She loves the camera and she loves to see her own name in the paper. That’s the start and finish of Sarah Hanson-Young.” Hanson-Young responded that “Peter Dutton can attack and insult me as much as he likes, but nothing will change the fact that my work has revealed systemic child abuse and the rape of young women on Nauru under his watch.” The spying claims were later confirmed by the Immigration Department and Wilson Security who carried out the spying operation.

Au pair cases

In June 2015, an au pair who was detained at Brisbane Airport made a phone call and had her tourist visa reinstated. In November, in a second case, Dutton granted a visa to another au pair, despite his department warning him that she was at risk of breaching her work conditions on her tourist visa. Dutton indicated that he knew neither tourist. In August 2018, Roman Quaedvlieg indicated that he had personal knowledge of one of the cases, and was seeking to correct Hansard if it did not match his knowledge. A third au pair was granted a visa due to lobbying by AFL chief Gillon McLachlan, she was due to stay with his relative Callum Maclachlan. Dutton’s department again warned him there were indications that she was intending to work for Callum’s family. A Senate inquiry into two of the cases is due to report on 11 September 2018.

Rising seas joke

On 11 September 2015, Dutton was overheard on an open microphone, prior to a community meeting on Syrian refugees, joking about rising sea levels in the Pacific Islands. He said “time doesn’t mean anything when you’re about to have water lapping at your door”. Dutton initially refused to apologise, saying it was a private conversation, but later apologised. The foreign minister of the Marshall Islands at the time, Tony deBrum, responded by writing the “insensitivity knows no bounds in the big polluting island down [south]” and the “Next time waves are battering my home [and] my grandkids are scared, I’ll ask Peter Dutton to come over, and we’ll see if he is still laughing,”

Comments on Lebanese immigration

In November 2016, Dutton said it was a mistake by the Malcolm Fraser administration to have admitted Lebanese Muslim immigrants. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Dutton was making a specific point about those charged with terrorism offences. “He made it quite clear that he respects and appreciates the contribution that the Lebanese community make in Australia.”

Manus Island

On 15 April 2017 shots were fired by the Papua New Guinea defence force into the Manus Island Detention Centre. Dutton responded saying “There was difficulty, as I understand it, in the community. There was an alleged incident where three asylum seekers were alleged to be leading a local five year old boy back toward the facility and there was a lot of angst around that, if you like, within the local PNG community.” “I think there was concern about why the boy was being led or for what purpose he was being led away back into the regional processing centre. So I think it’s fair to say that the mood had elevated quite quickly. I think some of the local residents were quite angry about this particular incident and another alleged sexual assault.”

However, the regional police commander on Manus Island said a young boy who was 10, not five, had gone to the centre two weeks earlier to ask for food. He said “It’s a total separate incident altogether”[59] The Greens senator Nick McKim said Dutton had been caught telling an outrageous lie. “This has disturbing echoes of the Children Overboard affair lies.”

On 31 October 2017, the Papuan Government closed down the Manus Island regional processing centre. However, 600 men residing in the processing centre refused to be moved to alternative accommodation in the town of Lorengau and staged a protest. Dutton defended the closure of the processing centre and asserted that the Papuan authorities had given notice of the camp’s impending closure in May 2017. He also rejected Australian Greens Senator Nick McKim’s report that there was no safe alternative accommodation available as false and claimed McKim was inciting trouble. Following a prolonged standoff with Papuan security forces, the remaining men were evacuated, many forcibly, to new accommodation. Arrangements have been made to resettle an unspecified number of the asylum seekers in the United States. The others will be moved to either a different part of Papua New Guinea or a different country.

In mid-November 2017, Dutton rejected an offer by the newly-elected New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to resettle 150 asylum seekers from the Manus Island detention centre in New Zealand and warned that it would have repercussions for the two countries’ bilateral relations. He also claimed that New Zealand’s offer would encourage people smugglers. Dutton also criticised a New Zealand offer to provide $3 million for services for asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru as a “waste of money” that could be spend elsewhere, such as displaced people in Indonesia. In addition, Dutton criticised Australia’s Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s call for Australia to accept the New Zealand offer as an attempt to appease the Labor Left with “cheap political stunts and mealy-mouthed words”.

Minister for Home Affairs (2017-present)

Dutton (second from right) announcing the creation of the new Home Affairs portfolio in July 2017.

Dutton (right) at the swearing in of Michael Outram as Commissioner of the Australian Border Force in May 2018.

On 20 December 2017, Dutton was appointed the Minister for Home Affairs with responsibilities of overseeing the Department of Home Affairs which was established on the 20 December 2017 by Administrative Arrangement Order. The Home Affairs portfolio is a major re-arrangement of national security, law enforcement, emergency management, transport security, border control, and immigration functions.

In March 2018 Dutton made calls to treat white South African farmers, as refugees, stating that “they need help from a civilised country”. However, his offer was rejected by Afrikaner rights organisation AfriForum, which stated that the future of Afrikaners was in Africa, as well as by the survivalist group the Suidlanders, which took credit for bringing the issue of a purported “white genocide” to international attention, and for Dutton’s decision and was met with “regret” by the South African foreign ministry. The Australian High Commissioner was subsequently summoned by the South African foreign ministry, which expressed its offence at Dutton’s statements, and demanded a “full retraction”.

His proposal got support from some of his party’s backbenchers and Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm with Leyonhjelm later clarifying that he thought that South African farmers should be admitted under existing visa programmes, and could not be regarded as refugees. National Party of Australia MP Andrew Broad warned that the mass migration of South African farmers would result in food shortages in South Africa. Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema encouraged white farmers to take up Dutton’s offer. After initially leaving the door open to changes, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop subsequently ruled out any special deals for white South African farmers, emphasising the non-discriminatory nature of Australia’s humanitarian visa programme. In a subsequent interview, Dutton vowed to push forward with his plans, saying that his critics were “dead to me”.

In April 2018, it later emerged that Dutton’s department had previously blocked asylum applications by a white farmer, and another white South African woman; with the decisions upheld by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Immigration from New Zealand

As both Immigration Minister and Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton has defended an amendment to the Migration Act 1958 that facilitates the denial or cancellation of Australian visas for non-citizens on “character” grounds. This stringent “character test” also affects non-citizens who have lived in Australia for most of their lives or have families living in the country. New Zealand nationals living in Australia were disproportionately affected by this “character test” with over 1,300 New Zealanders deported between January 2015 and July 2018 from Australia. In 2017 alone, 620 New Zealanders had their visas cancelled on character grounds, according to a report from the Home Affairs Department.

In July 2017, a special Skilled Independent Subclass 189 visa was introduced by Dutton’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection to provide New Zealanders with a special category visa to acquire Australian citizenship. The visa requires NZ nationals to hold a five-year Special Category Visa and maintain a $53,900 annual income. Between 60,000 and 80,000 New Zealanders residing in Australia are eligible for the 189 visa subclass Skilled Independent. By the end of February 2018 1,512 skilled independent visas were issued with another 7,500 visas still being processed by the end of February 2018. Australian Greens Senator Nick McKim criticized the Skilled Independent subclass 189 visa as a stealth tool to favor “English-speaking, white and wealthy” migrants.

Dutton ordered the deportation in early July 2018 of controversial New Zealand Baptist Pastor Logan Robertson, who disrupted service at two mosques in Kuraby and Darra in Brisbane. Dutton approved the cancelation of Robertson’s visa on the grounds that he had violated his visa conditions, stating that “we have a wonderful tradition in our country of freedom of speech, but we’re not going to tolerate people going to a place of worship and harassing others.” Robertson had early sparked controversy in New Zealand over his homophobic remarks and opposition to same-sex marriage.

Dutton’s immigration “character test” became the subject of a controversial Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary “Don’t Call Australia Home” in mid-July 2018, focusing on New Zealanders deported from Australia. In response, Dutton issued a tweet to defend his policy of deportation, claiming that deportation of 184 “bikies” saved Australia $116 million. In response, New Zealand Justice Minister Andrew Little, who also appeared in the documentary, criticized Australia’s deportation laws for lacking “humanitarian ideals.” The release of the documentary also coincided with the release from an Australian detention center of a 17-year-old New Zealand youth who had caused friction between the two governments. In response, Dutton defended the policy of deportation of non-citizen criminals by his government and chastised New Zealand for not contributing enough to help Australian naval patrols intercept “people smugglers.”

On 21 August 2018, after several days of feverish leadership speculation, of which Dutton was at the center, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called a snap ballot from the Liberal Party leadership. Dutton responded to Turnbull’s ballot call by challenging formally for party leadership and won 35 out of 83 available votes, 7 out of a majority. Then, despite Turnbull’s offer to retain his position as Minister of Home Affairs, Dutton resigned from the Ministry and the media speculated that Dutton and his party’s conservative backers were likely to challenge the leadership again in the near future. Three days later, Dutton called for another leadership spill, and Malcolm Turnbull presented the Governor-General with his resignation. Treasurer and Acting Minister of Home Affairs Scott Morrison defeated Dutton by 45 votes to 40.

Doubts surrounding Dutton’s eligibility to be elected to parliament emerged on the grounds of section 44(v) of the Australian Constitution, as Dutton’s family trust operated a child care center that received more than $5.6 million in funding from the Commonwealth Government, in a similar situation to the case of Bob Day. Although Dutton had received legal advice stating he was not in breach of section 44(v), Labor had received counter-consultation; the Attorney General referred the matter to the Solicitor-General at Turnbull’s request.

Labor tried to move a motion on 23 August to refer Dutton’s eligibility as an MP to the High Court in a similar manner to references made during the recent crisis of parliamentary citizenship. By 69 votes to 68, the motion failed. On 24 August, the Solicitor-General advised that, under section 44(v) Dutton, he was “not incapable” to sit as an MP, although he added that he had been provided with limited factual information and that, owing to differences of judicial opinion in earlier High Court decisions on section 44(v), the legal position of Dutton could not be completely clear without a referral to the High Court. Dutton was reappointed by Scott Morrison in the Morrison Ministry to his former Home Affairs portfolio, however the Immigration and Border Protection duties were removed from the role and assigned to David Coleman.

Dutton is in line with the Liberal Party’s right – wing, conservative faction. He was described as a populist right wing and opposes an Australian republic.

Violence

Dutton said people in Melbourne are afraid to go out because of “African gang violence” which leads people living in Melbourne to ridicule him.

Same-sex marriage

Dutton opposes marriage between the same sex. In March 2017, in The Sydney Morning Herald, it was reported that Dutton “said privately it was inevitable that same-sex marriage would become law in Australia so it would be better for the Coalition, rather than Labor, to control the process” Dutton’s actions were publicly opposed to same-sex advocates and “the forcefulness of Mr Dutton’s attack on corporate chief executives last week-in which he told them to’ stick to their knitting’-has aroused suspicion among some colleagues who believed he was committed to achieving a breakthrough on[ same-sex marriage]” The following month The Daily Telegraph reported that a lesbian had asked Dutton to clarify his position, and he “told her he had been clear that he was against same-sex marriage” Dutton voted “very strongly against same sex marriage” in his political career. However, he voted in favor of the 2017 Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act that legalized same-sex marriage; in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, 65 percent of his constituency voted “Yes”

In March 2017, 31 CEOs signed a letter calling for a free vote in the Australian Parliament on same-sex marriage to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. In response to this letter, Dutton said on 16 March 2017 that the CEOs “shouldn’t shove their views down our throats” and that CEOs who “doing the wrong thing” should “be publicly shamed” Dutton repeated his criticism at a speech to Queensland’s LNP State Council on March 18.

As an attempt to censor expressions of support for same-sex marriage, Dutton’s comments were heavily criticized, with some commentators also accusing him of hypocrisy given his support for changing Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. Former New South Wales Premier Kristina Keneally said that according to Dutton, “Free speech is great and should be expanded, unless it’s an Australian corporate CEO talking about same-sex marriage. Then they need to shut down.” Liberal MPs and ministers Julie Bishop and Simon Birmingham also expressed disagreement with Dutton’s comments.

A 67-year-old man pushed a pie into Qantas CEO Alan Joyce’s face on May 9, 2017, while Joyce spoke at a Perth function. The assailant confirmed the next day that the attack was to protest against the same-sex marriage support of Joyce. In his criticism of pro-sex marriage CEOs, Dutton had highlighted Joyce, leading some advocates of LGBTI to hold him partially responsible for the attack. Dutton condemned Twitter’s attack.

Negative gearing

Dutton, who owns six properties with his wife, including a Townsville shopping center, opposes any changes to negative gearing that currently offers property investors tax breaks, stating that changing them would harm the economy.

White genocide conspiracy theory

Dutton was accused of supporting and promoting the conspiracy theory of the white genocide. He declared in 2018 that in South Africa, Boers needed refugee status in Australia due to “the horrific circumstances they face” BBC News reported that the “message of white genocide” from the Suidlanders group had “resonated” with Dutton, prompting him to offer white South African farmers fast-track visas because they were “persecuted” claiming that they needed assistance from a “civilised” country.

Peter Dutton Net Worth

He has an estimated net worth of $20 million.

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Peter Dutton breached gift rules over caravan refurbishment, Labor says.

Minister declared mobile office’s remodelling but there is no record of required repayment of gift’s value.

Labor has accused Peter Dutton of breaching ministerial rules by failing to pay taxpayers for the value of his mobile office caravan’s refurbishment, gifted to him by a business in north Brisbane.

In May 2017 Peter Dutton declared that Kedron Caravans had refurbished the caravan’s interior, but the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has revealed he is not among those who paid for gifts valued over $300 in 2017.

Under the relevant rules gifts above that value must be purchased by ministers paying the difference to the department.

In an answer to a question on notice, the department revealed that in 2017 only then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells had paid for gifts, which ranged from $55 for a calligraphy print to $1,925 for a silk carpet from the president of Afghanistan.

Labor believes the fact Peter Dutton declared the gift on the parliamentary register of pecuniary interests indicates the caravan renovation is worth more than $300 and should have been paid for by now.

Dutton has used the caravan as a mobile office since 2001, although photos uploaded to social media indicate it has been spruced up, with new signage indicating Dutton has made “over 2,000 visits and counting”.

According to an article in Caravan World that features on the Kedron website, Dutton is a caravan enthusiast who bought his first caravan, a 1974 York, years ago from Kedron.

The article states that in 2016 the MP visited Kedron’s Brendale factory “to congratulate the Gall family on 50 years of industry service and to help launch Kedron’s new suspension kit”.

Kedron Caravans is a manufacturer that offers custom-builds of new caravans but does not appear to offer a refurbishment service.

At Senate estimates on 18 February, officials said the department did not cross-reference the pecuniary interest register with payments made by ministers to check whether they were abiding by their obligations.

Morrison backs Dutton claim refugees’ medical care will ‘displace’ Australians
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Stephanie Foster, the deputy secretary of the governance group, confirmed that if Dutton had made a payment it “should appear” on the 2017 list produced by the department. Foster suggested the department could question the Department of Home Affairs about the value of the caravan renovation.

The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, labelled the gift a “sweetheart deal” and said Dutton should have paid back “any monies owed that were above the limit of $300”.

“It is clear this gift would be worth more than $300,” he said.

“He is flouting the rules on gifts.”

In October, Julie Bishop faced similar questions over whether her Jimmy Choo shoes were above the $300 limit, but denied breaching ministerial rules.

In February the attorney general, Christian Porter, denied reports that the former state Liberal politician Joe Francis had given three buses to the Liberal party, saying the party had agreed to pay for them but the transaction had not yet been completed.

A spokesperson for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet said Dutton had declared the item on his pecuniary interests register.

“What constitutes an official gift in accordance with the [guidelines] and the declaration of official gifts is a matter for individual ministers.

“Declarations of official gifts that are over the allowable limit are to be declared to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, in accordance with the guidelines.”

Dutton and the Department of Home Affairs have been contacted for comment.