Peter Dutton took a moment to go off script and tell a story during his hour-long address to the Liberals’ official campaign launch, about a female factory worker who recently stopped him at the door. “She said, ‘I just want to say thank you and give you a hug’. And I said, ‘Well, why?’ And as she hugged me, she broke into tears, and she said, ‘Because you saved my daughter’s life’.”

Dutton was home affairs minister when her daughter’s partner had his visa cancelled. She had been the repeat victim of domestic violence. “That loving mother was fearful that her daughter would lose her life,” Dutton said. “To me, that was the human face of the decisions that we have to make.”

Peter Dutton pitched himself as a protector at Sunday’s campaign launch.Credit: James Brickwood

Dutton pitched himself as the protector of women and young girls in Sunday’s televised address. He also showed up as a family man. The former police officer has long cultivated the image of a strongman leader. A combination of all three is how he wants voters to see him in the election.

As women’s attitudes towards Dutton have become a loaded issue – polling this month showed female voters drifting........

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