Peter Dutton says young men are ‘fed up’ with being ostracised under ‘woke’ diversity practices

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has argued that young men are ‘fed up’ with feeling ostracised and are sick of being treated like ogres.

He believes push-back on “woke” practices, such as being overlooked for jobs under affirmative action policies, was gaining momentum, and the decline of “wokeism” would be accelerated after the election of Donald Trump as US president.

One of Mr Trump’s first executive orders after being sworn in earlier this week was to direct all government officials responsible for overseeing diversity, equality, and inclusion efforts at federal agencies to be placed on immediate administrative leave, and all programs cease.

Speaking on Mark Bouris’ Straight Talk podcast, Mr Dutton said in the US and elsewhere young males felt “disenfranchised and ostracised”.

“They’re saying, ‘Well, hang on, I have nothing but respect for women, and I would never treat my female friends differently than my male friends’,” he said.

“But I’m being told that I’m some sort of ogre, or I have some belief structure which is true to that, which I know is, is, you know, what I hold in my heart.

“I think there’s just a point where people are fed up and they are pushing back and saying, ‘well, why am I being overlooked at work for a job, you know, three jobs running when I’ve got, you know, a partner at home, and she’s decided to stay at home with three young kids, and I want a promotion at work so that I can help pay the bills at home’ and so I think all of that has morphed.”

Mr Dutton said no one should be discriminated against on the basis of gender or race.

He pointed to The Voice result as a sign that “wokeism”, pushed by universities and the left, was in decline in Australia.

“I just think most Australians have moved on and I also think in our country The Voice allowed people to say ‘thank goodness. I thought I was the only one’, who thought that you know this wasn’t necessary, wasn’t a good thing for our country, wanted to help Indigenous people, but just didn’t think this was the way to do it.

“And, all of a sudden it turns out well, there are six seven out of 10 in your workplace that think exactly the same way as you do.

“And I so I think it’s allowed people . . . they’re more inclined to be able to speak out.”

Opposition to diversity and inclusion initiatives doubled from 2019 to 2023, the Diversity Council of Australia reported, with fewer than 10 per cent of Australian workers opposing them.

Mr Dutton slammed chief executives of publicly listed companies who refused to speak out on some important issues but instead supported woke causes because their marketing people told them to.

“I mean, a lot of CEOs of publicly listed companies, have got HR and marketing people saying to them, don’t enter into these debates, don’t say anything’’ Mr Dutton said.

“Whereas a generation ago, the CEOs of BHP or Coles or Myers or, you know, the big sort of iconic brands felt an obligation to be on the front page of The Fin (Financial Review) advocating for tax change or for industrial relations reform.

“Or for, you know, workplace, whatever it might have been and now they’re they only feel that they can comment on in support of some of the work causes because their marketing people are telling them that will get them greater popularity online again.

“I just think it’s a level of weakness that doesn’t serve our country our country’s best interests.”