Dutton's defence policy reveal turns into gender battle
Peter Dutton's big reveal on defence policy has been sidetracked by the re-emergence of a missing frontbencher, under fire for old comments on women in combat roles.
Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie, a former Special Air Service Regiment captain, said in 2018 his view was that the "fighting DNA of a close combat unit is best preserved when it's exclusively male".
Mr Hastie's comments re-emerged after a Liberal Party candidate was disendorsed for saying the Australian Defence Force needed to remove women from combat corps.
As the coalition trails Labor in the polls on a two-party preferred basis, Mr Dutton visited a defence manufacturing company in Perth on Wednesday to reveal his policy.
The opposition leader toured the facility and was shown satellite antennas used by Australia's military for secure communications.
Mr Dutton helped lift the lid on a box with kit inside and posed in front of boxes draped in the Australian and Italian flags, two of the countries the defence company supplies with its technology.
But during the press conference, questions quickly turned to Mr Hastie's conspicuous absence from national media during the campaign.
Asked whether he thought women should serve in combat roles, Mr Hastie answered it was the coalition's policy they were open to women in frontline defence positions.
"It's been a longstanding position," he told reporters.
"The one thing that we will insist on is high standards, because in combat there's no points for seconds, so we need to be able to win every fight that we go into."
Pressed on his response, Mr Hastie attacked Labor for saying his position was "untenable".
"(Defence Minister) Richard Marles talks a big game, talks about the most dangerous strategic circumstances since the end of the Second World War, and he uses women in the ADF as a political prop, and I think it's a shameful scare campaign that he's running on this," he said.
Polling has shown a decline in support among women for the coalition.
Western Australia is key to Australia's nuclear submarine deal with the US and UK, with a rotation of boats to begin at HMAS Stirling from 2027.
The mining state helped deliver Anthony Albanese his 2022 election victory.
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