The burden of handling one of
federal politics’ most controversial portfolios isn’t holding back Immigration
Minister Peter Dutton from building his substantial personal wealth.
The Member for Dixon is one of
parliament’s less publicised multi-millionaires, having accumulated assets
worth at least $10 million — perhaps as much as $20m — mainly through
investment in residential real estate.
While protesters this week
were hijacking the parliament over the Turnbull government’s refugee policies,
Dutton was disclosing that he had been on a real estate spending spree since
May.
He’s snapped up two new
properties for his portfolio in his beloved Queensland — one in inner city
Brisbane’s Spring Hill and another in far north Queensland’s Townsville.
No wonder Dutton was one of
the most strident critics of Labor shadow treasurer Chris Bowen’s
proposal to end negative gearing on property.
“Labor’s essentially said they
want to lower house prices and they want to increase rents and I think that
would be a disaster,” Dutton said of the proposal back in March.
Going by these latest
acquisitions, those fears have passed.
With his Perth-born wife Kirilly,
Dutton, 46, also has investment properties in Canberra’s Kingston, one on
Moreton Island and a $2.4m beachfront pile he bought last year in Palm Beach.
That home sits on “Millionaire’s Row” alongside one owned by surfing legend Kelly
Slater, the former boyfriend of Baywatch’s Pamela Anderson.
The Duttons live in an
expansive 20,000sq m spread at Camp Mountain — which is just over a 30-minute
drive northwest of Brisbane’s CBD.
All up, that makes six
residential properties in the Dutton portfolio.
And the family also control
childcare operations in Queensland.
The former Queensland cop got
the property bug early — buying his first property when he was 19, funded by a
paper run as a teenager, work after school in a butcher and a strict avoidance
of smashed avocado. On the side from his policing, he worked in the building
business, Dutton Holdings, he founded with his father.
The pair developed childcare
businesses, which they eventually sold to ABC Learning’s Eddie Groves,
who back in 2004 was a donor to Dutton’s election campaign.
The now failed businessman
gave Dutton $15,000 in two tranches in 2004. Considering their subsequent
trajectories, Groves now might need that money back.
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