Jim Chalmers calls Peter Dutton ‘most divisive leader’ in modern Australian history

Treasurer uses John Curtin Oration to accuse opposition leader of deliberately stoking culture wars and division Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The treasurer has unleashed a stinging attack on the opposition leader, calling Peter Dutton “the most divisive leader of a major political party in Australia’s modern history”, as he defended the Labor government’s economic performance since coming to office. Delivering the annual John Curtin Oration in Melbourne, which marks the anniversary of Curtin’s Labor government’s 1943 landslide election victory, Jim Chalmers accused the opposition leader of starting culture wars, dog whistling and dividing Australians “deliberately, almost pathologically”.