The Man Who Did the Most Damage
Peter Dutton: The Architect of Australia’s Surveillance State
When you look back across every episode of this series — every shocking power grab, every breach of privacy, every law passed under the cover of “national security” — one name appears more than any other.
Peter Dutton.
He didn’t write every law. He didn’t pass every bill.
But he left fingerprints on all of it.
As Minister for Home Affairs, Dutton presided over the most authoritarian expansions of surveillance power in Australia’s history. He wasn’t just a rubber stamp.
He was an architect.
He introduced the Identify and Disrupt Bill (2021) — legalising government hacking, account takeovers, and data manipulation.
He championed the Encryption Backdoor Law (TOLA, 2018) — forcing tech companies to compromise security and hand over your messages.
He empowered ASIO, pushed for expanded metadata access, and led the charge on treating dissent as threat.
And in 2025 — after all of it — this is the man the Liberal Party wanted as Prime Minister.
Let that sink in.
The Surveillance State’s Chief Engineer
What makes Dutton unique isn’t just the number of times he appears in this series.
It’s that every time he appears, the state gets more dangerous.
More invasive.
More secretive.
He didn’t just tolerate authoritarianism.
He made it his brand.
Under his watch:
- Encryption backdoors became law (TOLA, 2018)
- Warrantless account takeovers became legal (Identify & Disrupt, 2021)
- Predictive surveillance was trialled
- Journalists were raided
- Whistleblowers were jailed
And throughout, Dutton didn’t just legislate fear —
he campaigned on it.
Surveillance wasn’t a cost.
It was the product.
At every fork in the road, Peter Dutton chose secrecy over transparency, power over restraint, and fear over freedom.
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This isn’t political rhetoric.
It’s a matter of public record.
And his reward?
He was nearly made Prime Minister.
Honourable Mentions
Peter Dutton may have been the most active force —
but he didn’t act alone.
Scott Morrison, Prime Minister from 2018 to 2022, was the man under whom many of these laws passed.
He led the government that passed TOLA. He expanded metadata retention. He normalised a public discourse where dissent was threat.
And when he left politics, he didn’t fade quietly.
He was appointed to a lucrative role in the private defence sector —
and was awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours.
Not for dismantling any of it.
He monetised it.
And the state rewarded him.
Lest we forget, Morrison is also the architect of AUKUS — a $368 billion defence deal that further locked Australia into a security state mindset.
His legacy isn’t just domestic authoritarianism.
It’s international militarisation.
And what of Labor?
Anthony Albanese, the current Prime Minister, inherited the system. But he hasn’t dismantled a thing.
Not a single one of these laws has been repealed.
Not a single reform implemented.
He’s comfortable with the machine as it is.
So while the Liberals appear worse — largely because they were in power longer — this is not a partisan failure.
The apparatus of surveillance is now a shared legacy.
Conclusion: The Face of the Machine
If this series had to name a face —
a single person who embodies the rise of the surveillance state —
it wouldn’t be a shadowy bureaucrat or a nameless agent.
It would be Peter Dutton.
The man who wrote the rules.
Who justified the powers.
Who expanded the regime.
And who wanted to run the whole country.
We should never forget that.
