With a cost-of-living election to fight, Dutton strikes a delicate balance on the ‘trans debate’

<p>The opposition leader doesn’t want to give oxygen to distractions that might appear divisive – and Liberal insiders believe it’s the right choice</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/feb/16/australia-news-live-tropical-cyclone-zelia-foreign-investors-housing-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton-federal-election-ntwnfb">Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates</a></li><li>Get our <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl">breaking news email</a>, <a href="https://app.adjust.com/w4u7jx3">free app</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/series/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl">daily news podcast</a></li></ul><p>When Peter Dutton called a rare Canberra press conference on Tuesday to respond to Donald Trump’s tariffs strike, the opposition leader may well have been expecting questions about another matter close to home.</p><p>A day earlier, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/11/peter-dutton-pauline-hanson-transgender-healthcare-inquiry-conscience-vote-ntwnfb">a clear majority of the Coalition’s 30 senators supported Pauline Hanson’s call </a>for a parliamentary inquiry into the “human cost of experimental child gender treatments”, such as puberty blockers.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/16/with-a-cost-of-living-election-to-fight-dutton-strikes-a-delicate-balance-on-the-trans-debate">Continue reading...</a>