In that press conference, when Dutton was asked about the dumped Liberal candidate for Whitlam, Ben Britton (who was dumped following reporting from Sarah Basford Canales at the Guardian about his previous comments, including that women shouldn’t be in the ADF)

Britton is now running as an independent.

And he still believes women shouldn’t be in the ADF, telling Sydney radio 2GB:

My position is the same as Andrew Hastie, the Shadow Minister for Defence and the great Jim Molan that women should not serve specifically in combat roles, specifically in the Army itself.

Now this is a little awkward because in that press conference when Dutton was asked whether women should serve in the ADF, he said: “I think you saw my record as Defence Minister in relation to women serving in any role they want to serving in the Australian Defence Force”.

He then Andrew Hastie agreed with his (Dutton’s) position.

Which is not the position Hastie held in 2018 (with thanks to a friend of the blog for pointing this out)

Hastie told Sky News in 2018:

My personal view since you’ve asked me is that close combat roles are incredibly exacting that’s why we have rigorous selection courses. And my personal view is the fighting DNA of a close combat unit is best preserved when it’s exclusively male. Now that’s not a popular view. You know, we’ve changed it five years ago, but you asked my personal view. There it is.