Peter Dutton bald due to skin condition; Ray Hadley rips Tanya Plibersek over Voldemort comments

Peter Dutton has revealed he’s bald because of a medical condition after a Labor frontbencher was slammed for likening him to the Harry Potter villain ‘Voldemort’ in a brutal insult.

The incoming Liberal Party leader on Thursday said he had accepted an apology from Tanya Plibersek, after she made fun of his appearance on Queensland’s Radio 4BC on Wednesday. 

Mr Dutton said: ‘I’m not bald by choice, I was diagnosed with a skin condition a couple of years ago, it’s all just the reality of getting older.

‘You read that sort of stuff online and it’s sort of the sewer of Twitter… I just don’t think you need to be nasty and mean.

‘I’m not the prettiest bloke on the block but I’m hopeful I’ll be pretty effective.’

Taking the controversy in his stride, Mr Dutton added his two teenage sons also regularly tease him about his bald head.

He said he reminds them ‘that I had more hair than they did at 16 and 17′ and that they may also have the same gene.

Peter Dutton (pictured), who is expected to be the next leader of the Liberal Party, has been compared to Harry Potter’s archenemy Voldemort, by senior Labor MP Tanya Plibersek

Outspoken radio host Ray Hadley blasted the woman expected to become Australia’s next Education Minister, arguing that if a male politician made similar remarks mocking a female MP’s looks it would end their career.

‘Just imagine this, if a male politician had made reference to a female politician and her looks. It would have been resignation time,’ he said on 2GB radio.

‘So let’s apply the same rule to you Tanya that would apply to any man making an unkind and unnecessary comment about the appearance of a woman.

‘Start thinking about that before you make another comment.’

In jawdropping comments in the wake of Labor’s historic election win, Ms PLibersek a lot of children who have watched the films will be very ‘frightened’ of the former Defence Minister when they see him on TV.

‘I am saying he looks a bit like Voldemort and we will see whether he can do what he promised he would do when he was last running for leader, which is smile more,’ Ms Plibersek told 4BC radio.

Ms Plibersek with her boss, now-Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

Hadley said the comments were probably made out ‘over confidence or exuberance’ after winning office.  

‘It’s a lot easier to be in opposition than it is to be in government, as Tanya found that out yesterday,’ he said.

‘When you are in opposition, you may have gotten away with comments like that in the past but now you’re in government, likely to be a frontbencher, you can’t get away with that sort of stuff.’

He added that it’s a dangerous precedent to make people’s appearance the benchmark in which we discuss politics. 

‘There are some very ordinary heads on your side of parliament as well,’ she said.

‘It really tells you a bit about Tanya and where she sits. I’m greatly disappointed in that comment.’