My father was Liberal premier, but I can’t support his party

Fifteen months ago, Josh Frydenberg asked if we could get coffee. Today, I’m the volunteer manager for Monique Ryan – leading her 1500 volunteers in an attempt to unseat him. How did this happen?

In 2016, I was encouraged to work for a “moderate” Liberal Party MP, who I am choosing not to name. The notional interview was one of the most homophobic experiences of my life. The climate scepticism, sexism, and disregard for basic scientific principles didn’t help. If these are the moderates, who on earth are the conservatives?

Rob Baillieu: “If these are the moderates, who the hell are the conservatives?”Credit: Simon Schluter

The truth is there is little difference between a moderate and a conservative if you vote the same way, protect the same selfish culture, and promote the same lines. Some people claim that the moderates are nice people, but it’s not enough to be a nice person. You have to be a good person.

Good people would take action on climate change, they protect the rights of LGBT people, and support an anti-corruption commission. Good people don’t attack their own state as it struggles to control a pandemic, or use charities and public institutions to advance their own political causes.

The legacy of Scott Morrison and Frydenberg is a forecast trillion dollars of debt, a stagnant energy sector, the decline of Australia on Transparency International’s corruption index, and fostering what I believe is the worst political culture we’ve ever known. These are not the achievements of decent people.

Their lack of substantive leadership has caused the Liberal Party to lose its way. The commitment to small-l liberal values has collapsed under the weight of party greed and infighting.

As the son of a Liberal premier, I could be in the mix, I could be running a Liberal MP’s campaign. But I can’t. I’m sorry, I don’t want to be rich, nor powerful, at the expense of others. That’s not my business. I don’t claim to be a good person. But I’m trying to be, and that’s more than I can say for many modern Liberal Party MPs.

I’ve slowly distanced myself from the party – in this generation of leadership, I saw little to admire. If we want better leadership we have to foster it in the community ourselves.

Josh never followed up on that coffee. That’s OK. Three months after that call, I joined 20 other people in founding Voices of Kooyong. Seven months later, I met Monique Ryan, a paediatric neurologist, and head of the Department of Neurology at the Royal Children’s Hospital.

In Dr Ryan I found a selfless, hard-working, intelligent leader. Someone with a demonstrated lifelong commitment to her community. Someone ready to champion action on climate change and integrity in politics. Someone prepared to do politics differently.

Independent candidate for Kooyong, Monique Ryan.Credit: Australian Financial Review

In five months, Ryan has built the largest community movement in Kooyong’s history. She has raised millions of dollars from thousands of donors throughout the community. She has put up more corflutes on houses than any candidate in Australia – in sharp contrast to the paid billboards of her opponent.

Remarkably, 80 per cent of her volunteers have never campaigned, volunteered, or been a part of a party. Many ex-Liberal voters. They are the middle ground of Kooyong – tired of the major parties and the self-serving political culture of the last decade.

This is a testament to Ryan’s leadership. If she can do all this in five months, imagine what she can do in parliament.

Kooyong could come down to 500 votes, and it could reset Australian political culture for the better. If Ryan unseats the federal treasurer it will send a shockwave through Canberra. No politician can take their electorates for granted anymore. They’ll have to commit to a higher standard of leadership, accountability and political integrity. For the first time in history, the votes of Kooyong electors will matter.

Some people say we are taking out the next generation of Liberal leaders. This is not true – they’ve taken themselves out of the next generation. If your vision of the future is a vision of the past, then you aren’t the leader we need.

The next generation of Liberals are now supporting independent candidates because we know they will be accountable to their electorates not their parties. We know they will champion pragmatism, not ideology. We know they will be a check on the greed andself-interest of some politicians. We know they will offer a vision for the future, not the past.

I’ll vote for that.

Rob Baillieu is the son of former Victorian premier Ted Baillieu and is working as the volunteers manager for Monique Ryan, the independent candidate for Kooyong.