Josh Frydenberg: a lot left in the tank

Josh Frydenberg has conceded defeat in Kooyong. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Josh Frydenberg has conceded defeat in Kooyong, the Melbourne seat he has represented for 12 years. After balancing his first budget in 2019, Mr Frydenberg, 50, provided outstanding financial leadership to take Australia through the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a measure of his skills that after being told by Treasury that the nation faced unemployment of 15 per cent due to Covid, the Morrison government leaves office with 3.9 per cent unemployment.

If he had managed to retain Kooyong, Mr Frydenberg would have held Jim Chalmers and the Albanese government to account like nobody else as they negotiate a difficult, inflationary environment. The fact Mr Frydenberg has lost his seat, to a teal independent with no tax policy and no defence policy, is one of the worst outcomes of what has sometimes been a low-grade, unedifying campaign by the Climate 200 movement.

As the hardest-working MP in parliament, with a computer-like knowledge of the complex portfolios he has held (environment and energy; and resources, energy and Northern Australia, before Treasury), Mr Frydenberg is a talent that Australia’s democracy can ill-afford to lose. He is more than a formidable policy wonk and politician, however. After leaving school, he played tennis before university. After graduating from Monash in law and economics, he worked in law, banking, as a political adviser and as a jackaroo, and completed degrees at Harvard and Oxford, where he won blues for tennis. In Kooyong and Canberra, Mr Frydenberg’s dedication and kindness in helping those in need, and his decency and patience in dealing with everyone from opponents and bureaucrats to constituents and journalists, are well known and appreciated. He is respected for his substance and intellect.

Like many post-war immigrants, the Frydenbergs are a great Australian story. Mr Frydenberg’s grandparents were migrants from Europe who came to Australia seeking a better life. His great-grandparents, and many relatives on both sides, perished in the Holocaust, he told parliament in his maiden speech. His mother became a psychologist and his father a surgeon. At a time when anti-Semitism, sadly, is rising in Australia, voting out a Jewish man, who has built bridges with those of all faiths and none, is a loss to the nation. As the count has gone against Mr Frydenberg, we hope he will be back. It was encouraging on Saturday night to hear that he has “a lot left in the tank’’.