John Howard predicts the tide is about to turn on the teals

The former prime minister believes the Liberals can win back ‘the mob’ who deserted the party at the last election, including reclaiming its former NSW jewel of Wentworth.

Former prime minister John Howard and Liberal candidate for Wentworth Ro Knox at a fundraising cocktail party hosted by Knox. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian

John Howard has predicted the teal independent vote will collapse once voters have to choose if they want to keep Labor in power at the next election, as he launched the Coalition’s push to take back its former NSW jewel of Wentworth.

The former prime minister spoke with former AFR journalist and author Joe Aston at a cocktail fundraiser for the Liberal candidate for Wentworth, Roanne “Ro” Knox, at the eastern suburbs waterfront home of Patrick Holt.

Ms Knox, a former Deloitte consultant, said it was incredible to have the former prime minister’s backing.

“I’ve heard so many people say ‘It’s so hard to win this time, why don’t you run next time, the whole teal experiment will be over then’,” she told the room, which included prominent businesspeople such as Caledonia ­investments group founder Mark Nelson.

“We can’t afford to lose. This is the most important election of our lifetime … The possibility of a minority Labor government re­inforced by the Greens is very, very powerful … Peter Dutton and I have talked about this a lot.

“Wentworth has to be part of that 19 (seats the Coalition needs to win back).”

Allegra Spender won Wentworth in 2022 with a margin of 4.2 per cent but a proposed redistribution that would add Woolloomooloo and Darlinghurst and parts of Randwick and Clovelly to the seat is expected to increase her ­margin.

Ms Knox said they would need to raise a lot of funds – Ms ­Spender’s last campaign cost about $2.1m – as well as engage a lot of volunteers.

Mr Howard gave a glowing endorsement of Ms Knox, who describes Mr Howard as a “huge mentor” with incredible “clarity”.

“I’m here tonight because I think Ro is the right combination of talent and personality to win this seat back,” Mr Howard said.

“It’s not easy … Part of that mob deserted us at the last election, and the good thing is some of those people are coming back.

“I think the teals will be ­dissolved as a group when the public decides they want a Liberal government. People will say the only way to get a Liberal government is to vote Liberal.”

Mr Howard spoke on a range of topics, including incoming ­governor-general Sam Mostyn’s $709,000 salary, saying he could not understand how the government handled the issue. “I think the government is very inept,” he said. He also praised the Opposition Leader and his ambitious nuclear energy policy.

“There is no doubt that nuclear is a reliable, clean source of base-load power … I think the ­argument for nuclear is overwhelming,” he said, adding that younger people appeared to be more receptive to the idea.

“I haven’t seen the outbreaks of ‘I’m in favour of that but not here’. I haven’t seen to much NIMBYism.”

He said Mr Dutton had shown great courage, and that as a leader you “need to trust your instincts”, adding there were lots of people who told him not to run an election on GST.

“I’m optimistic. People admire people who have a go,” he said.

He also accused Anthony ­Albanese of weakness on anti-Semitism. “If our PM had set the tone after October 7, we would not have gotten these unacceptable outcomes on anti-Semitism,” he said.