Scott Morrison steps up attack on ‘indie’ candidates

Scott Morrison has doubled down on denouncing the independents movement targeting a raft of Coalition-held seats.

Scott Morrison at the Bribie Island Surf Life Saving Club in Queensland on Tuesday. Picture: Dan Peled

Scott Morrison has doubled down on denouncing the independents movement targeting a raft of Coalition-held seats at next year’s federal election, after revelations the candidate hoping to unseat Josh Frydenberg was previously a member of the Labor Party.

Monique Ryan, who stepped down from her role as director of the neurology department at the Royal Children’s Hospital for her tilt at federal politics, was confirmed as an independent candidate for the Treasurer’s inner-city Melbourne seat of Kooyong this month under the “Voices of” banner.

The Coalition is facing challenges from as series of female independent candidates at the next election, but the Prime Minister has labelled the campaign “Voices of Labor”.

Despite previously describing herself as a political “cleanskin”, Ms Ryan was a member of the ALP for three years – but she said she quit the party in 2010 because of her resistance to Kevin Rudd going soft on climate change after he backflipped on an emissions trading scheme.

“I’m not wearing the same jumpers I was wearing 10 years ago,” she told Channel 10.

The Prime Minister on Tuesday said the revelation was “proof” the campaign was not genuinely independent but was centred on “pushing an agenda which is much more aligned with Labor and the Greens”.

“I said they were the Voices of Labor – and that’s proof positive that they are,” he said.

“This is a political party which is opposing the LNP, the Liberal Party, the Nationals. This is a political movement funded by big money down there in the southern states to try and turf out the government. That’s what they’re about.

“It’s Labor and the Greens that they are the voices of, and are doing their bidding.”

Mr Frydenberg said Ms Ryan’s history as a Labor Party member was a “joke”.

“Independents are anything but, just a front for Labor and the Greens,” he wrote on Twitter.