Five Liberal golden boys who should go to the top of the class

IT'S time to do a list of Liberal MPs who deserve to be moved to the frontbench if Tony Abbott wins the next election. Politicians detest these lists. Those on the list think it will infuriate the leader, making promotion more difficult. Those not on the list are incensed at not being there. And the deadwood on the frontbench get irate at any hint of demotion. A touchy subject for another day maybe. That aside, here are my top five Liberals.

What determines a spot is not a mystery. It requires qualities absent from those on last week's roll call of Labor MPs to blame if Labor loses office in September. Those Labor politicians lack political convictions, decent political judgment and have an even poorer understanding of policy implementation. Most importantly, they have never known what it means to run an enterprise, small or large. They are clueless about the risks, the red-tape frustrations, the staffing problems, the daily stress of budgets. Ergo, today's candidates must understand these real-life dilemmas.

Unfortunately, none of the top five Liberals appears to have John Howard's deeply intuitive understanding of small business. They have mostly worked in big businesses. Howard, the son of a garage owner, recalls in his biography working the petrol bowser on weekends, watching the exhaustion of his father and the effect of no penalty rates, no overtime, no guaranteed market share. As Howard wrote in Lazarus Rising: "The qualitative difference between owning and operating a genuinely small business and working, even at a senior level, in a large corporation is immense and rarely understood by those involved in it."

"Years later Paul Keating would sneeringly refer to the 'bowser boy from Canterbury (sic)'. To me it was a badge of honour," wrote Howard.

That said, today's five MPs offer real-life skills largely absent from Labor's frontbench.

With the Howard legacy looking stronger and more sensible by the day, the natural heirs to this inheritance necessarily pick up the top spots. They understand the importance of the Howard-Costello economic story whereas so many senior Labor ministers have fatally ignored the Hawke-Keating legacy.

Arthur Sinodinos takes out No 1 spot. Notwithstanding his recent clumsy failure to disclose some directorships, the NSW senator deserves a high-ranking frontbench role. Howard's longstanding chief-of-staff sat in the engine room of the Howard government's economic reforms. He is a former economist who held senior positions in the federal Treasury and will add policy gravitas to an Abbott government.

An economic rationalist, but not flint-dry, as one senior Liberal described him, Sinodinos understands the importance of finding the right policy balance. He is the epitome - perhaps the drafter - of the Howard rule that it is better to be 80 per cent pure in government than 120 per cent pure in opposition. And Sinodinos has the right political instincts, a blessed relief from the blunders of the Gillard government, whose five-day Contiki tour of western Sydney is surely politics at its worst.

Josh Frydenberg, the young gun from Victoria, is in second place. Petty political and factional rivalries aside, it is impossible to find a person who is not mightily impressed with the 42-year-old MP elected to parliament in 2010. Yes, Frydenberg is a former staffer of a federal attorney-general (Daryl Williams), a foreign minister (Alexander Downer) and, of course, a prime minister (Howard). He is also a former lawyer and director of Deutsche Bank with degrees from Monash University, Oxford University and Harvard.

And more than any other younger member of the Liberal caucus, Frydenberg is the flag-bearer of the Howard legacy, not just on economic matters, but stretching from foreign policy and other big policy debates all the way through to fighting the history wars. Representing Robert Menzies' seat of Kooyong, Frydenberg understands the importance of respecting the party's traditions. But he is not too respectful. After all, he took on Liberal icon Petro Georgiou, who had the support of Ted Baillieu, Jeff Kennett and Peter Costello, in a 2006 preselection battle.

"Never underestimate Josh Frydenberg," Downer told The Australian last week. "I look for passion," said the former foreign minister. Frydenberg fits that bill.

So does Alan Tudge, who sits third and also deserves a frontbench position. A man with quiet determination, the member for Aston in Victoria has spent most of his working life in business and as deputy director of Noel Pearson's Cape York Institute where he was at the forefront of welfare policy reform. He also co-founded Teach for Australia, a non-profit organisation that draws upon the country's best graduates to teach in disadvantaged schools. Tudge's passion and determination are beyond question. Whether that translates into ministerial ability remains to be seen but Tudge's calm common sense is missing from today's government.

Fourth spot goes to Paul Fletcher, the member for Bradfield in NSW, whose meticulous grasp of policy is likely to stand him in good stead on the frontbench. Fletcher also has a CV you won't find among Labor frontbenchers. He worked for years in private enterprise and has seen the pointy end of regulation from the other side. The only Labor minister with business experience is former Midnight Oil singer Peter Garrett.

The other deserving candidate for promotion is Jamie Briggs from South Australia. A former adviser to Howard, what Briggs lacks in experience outside parliament he makes up with his astute political skills and passion for economic reform. The member for Mayo also gets points for courage for raising IR reform. If Briggs can temper his reform impatience with a honed skill of knowing when and how far to push, he will likely make a fine minister.

Others deserving honourable mentions include Angus Taylor, the impressive candidate in Hume, and Christian Porter, the brilliant young treasurer from Western Australia. However, they are unproven in federal politics. Of those in federal parliament, Kelly O'Dwyer from Victoria and Simon Birmingham from South Australia are notable. So too is Ken Wyatt in Western Australia.

But the top five are in a different league. Long conversations with the most senior current and former Liberal MPs confirm that. And, Lord knows, we need a hefty skills boost in the next government after the disorder that comes from being governed by imported spin doctors and political opportunists.