The Liberal Party’s man most likely
 
IT was second-time lucky for Joshua Frydenberg, who last weekend was preselected to contest the leafy Melbourne seat of Kooyong.
Frydenberg’s success means he is likely to become the first Jewish Liberal to sit in the House of Representatives in Canberra.
A friendly congratulatory call from Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull this week helped Frydenberg see his dream of having the opportunity to represent the area he grew up in become a reality.
Following recent changes to Liberal Party preselection procedure, Frydenberg had to lobby local party members hard in the lead-up to what became the Liberal Party’s biggest ever preselection.¬†”It’s a very humbling feeling to get the endorsement of the members at such a big conference -— there were over 530 people there,” he said.¬†
“Given the history of the seat, I am conscious of the responsibility to the electorate and to party.”¬†Kooyong is what is known as a “federation seat”. It has existed since the first parliament was formed in 1901. Amazingly, in that time only six men have held the safe-as-houses Liberal seat.¬†Frydenberg, if he wins the seat at the next federal election, will serve the same electorate as Australia’s longest-serving prime minister, Robert Menzies, and long-time opposition leader Andrew Peacock.
He could also become the third Jewish MP in the next parliament -— after Labor’s Michael Danby and Mark Dreyfus.¬†”I’m very conscious there have been some Jewish federal parliamentarians, each of whom have made a distinguished contribution to the parliament on both sides of politics,” Frydenberg said.¬†
“I’m very conscious of continuing in that tradition of that contribution and advancing Australia’s interests.”¬†Despite growing up in Kew, outside the “bagel belt”, Frydenberg attended both Mount Scopus Memorial College and Bialik College, and continues to be a member of Kew Hebrew Congregation.
He also credits Australia’s second Jewish governor-general Sir Zelman Cowan as a positive inspiration.¬†Sir Zelman, he said, sits alongside his former employers, John Howard and Alexander Downer, as inspirations, as well as Harvard Professor David Gergen.¬†Frydenberg met Prof Gergen, who was a senior adviser to presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, while studying at Harvard University for his Master of Public Administration degree.
It was the second time Frydenberg has contested preselection — he suffered a resounding defeat in a gutsy 2006 attempt -— and, while he admitted the second preselection was a “high-pressured environment for a long period”, he sees this as “the end of one journey and the beginning of another”.¬†He will continue in his senior role at Deutsche Bank for now, as he transitions to his new position as the candidate for Koooyong.
In his spare time he plans to work hard in the electorate of Kooyong as he seeks support in the lead-up to the next election.¬†”It would be a great privilege to follow in the footsteps of [current member] Petro Georgiou, who has made a significant contribution to both the Liberal Party and to Australia.”
Photo:  Joshua Frydenberg is virtually assured a seat in the next federal Parliament after winning preselection in the safe Liberal seat of Kooyong in Melbourne.    Photo by: Peter Haskin