Trio Canberra bound
FOR the first time in two decades, three Jewish MPs will sit in Canberra's Parliament House.
FOR the first time in two decades, three Jewish MPs will sit in Canberra’s Parliament House.
Among the trio will be Josh Frydenberg, who made history at the weekend when he became Australia’s first Jewish Liberal MP in the capital. He will sit opposite Labor MPs Michael Danby and Mark Dreyfus, who held their seats in the closest election campaign since World War II.
Hundreds of wellwishers gathered at famous pizza restaurant Colombo’s, in the Melbourne suburb of Balwyn, to celebrate Frydenberg’s achievement in the seat of Kooyong.
“I say to everybody in the room, I am humbled by this challenge. I think Tony Abbott has led the Coalition brilliantly and while I will be a proud member of his team, I will be an even prouder member of Kooyong and as your representative,” the Mount Scopus Memorial College graduate said on the night.
Cheers rang out around the restaurant on Saturday evening each time a Liberal won a seat, with the general tone in the room optimistic at the possibility the Coalition could claim overall victory.
“Tonight is a historic night, not just because we won Kooyong, but because we could win nationally,” an emotional Frydenberg announced.
The win has been a long-time coming for the former adviser to then prime minister John Howard and then foreign minister Alexander Downer.
In 2007, the ambitious Frydenberg issued a preselection challenge to the blue ribbon seat’s incumbent, Petro Georgiou, but was defeated.
When Georgiou announced he would retire at the 2010 election, Frydenberg worked tirelessly to persuade local Liberal members he should be preselected in the seat and was rewarded after a vote in the middle of last year.
With a background in international relations, Frydenberg is predicted to take a strong interest in foreign affairs when he arrives in Canberra.
In his acceptance speech on Saturday night, Frydenberg, 39, thanked his fiance Amie Saunders, family, friends and campaign staff for their support and encouragement.
As in many seats around the country, there was a significant swing to The Greens, but Frydenberg won the seat easily. Kooyong, with Sydney’s Wentworth, are the only two Australian seats to have begun at Federation and never gone to the Labor Party.
For full coverage of the election, see this week’s AJN.
DALIA SABLE AND NAOMI LEVIN
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