Josh Frydenberg

Joshua Anthony "Josh" Frydenberg (born 17 July 1971) is an Australian politician. He has been the Liberal member for Kooyong in the Australian House of Representatives since August 2010. In September 2013, Frydenberg was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister with responsibility for the Abbott government's deregulation agenda.

Early life and education

Josh Frydenberg was born in Melbourne and educated at Bialik and Mount Scopus Colleges. His mother is a psychologist and University of Melbourne Professor, and his father is a general surgeon.

Frydenberg studied law and economics at Monash University, earning honours in both degrees, before working at Mallesons Stephen Jaques, a large Australian commercial law firm. He attended the University of Oxford on a Commonwealth scholarship, where he attained a Master of International Relations degree in 1998 and was a student at University College. He also attained the degree of Master of Public Administration at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.^[2]

Career

In 1999 he worked as an assistant adviser to Attorney-General Daryl Williams before becoming an adviser to Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, a post he held until 2003. From 2003 to 2005 he was a policy adviser to Prime Minister John Howard, specialising in domestic security issues, border protection, justice and industrial relations. In 2005 he took up a position as a Director of Global Banking with Deutsche Bank in the company's Melbourne office.^[3]

2006 political candidacy

In 2006 Frydenberg announced that he was seeking Liberal preselection for Kooyong, a safe Liberal seat in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The seat's incumbent member, Petro Georgiou, had held the seat since 1994. Kooyong is regarded as a Liberal "leadership seat": its three "leader" members before Georgiou were Andrew Peacock (leader of the Liberal Party 1983-85 and 1989–90), Sir Robert Menzies (founder of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister 1939-41 and 1949–66), and Sir John Latham (leader of the Nationalist Party 1929-31).

In the days leading to the preselection convention, Queensland frontbenchers Ian Macfarlane, Peter Dutton and Santo Santoro backed Frydenberg's credentials, for which they were criticised by former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett.^[4]

The preselection was held at Trinity Grammar School on 23 April 2006. ^[5] Georgiou received 62 of the 85 Liberal Party delegates' votes, with Frydenberg receiving 22 votes and a third candidate, Alastair Armstrong, receiving one vote. After his defeat, Frydenberg was encouraged to run for preselection in the Division of Chisholm by Peter Costello, a marginal electorate neighbouring Kooyong; the seat was held by Anna Burke of the ALP, and was previously held by one of Frydenberg's mentors, Michael Wooldridge. Frydenberg declined the offer, saying, "This is where I am from, this is where I feel most comfortable and this is where I think there is real work to be done."^[6]

Parliamentary career

After Georgiou had announced his intention to retire at the next election, Frydenberg won preselection to contest the seat of Kooyong after beating industrial lawyer John Pesutto at the Melbourne Convention Centre on 20 June 2009.^[7] Frydenberg's candidacy was supported by references from former Prime Minister John Howard and former Opposition Leader Andrew Peacock.^[8]

At the 2010 federal election, he won the seat with 52.56% of the primary vote and 57.55% of the two party preferred vote.^[9]

In his maiden speech, he recounted the story of his grandparents' and great-aunt's migration to Australia from Nazi controlled Europe and lauded the contribution of migrants to communities within his electorate. He also enunciated his belief in small government, called for stronger ties with Asia while also maintaining a solid alliance with the US and proposed a target of having two Australian universities within the world's top ten by 2030.^[10]

At the 2013 federal election, Frydenberg was re-elected with the largest swing to the Liberal Party in the seat since 1975. He was sworn in as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister on 18 September 2013, with particular responsibility for the government's deregulation agenda.

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