Well, here we go again (“ ”, June 3). A faction in Kooyong has started to agitate for Mr Josh Frydenberg to be the Liberal candidate in this seat. The current selected candidate, Amelia Hamer, won the right to be the candidate with a large majority vote (233 to 59), nine weeks ago.
Will we next hear that she has “generously” stepped aside for Mr Frydenberg? Being a woman, she must know what action is expected of her. While the Liberals would be foolish to override the preselection of Amelia Hamer, it is unlikely to happen, not because of a preference for a woman candidate but because Josh Frydenberg would pose too much of a challenge to Peter Dutton’s leadership. The rumours concerning the return of Josh Frydenberg as a candidate for the Liberal Party at the next election seem to overlook the fact that he was ousted and not wanted in the parliamentary party leadership.
The Liberal Party seems characterised these days by a series of mis-steps. For example, this push for nuclear reactor power; the preferencing of male aspirants over female contenders for seats in both the lower house and the senate; the politicisation of migrant releases from detention and so on, all decisions in which the former minister for home affairs, Peter Dutton, is deeply embedded. Josh Frydenberg suffered a humiliating defeat to an independent woman in 2022 and one expects, as a former and entitled Liberal Party politician, that he continues to smart over that defeat.
But his electorate spoke.