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Independent MP Monique Ryan has dismissed former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg as focusing on the past after his election defeat four years ago, while avoiding addressing his claim that her supporters personally abused him during the 2022 election campaign.<\/p>\n
Liberal frontbenchers are backing Frydenberg for a potential rematch with Ryan in the affluent inner-Melbourne seat of Kooyong, with the upcoming launch of his book, A Grateful Son, feeding speculation he is paving the way for another tilt.<\/p>\n
![\"Josh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/5756cb395486090b1b93f77384c4d27c1bf00a07.jpeg\")
Josh Frydenberg and Monique Ryan.SMH\/The Age<\/p>\n
Frydenberg has accused Ryan\u2019s camp of dialling the personal vitriol \u201cup to 11\u201d despite promising to reform standards in the 2022 contest, in which the independent seized the seat as part of a broader teal wave. The defeat scuppered Frydenberg\u2019s political future, which his colleagues thought as treasurer could have included the Liberal leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the hypocrisy. Ryan\u2019s supporters piously committed to a kinder, gentler style of politics, even as they waged a campaign thick with personal abuse,\u201d Frydenberg said in an extract of his book provided to The Australian.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposition was not merely that they were right and we were wrong; it was that they were good and we were bad. And because they were good, they were entitled to do as they pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said hundreds of his signs were defaced, including with swastikas, his staff were bullied at polling stations, and posters were put up branding him a traitor, without suggesting who was behind the attacks.<\/p>\n
Frydenberg was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n
Tensions are already rising ahead of the next election, due before mid-2028, even as security agencies urge calm in an increasingly febrile political climate. Threats against MPs have only continued to soar<\/a> since the 2022 campaign, with the 2025 election subject to a co-ordinated disruption operation from far-right figures.<\/p>\n Ryan was targeted when ex-Proud Boy Harrison McLean heckled her<\/a> at a community event. Another Kooyong candidate forum was crashed by a white supremacist<\/a>.<\/p>\n The independent was embarrassed that same year after her husband was filmed tearing down a corflute<\/a> for Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer, who nearly toppled Ryan in a last-minute postal vote surge.<\/p>\n Ryan on Friday did not reject Frydenberg\u2019s claims, instead saying the extract \u201crevisits his recollections of the 2022 election campaign\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMy focus then was the failure of the Morrison government to deliver on the issues that mattered most to the Kooyong community,\u201d she said in a statement, adding she was grateful to the thousands of volunteers who supported her campaigns.<\/p>\n \u201cMr Frydenberg will spend the coming weeks focusing on past events. My focus will remain, as it always has, on the Kooyong community.\u201d<\/p>\n Frydenberg also attacked Simon Holmes \u00e0 Court, the founder of fundraising outfit Climate 200, which funds Ryan\u2019s campaigns.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cHolmes \u00e0 Court\u2019s Twitter account was a non-stop flow of toxic sludge, including calling John Howard \u2018the angel of death\u2019, a term widely known as the epithet of Auschwitz \u2018doctor\u2019 Josef Mengele,\u201d he said. Holmes \u00e0 Court has rejected the claim he had made a Nazi reference and threatened to sue over the claim. Holmes \u00e0 Court was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n Leading Coalition moderate Andrew Bragg said on Friday he had supported Frydenberg in his last tilt and thought the former treasurer had more to contribute.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he has a lot to offer Australia,\u201d the opposition housing spokesman said.<\/p>\n Bragg, who was chided for speculating on migration numbers ahead of Taylor\u2019s policy announcement, joins fellow frontbencher Angie Bell, who told this masthead last month that Frydenberg and his high profile would be welcomed back with open arms<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all about Josh so it\u2019s situation normal,\u201d a senior Victorian Liberal source said. \u201cWhile he\u2019s keeping his options open I don\u2019t think he will ultimately run. Our primary vote would have to rise substantially for him to have a chance.\u201c<\/p>\n Frydenberg is also facing a potential brawl on the timing of any preselection for Kooyong.<\/p>\n Some senior Victorian Liberal operatives who are not supportive of Frydenberg would like to see a candidate selected in the first quarter of next year. But Frydenberg\u2019s supporters suggest he will seek to delay an announcement on his candidacy until the latest possible moment, as he assesses the political terrain and the likely success of winning the seat.<\/p>\n Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson has levelled similar accusations at the Climate 200 machine after narrowly defeating independent candidate Zoe Daniel<\/a> in Goldstein in 2025 \u2013 a feat that made him the only Liberal to have won a seat back from a teal.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile they drape themselves in integrity, the evidence base clearly shows there was deeply dishonest, deceitful and at times illegal behaviour,\u201d he said in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the election, adding an intimidation campaign prompted him to move house<\/a>.<\/p>\n Daniel has in turn accused the Liberal Party of a shepherding a \u201cvicious\u201d smear campaign against her.<\/p>\n While MPs gear up for another fierce contest over the country\u2019s affluent inner-city suburbs some time before May 2028, election analyst Antony Green said they were not the seats that would turn the election.<\/p>\n \u201cWinning back seats like Kooyong, the Liberal Party has to do it at some stage if it ever wants to get back into government. But in the current political climate, you\u2019d have to say that One Nation is the bigger issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Green said the Liberals could not rely on preferences in a seat like Kooyong, where One Nation has little presence and Greens and Labor voters tended to preference the independent. That means the party needs to increase its primaries, despite losing a third of its vote around the country since the last election.<\/p>\n \u201cLast time the Liberal got 43 per cent, the independent got 34, and the independent caught up and passed on preferences,\u201d Green said. \u201cThe Liberals have got to get closer to 50 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n No gift articles left<\/p>\n You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n Close![\"Leaked](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/53605f92ed68ee0412d2542235c28d9d81d035dba944f58b355ae143a205f873.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Brittany](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791539413_963_af71def990bb09f8d3ae9269dff8c75c2d45963c.png\")
Brittany Busch<\/a> is a federal politics reporter for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791539415_673_119281a2607761852c4e3d0bae521b8cb3f98cb4.png\")
Paul Sakkal<\/a> is Chief Political Correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and won a Walkley award and the 2025 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year. Contact him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated October 9, 2026 \u2014 5:57pm,first published 3:54pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":921688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-921687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}