Fresh from the mortifying news that he was sharing the second highest post in government with his leader, former treasurer Josh Frydenberg is being spoken of as a Liberal saviour. Apparently Peter Dutton has not inspired the nation in his role as opposition leader.
As outrage swirls around Scott Morrison for running a secret parallel ministry, there are some wistful musings about the prospect of Josh getting back into parliament, even by replacing ScoMo. The former PM has become an unwelcome presence on his own side, and few would be sorry to see his back. Perhaps only Labor really wants him to hang around.
Enter the Liberal elder statesman. John Howard has lunches with Josh Frydenberg. They talk politics, Honest John helpfully informed Radio National’s Patricia Karvelas on Wednesday. She then asked him about the prospects of Josh taking Scott Morrison’s seat of Cook.
Moving to Sydney? That’s fighting words for many a southerner, and we suspect it’s a long way from the former treasurer’s thoughts, especially now he has landed a job with Goldman Sachs. (A well-paying job, of course. Journalists don’t need to say that. Nor do journalists need to tell us police ”have established a crime scene” at the site of a triple murder).
The former PM parried the question with the expertise of a man who has had some role or other in every Liberal election campaign for 73 years (handing out leaflets in 1949, as a 10-year-old). The implication: not very likely.
But moving out of Melbourne may not have fulfilled the dream ambition of Josh’s electoral conqueror.
On Monday the ABC’s Four Corners took us inside the first days of some of the new independents in federal parliament.
Monique Ryan, the Teal independent who unseated Frydenberg in Kooyong, expressed surprise that parliament doesn’t just sit for 80 days a year; that MPs will be there half the year:
So when we had that parliamentary sort of briefing last week, for some reason I had in my mind that you were in Canberra for 80 nights a year! (whispers) No. No! And then they said something about being here for as much as half the year and I was like ‘uh’, because I thought it was someone had told me it was 80, but that’s sitting, nights?
Zali Steggall, independent member for Warringah, set her straight: ”The standard calendar is about 20 to 22 weeks, sitting weeks.”
And while Melbourne winters can be brisk, Canberra winters are brutal.
Mark Sawyer is a journalist with extensive experience in print and digital media in Sydney, Melbourne and rural Australia.