Josh Frydenberg has written an elegant book about his life and saving the Liberals. The only problem is that it leaves the reader unsure about whether he wants to lead the party, ensure its survival or just remind people he used to be a future prime minister.
The former treasurer’s memoir, A Grateful Son, is billed as a reflection on Australia’s future. Inside the Liberal Party, it is being read as something closer to a political job application, complete with an economic manifesto and a conspicuously open door to a comeback.
The timing for these things rarely work but this one particularly grates on many of his colleagues. Federal leader Angus Taylor is trying to rebuild the Coalition’s credibility. His inner circle thinks he’s finally broken through against the Albanese government on the economy.
In Frydenberg’s home state, the Victorian Liberals are preparing for an election campaign in which Frydenberg’s former aide, Jess Wilson, is favourite to lead the Coalition to power. Yet Frydenberg has managed to drag the party back into a favourite pastime – talking about him.
“It does risk becoming all about Josh,” one former colleague said on Monday. “There’s no doubt he’s shown he can cut through like many others. But he is showing nothing but naked ambition for himself.”
Another was less diplomatic.
“He needs to piss or get off the pot,” they said. “We can’t tolerate 12 or 18 months of will-he-or-won’t-he.”
Welcome to the “festival of Josh”, as it was dubbed on Monday, where the guest of honour has not announced he is running for anything, but would quite like everyone to keep talking about the possibility. It is a neat reminder that few are as relentless and co-ordinated at self-promotion.
Frydenberg lost his seat of Kooyong to teal independent Monique Ryan in 2022. The book puts that loss largely down to others. Now, almost five years later, he is back explaining what the Liberals must do to survive and leaving himself positioned perfectly to argue that he should be the saviour.
The pitch is ambitious. The party must reconnect with the political centre, appeal to younger voters and stop retreating into its own ideological comfort zone. Frydenberg warns that if the Liberals’ vote continues to decline, the party won’t survive in its current form.
He speaks of a populist right on the march across the West off the back of many factors, including immigration and inflation. He writes with conviction about antisemitism and the horrors of Bondi.
“All of these things, and more, render the next federal election one of the most critical in recent history,” he writes.
It is a serious argument. It also conveniently elevates the importance of the man making it.
The former treasurer says he has not closed the door on a return to politics. He has simply declined to rush a decision, noting that the next federal election is still 18 months away.
He will use that time weighing up whether he can win - or, as some think, whether he’s prepared to risk losing. But for Taylor, it is now time spent looking over his shoulder.
The Liberals also fear it means scaring away credible candidates and donors in Kooyong while he takes his time. He would be welcomed back, but they want him all in, not dipping his toe.
Worse, Frydenberg has lobbed a grenade into the Coalition’s economic debate. His proposed grand bargain would raise the GST, scrap some exemptions and use part of the extra revenue to fund substantial income tax cuts.
It is a discussion worth having. But it is also an extraordinary gift to Labor when Taylor is trying to establish a clear economic alternative amid a cost of living crisis.
“If he wants to come back and be a team player, he’d be a great asset. He could be a great foreign minister,” one Liberal said.
In other words, there are plenty of ways for a former treasurer to contribute without immediately reopening the contest for the top job.
Supporters and detractors alike know the question hanging over his memoir is not just whether he could return to parliament. It is what he would want once he got there.
Frydenberg argues that politicians must stop flattering voters, confront difficult choices and tell Australians the truth about the country’s challenges. Yet he has left his own party guessing about the most basic question of political candour - whether he intends to return.
His book laments a political culture in which leaders avoid unpleasant realities.
There is a simple way out. If Frydenberg wants back in, he should say so, find a seat and make his case. If he prefers life outside parliament, he should enjoy it without keeping the party on tenterhooks.
A Grateful Son (HarperCollins), which will be published on Tuesday, October 13.
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