Independent MP Monique Ryan has said Josh Frydenberg is concentrating on the past, after the former treasurer used an extract from his forthcoming book to accuse her supporters of running a hostile campaign against him in Kooyong. The exchange, reported by The Age on Friday, comes as Liberal frontbenchers publicly back a possible Frydenberg comeback in the inner-Melbourne seat.
Frydenberg lost Kooyong to Ryan at the 2022 federal election, when a wave of independent candidates took several wealthy urban electorates from the Coalition. The defeat ended a career his colleagues had expected might lead to the Liberal leadership.
Why it matters
Kooyong is one of a handful of affluent inner-city seats the Liberals need to win back if they hope to return to government. The next federal election is due before mid-2028, and campaigning in these electorates is already becoming tense.
The dispute also touches a broader argument about how those contests are fought. Security agencies have urged calm as threats against MPs have kept rising since 2022, and the 2025 election was hit by what was described as a co-ordinated disruption effort by far-right figures.
Frydenberg's account of 2022
In an extract of his book A Grateful Son provided to The Australian, Frydenberg wrote that the hypocrisy of the 2022 contest was what stayed with him. He said Ryan's backers presented themselves as committed to a gentler style of politics while conducting a campaign full of personal attacks.
He argued the message from his opponents was not simply that they held different views, but that they were good and he was bad — and that this, in their eyes, gave them licence to act as they wished.
Frydenberg said hundreds of his campaign signs were damaged, some with swastikas drawn on them, that his staff were harassed at polling places, and that posters calling him a traitor appeared. He did not say who was responsible for any of it.
He also criticised Simon Holmes à Court, the founder of the fundraising group Climate 200, which supports Ryan's campaigns. Frydenberg described Holmes à Court's activity on X as a stream of harmful content, citing a post that called former prime minister John Howard "the angel of death" — a phrase he said is widely associated with Josef Mengele, the doctor at Auschwitz. Holmes à Court has denied making a Nazi reference and has threatened legal action over the claim. He was contacted for comment.
Ryan did not dispute Frydenberg's version of events. In a statement on Friday, she said the extract revisited his memories of the 2022 campaign. She said her focus at the time was the Morrison government's failure to act on the issues that mattered most to people in Kooyong, and that she was thankful to the thousands of volunteers who backed her.
She added that Frydenberg would spend the coming weeks looking back at past events, while her attention would stay on the Kooyong community.
Rising tensions and a possible rematch
Speculation about another Frydenberg run has grown with the approaching release of his book. Andrew Bragg, the opposition housing spokesman, said on Friday that he had supported Frydenberg at the last election and believed the former treasurer still had a great deal to offer the country. Bragg had earlier drawn criticism for discussing migration figures before Taylor's policy announcement.
Bragg's comments follow those of fellow frontbencher Angie Bell, who told the same masthead last month that Frydenberg would be welcomed back warmly.
Not everyone in the party is enthusiastic. A senior Victorian Liberal source said the situation was typical of Frydenberg, adding that while he was keeping his options open, the source did not expect him to run. The source said the party's primary vote would need to climb considerably before he would have a realistic chance.
There is also a possible fight over when a preselection for Kooyong would be held. Some senior Victorian Liberal figures who do not back Frydenberg want a candidate chosen in the first quarter of next year. His supporters, by contrast, are said to favour delaying any announcement on his candidacy for as long as possible while he weighs the political landscape and the seat's likely result.
The seat has seen heated moments in recent years. Ryan was heckled at a community event by former Proud Boy Harrison McLean, and a separate candidate forum in Kooyong was disrupted by a white supremacist. In the same year, Ryan faced embarrassment when her husband was filmed removing a corflute belonging to Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer, who came close to unseating Ryan after a late surge in postal votes.
Similar complaints have been made elsewhere. Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson, who narrowly beat independent Zoe Daniel in Goldstein in 2025 and became the only Liberal to take a teal seat back, told a parliamentary inquiry into the election that there had been dishonest, deceitful and at times unlawful conduct, and said an intimidation campaign led him to move home. Daniel has accused the Liberal Party of running a vicious smear campaign against her.
Election analyst Antony Green said the teal seats would not decide the next election. He said the Liberals must eventually win back places like Kooyong if they want to govern again, but that in the current climate One Nation was the larger concern.
Green noted that the Liberals cannot count on preferences in Kooyong, where One Nation has little presence and Greens and Labor voters tend to favour the independent. He said the party therefore needs to lift its primary vote, even though its support has fallen by about a third nationally since the last election. Last time, he said, the Liberal candidate won 43 per cent to the independent's 34, and the independent moved ahead after preferences were distributed. The Liberals, he said, need to get closer to 50 per cent.
What to watch: whether Frydenberg confirms a run, and when Victorian Liberals settle the timing of preselection for Kooyong.
