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THE POWER OF TWO: Workhorse takes on show pony in the race for Kooyong
Kooyong.
The war to end all wars. A Liberal seat so safe, the blue rinse runs through the streets.
Nominations close today. At high noon.
The Herald Sun – the state’s most popular newspaper – reports that flamboyant merchant banker Josh Frydenberg, lawyer and party rules drafter John Pesutto, oddball Jason Thomas, Paul Nettlebeck and possibly Andrew Abercrombie could be candidates.
Apparently, a Peter Johnson is also throwing his hat in the wing.
TWO CONTENDERS, MANY PRETENDERS
But it’s going to be a fight to death between Frydenberg and Pesutto.
Frydenberg has been running the Kooyong race for a long time, carefully recruiting many friends, friends of friends and frenemies to party branches in the area.
Joshua has also been working over other branch members in such a way as could probably be legally defined as stalking. He’s a very diligent chap, although some report his intensity in the task is more creepy than it is persuasive. It is customary in genteel Liberal circles to evidence some reluctance and reserve about being elevated to high office. In Josh’s case, he chooses not to die wondering. The drive that led him to chance his arm at pro tennis leads him to be a very hard core political player, “all talent, no charm” one observer claimed this morning. Perhaps a Kevin Rude of the future.
The recent triumph of former Minister Richard Alston as President of the FEC indicated to some that all was in readiness for the cocksure Frydenberg to rise for the big occasion come preselection time.
HARD-WORK BUILDS RESPECT
Pesutto though has done a lot of hard yards in the party. He’s volunteered to help rewrite the party rules and is seen as rather less self-promotional than Josh, whose CV builder and self-aggrandisement has alienated several people who might otherwise support him.
Further Pesutto inherits a block of numbers who could be loosely described as Baillieu/Petro Georgiou supporters. The Sunday Age in a strangely brief article reported this Sunday that Red Ted was going to support Pesutto. No surprise there. In the minds of Baillieu and his thought-partner Petro, the pushy Joshua needs to be taught a lesson for 1) recruiting in their patch and 2) daring to push Petro before he wanted to retire from Club Fed.
Baillieu faction members say that it is reasonable to expect at least two hundred more participants in the preselection process than attended the Annual General Meeting that elected Josh’s man Alston.
Many of them, they say, will be swinging votes with a history of supporting Baillieu/Petro or at least having a significant amount of affection for them or an in-built objection to the recruiting enthusiasms of Joshua. That there are hundreds of souls in leafy Melbourne eastern suburbs who show love for Petro/Red Ted is itself something of a miracle, some might think but we’ll leave that aside.
Frydenberg is criticised most of all by the Baillieu brigade for not being a team player. “He has done nothing for the party other than stack and that’s not good enough” one complained.
“He can stack but where is the evidence he can take on Labor?” a Pesutto supporter pointed out, saying that he has been a strong public defender of Liberal policies on workplace relations, his area of expertise. Some people see that he could be an exceptional federal workplace relations minister.
Another said Josh is portraying a certain amount of “triumphalism” already, particularly after the AGM result seemed so encouraging for him.
COSSIE HEARTS JOSHUA BUT DOES THE RONNO?
We understand that Peter Costello will be supporting the triumphalist, perhaps hoping for a loyal vote in future leadership contests. It is not yet certain whether all the Costello-Kroger aligned players like Fifield and Ronaldson will be supporting him though. We hear they are slightly less enthusiastic about Josh who basically set up camp in the Kooyong hills, started recruiting and so on in Ted country, without even seeking an audience with El Supremo Michael Kroger at his 101 Collins Street Tower of Power. Such acts of insolence are what has always underpinned their scepticism about Josh.
But in the Liberal Party factional Cold War, one must choose sides. And many of the Krogerites will see Red Ted’s blessing of Pesutto as compelling enough reason not to back him.
Loosely speaking, we understand there are four hundred committed votes, perhaps reasonably evenly split between Josh and John. The remainder are anyone’s guess, making this contest likely to be one of the most intriguing preselection battles for a long time.
Much of it is fought out behind closed doors. Liberal preselection seekers are not allowed to publicly campaign.
With the contest itself to be held in June, that will leave us plenty of time to fill the vacuum with idle gossip and speculation. Please send in yours to our normal bat-line 0415 99 33 26 or editor (at) vexnews.com or below with the brave and heroic gladiator patriots of our comments section.
May the best servant of the party win.
Discussion
92 comments for “THE POWER OF TWO: Workhorse takes on show pony in the race for Kooyong”
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Stop calling me Josh – you f#in freak!!
Is this the best our party can do for Kooyong? Someone who doesn’t eat ham and someone named after a ham.
I will be voting for Pesutto! Err, let me rephrase that – I will be voting against Frydenberg.
Josh is a Banker, look what Bankers have done to Australia and the world. He also shows little strategic or leadership capability, hence the divisions created by the Kooyong AGM.
Good thing there are plenty of other good candidates, vote Josh last, better still vote for anyone but Josh
“…backed by Ted Baillieu”. The kiss of death!
“In a ballot seen as a showdown between the party’s moderates and its conservatives, Mr Georgiou, the moderate, won 62 of the 85 votes, while his nearest rival Josh Frydenberg picked up 22″
He is a Banker and his favourite pastime rhymes with Banking.
Andrew, Josh is absolutely f#cking hated on the ground. He couldn’t charm the knickers of a $20 ho. Even the Krogerites are soft in their support of him.
Whoever wins, they will be a wanker.
Why preselect a Liberal when we can preselect Peter McMullin?
Josh will win preselection, but will lose Kooyong at the general election.
NKFK at 14.57, I agree absolutely.
What a contest. The familyman vs the homosexual. The truth will come out Joshua about what you tried to do to my son.
“Not the way with LBJ” (that’s Little boy Josh, of course)
Honeys…
An inconvenient truth for the Liberal Party is that there is nothing liberal about them anymore.
Facts are facts… A resurgent ALP vote, coupled with a determined small ‘l’ liberal alternative will deliver the seat to the ALP.
The Conservatives are about to reap what they themselves have sown… defeat in their “heartland”.
Bring on the Kooyong battlefest.
Josh is going down.
It doesn’t really matter whether Nettlebeck, Thomas or Pesutto get preselected. Just not Josh.
Some of us have been waiting a long time for the opportunity to take him down. Batter up!
Memo to all those who can count:
Joshy is very unlikely to win.
At this stage John Pesutto is comfortably ahead.
The preselection will be a very different vote to the Kooyong FEC AGM.
I will win. The preselectors will be astounded by my great oratory.
May the best servant of the Menzies’ Legacy win.
Hey bro, I’m your choice! Choice!
You are many things – a douche for instance – but you are not Ming’s Grandson.
Vote for Joshy.
I am indeed Menzies’ Grandson. I am the true inheritor of the Menzies Legacy.
I should have nominated for Kooyong. I would have beaten Joshy and Johnny.
Paul Nettlebeck and Jason Thomas are the clear favourites. Why does every one keep saying that Josh F and John P have got a show. Just wait and see – either the IT nerd and the Kiwi lover will romp it home.
I am back. I will be the next preselected candidate for Deakin. And then Manny can be given my rightful spot by admin. And then he can take the party backwards
We are all Menzies’ Grandchildren, except that fugly troll, NTD.
I will be the next member for Prahran, but only if Peter McMullin doesnt want it.
There are many fugly trolls in the Liberal Party that are not worthy of being Menzies’ grandchildren.
I cant wait to follow in my father’s footsteps.
I’ll give you reference, Ken, you sill old goat.
Queen Mary, go away!
Manny was one of greatest YLs Prezes.
He is in the pantheon of great YL Prezes, alongside, Goose, McPerton and Ollie.
I’ve already forgotten about all those crazy comments you have made about Jews and bizarre conspiracies.
The lobotomy has been a success!
Am now ready to write a reference for my old mate Ken.
A Reference:
To whom it may concern,
Joshy is a fine young lad who will make an excellent Minister in a future Coalition Government.
Make sure you do the right thing, wont you, old chaps?
Vote for Joshy.
Please.
H.M.Morgan AC, FTSE
Ken, I support you, mate.
Dear Kooyong peasants,
I have been reliably informed by Electorate Conference Executive puppets that I am not the sole candidate for preselection.
I am, quite frankly, amazed; but humbled that I will be approved by your judgement, rather than automatically approved.
I cannot see any other candidate better than me. I am a Kooyong Tennis champion. I have the endorsement of a former Prime Minister. In the grand tradition of self-appointed future Prime Ministers I do not believe in anything, nor have I done anything for the Party. But I will be quite happy to wreck it in pursuit of my ambition.
To Pesutto: You are a good sport and I admire your enthusiasm. Withdraw now and I promise you will get a suitable posting as Ambassador to a European country of your choice once I reside in the Lodge.
In the meantime the remaining Kooyong preselectors should feel free to kiss my hand or bow – whatever you feel appropriate. I am surprisingly indifferent, so long as you recognise my greatness.
Yours sincerely,
(Soon to be) The Rt Hon Joshua Frydenburg MP
Prime Minister of Australia
Member for Kooyong
Future Secretary General of the United Nations (so long as Greg Hunt doesn’t get it first)
Damn!
I was waiting for the phone to ring to take the call from Ronno, or Helen, or Kroges himself…
I was sure that I was to be invited to be the Kroger candidate for Kooyong.
But I never got the call.
Foxy Ross, I know what is like to be by the phone, waiting for an important call, hours on end.
I waited months for Roberts and Laurence to give me a call and present me with a brief.
But much like you, my dear Foxy Ross, I never got the call!
But which of these candidates has written a paper on climate change and free trade?
Foxy Ross your keenness for boys is a problem, just ask Ollie.
Ollie like manly men, not boys.
Ithe cream is yum.
Can we get an update on the field of six in Corangamite? Who are they, and what chance do they have?
Honeypot, there is a porn sub-genre known as ice cream fetish. I have some vids, if you’re interested let me know.
update – it pains me to say this, but unlike Kooyong, Corangamite is simply not winnable at the next Federal election. As hopeless as he is, Cheeseman will still be an MP after the next poll.
So who cares who these six losers happen to be, as none of them will be an MP after the next Federal election.
Well Isaacs is very winnable in 2010. Well, that’s what I keep telling myself.
Foxy Ross you were such a success in Isaacs in 2007 weren’t you? Serves you right for sexing up your resume and been untruthful as to your residence.
Everything in my CV is true!
Contrary to Liberal Party tradition, I did not put in any porkies in my candidate’s application form.
Yes, fake claims about addresses in a candidate’s application form. Who would’ve thought?
I will again be Member of Deakin.
The preselection is a formality. Dicky Alston tells me so.
I support the Kooyong Tennis Champ.
Kooyong Tennis Champ, I think you may be in for a bit of a disappointment.
Why does no one view me as a serious contender?
Peacock, you are a c*&t. You have betrayed your own faction, you slippery piece of s^%t.
it is unwise to assume that those who don’t like ted or petro will automatically back josh. josh has personally offended or creeped out many of them. there are rusted on krogerites who are brutal in their analysis of his pretensions to office
Typical of Tedistas to run the ‘what’s he done for the party line’! Very David Davisesque. It’s code for:
“I don’t want you to win but I don’t want to alarm my genteel blue-rinse numbers in kooyong by being too aggro so I run that line which can mean anything because various candidates have done various amounts of work for the party.”
Its especially specious because its got nothing to do with talent which you’d hope figured somewhere in the preselection of a candidate for kooyong.
Who has nominated for Deakin apart from Phil B?
‘Lucky’ Phil for Deakin!
Just goes to show how little talent we Libs have that Phil will get preselected for Deakin.
Both Pesutto and Frydenberg are solid candidates. Both will end up in Federal parliament. Menzies perhaps for the loser of this contest?
Phil will not win preselection for Deakin. I will!
I support Joshy. He is a member of my faction, the Dic*heads in front of the Aussie Flag faction.
Clean out the dead wood, have you ever actually met Joshy?
Once he loses Kooyong there will be no second chances for him anywhere else.
$100 on Pesutto. He will win by default. The Anyone-But-Josh brigade is growing stronger by the day.
“Both Pesutto and Frydenberg are solid candidates. Both will end up in Federal parliament. Menzies perhaps for the loser of this contest?”
Now there’s another angle. No way the loser will get Menzies as there is a queue a mile long for that seat. Is Andrews retiring? Branch members don’t like being seen as second fiddle especially when the candidate is an outsider.
I also support Joshy, for the same reason as my friend Jamie – The Other Max.
Why has no one phoned me, I could be the new Kooyong Colt. I learnt a lot from the the Very Important Mr Fifield.
Wolfman, surely you support the loyal servant of the Party, Mr Pesutto.
I understand Josh is an associate member of the Big Swinging Dicks?
Is this true?
I love Samuels Jnr.
Keeno. Rorts. Lies.
Keeno. Eats. Pies.
All minions of all things Kroges need be careful what they wish for coz if the Ham loses, then the Fry forces in Kooyong will run amok, and both Red Ted and Macca will be dead to the wind but forget the doctor’s wives, be worried about the doctor’s sisters, esp. the schemer from the land of Perton who has been quietly doing the numbers. Just ask Helen of Troy about her two-sidedness, puts Mr Smell to shame.
josh has this in the bag thanx to the new reforms … how funny that pesuto spent so many hours writing a new constitution that will now be the rope around his neck .. he cant compeete with josh credentials and referees … but under the old system, he would have had it in the bag, like petro did. Woops
Josh has nothing in the bag. Pesutto will win in the first round of voting.
Re: the irony | 0.13
Actually, it is the reverse. Josh was doing really well stacking out branches and picking up numbers under the old system. The new system favours Pesutto. Under the old system Pesutto’s numbers were slipping fast. Under the new system both only have a few hundred votes and the outcome is unclear. Though it would be foolish not to consider Pesutto the front runner.
Josh is a banker, be afraid of bankers, we do not need another banker, did I tell you he was a banker? Rad the paper and see what bankers have doe to the world.
Josh does have something in the bag.
The reality is Kooyong doesn’t respond to low key under the radar intellectuals a la petro and pesutto which is no insult to either. Joshberg is just the prancing poseur required in kooyong, pessutto is a perfect fit for menzies.
Pesutto is the man for Kooyong.
I spoke to three people that I know that are voting for John because they can see through Josh’s shallowness.
I will provide $300,000 to the ‘Pesutto for Menzies’ cmapign trust. Just f#ck off Pesutto and stop muscling in on my turf. You are really starting to piss me off!!
Kooyong Tennis Champion, on behalf of Mr Pesutto, I turn down your offer.
As your chances of winning Kooyong are growing slimmer by the day (i.e. every time you meet a delegate previously disposed to you, you lose their vote) I see no reason for Mr Pesutto to focus on another seat.
It would perhaps be a better use of your money, TKTC, to use these funds on a campaign for yourself in Chisolm, Issacs or Bruce.
I lost over $200000 in my super all taken by bankers, people are losing their jobs quicker because of bankers than Rudd & Gillard
I agree with the person before, the last thing we need in Canberra is another banker
I will ask my mate Richard Surrey Hills to intervene, he says he is a liberal, and he can fix anything.
I want all you Liberals to know that the ALP wants Joshy, Joshy is our best chance at winning Kooyong for the first time. Any of the other candidates will make it a challenge, but our easiest victory will be if Joshy is there.
My mate Kevin 07 is waiting to pounce on Kooyong, the plane is booked and there are some nice meals ordered. With Josh preselected it will be the new jewell in the ALP crown when we beat Josh at the state election.
Actually, he is running for us undercover….., and he is going splendidly
“May the best servant of the party win” — Josh has done NOTHING – he is a posseur.
Kooyong needs a good party person who has done the ‘hard yards’ we do not want ’show ponys’ like Josh who will definitely loose Kooyong if he is pre selectd.
Josh will get the highest informal vote ever recorded in Kooyong!!
Gotta vote for the Ham ladies and Gentlemen. The Ham is the Man of the Land.
Why doesnt the party get back to developing a multi-pronged strategy for winning back government. With the ALP about to sink the boot into workers and basically everyone in their budget, the next election is there for the taking.
Could the party please take its eyes off its navel and stop checking the size of its egos, and start focusing on the game!
Example: It’s all those little forensic bits that Faulkner and Wong were so good at going after in estimates that cummulatively helped them claw back to power. Why not do a stocktake of how many of those senate estimates issues Faulkner & Wong have actually followed up since the ALP got into government? Now there’s just one starting point.
It’s those apparently all of those little ‘daily life’ issues that matter so much to so many people and get votes. Stop being lazy and always going for the big sexy headlines, making use of boring predictable retorts. Distract us with something different.
Less focus on Josh (coz he’s a LOSER) and more focus on winning and a winner.
Ditto, focus please, for the State. They could try having some policy and making sure it lines up with what they say in parliament.
That will at least enable them to be in the debate.
Brumby has out-thought them so they are now just navel-gazing and trying to remove the last remanants of democracy.
I agree with “focus please”. We need to think about who the Kooyong Liberal and Swinging voters will elect in the federal election, it is the only election that counts. Of the six candidates Jason Thomas is the only one who is broadly known to the community, has the runs on the board in the community and who has the maturity, network and political experience to be a front bencher in the first new Liberal Federal Govt.