‘More time to be a dad’: Australian treasurer poised to be ousted from parliament
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was poised to turn out to be one of many nation’s highest-ranking cupboard ministers to ever be voted out of parliament on Saturday as he acknowledged it will be troublesome to cling onto his seat within the nationwide election.
The Labor Occasion was on monitor to finish 9 years of conservative Liberal-Nationwide authorities, although it was unsure if they’d govern in their very own proper.
Frydenberg appeared heading in the right direction to be defeated in his Melbourne seat by unbiased Monique Ryan, a pediatric neurologist operating for workplace for the primary time, in keeping with a projected depend by the Australian Electoral Fee.
“Whereas it is mathematically potential that we win in Kooyong, it is undoubtedly troublesome,” Frydenberg, the federal government’s most senior monetary minister, informed supporters at a televised speech in Melbourne.
Frydenberg didn’t concede defeat however thanked his spouse and added that “possibly after tonight I get a bit extra time to attempt to be probably the most extraordinary dad”. He additionally claimed credit score for unemployment at 50-year lows and referred to feedback he made “in what seems to have been my final press convention as Treasurer”.
The projected consequence would make Frydenberg a significant casualty in an election that has been outlined by high-profile unbiased candidates taking up conservatives in city seats with insurance policies centered on preventing local weather change.
It additionally throws the way forward for the Liberal celebration, the bigger of the coalition companions, into disarray since Frydenberg, the celebration’s deputy chief and treasurer since 2018, was extensively tipped as a robust contender to be its subsequent chief.
Frydenberg led Australia’s financial response to the COVID-19 pandemic, together with arranging stimulus funds and a reprieve from some company rules, however is now the nation’s first sitting treasurer to lose their seat since 1931.
Former Prime Minister John Howard, who as soon as employed Frydenberg as an adviser, misplaced his seat at a 2007 election after a change to the boundaries of his Sydney seat diluted its conservative-leaning demographic, the primary prime minister to lose their seat since 1929.
(Reporting by Byron Kaye and John Mair)
