‘Things have to change’: Frydenberg criticises Liberal Party under Taylor’s leadership

Josh Frydenberg has criticised the direction of the Liberal Party, arguing it must change in the face of an existential threat.

The former treasurer, who was considered a future Liberal leader before losing his seat in 2022, has stoked speculation he will run again with the release of a new memoir, which includes criticism the party has lost touch with its roots, as well as his proposals for policy remedies.

The intervention creates a fresh headache for Taylor, who immediately shut down Frydenberg’s suggestion that a Coalition government should raise the GST to offset income and business tax cuts.

Taylor returns to parliament this week after addressing the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Brisbane on Saturday, where he was heckled by One Nation loyalists in the audience and ridiculed by the next speaker, Pauline Hanson.

In his keynote speech, as the first opposition leader to appear at the annual right-wing talkfest, Taylor acknowledging the mistakes of the former Coalition government, including “more-than-was-needed” spending during the COVID pandemic, signing up to net zero, and “allowing immigration numbers to creep up, especially student and bridging visas”.

On Sunday night, Frydenberg said Taylor was copping criticism from “lots of corners” by people saying the party needed to do better.

“The polls are showing that the Liberal Party is at an all-time low,” Frydenberg told 60 Minutes. “And so, things have to change. Because there’s something existential about the threat that I think the party now faces.”

Frydenberg denied the book was a pitch for the prime ministership, but when asked if he still had aspirations to lead the country, said he had not closed that door.

“I don’t need to rush to a decision. The next election is 18 months away,” he said.

A political comeback for the former treasurer would involve a protracted campaign for a seat with weak preference flows that the Liberals failed to recapture in 2025.

He would also have to win a preselection contest, which some senior Victorian Liberal operatives unsupportive of Frydenberg want resolved by the first quarter of next year. But Frydenberg’s supporters suggest he will seek to delay an announcement on his candidacy until the latest possible moment, as he assesses the political terrain and the likelihood of winning the seat.

The Coalition is trailing Labor and One Nation in the polls, and Taylor is behind Anthony Albanese and Pauline Hanson as preferred prime minister, though he edged up 1 point in the latest Resolve Political Monitor.

Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson, who in 2025 became the first Liberal to reclaim a seat from a teal independent, said on Monday he had no issue with Frydenberg putting himself forward at the next election.

“I think it’s always good to have candidates who want to step up and run and make sure we pick up seats so that Angus Taylor can be prime minister of this country,” Wilson told Radio National.

Fellow Coalition frontbenchers Andrew Bragg and Angie Bell, who Frydenberg reveals in his book were part of a meeting of moderates in 2021 to discuss concerns about then prime minister Scott Morrison’s leadership, have urged the former treasurer to run.

In the 60 Minutes interview, Frydenberg said he stood by his decision not to challenge Morrison for the leadership at that time.

“During my time in office, there were numerous changes of prime ministership and leadership of the Liberal Party, and in each time, I stood by the incumbent, and I don’t regret that,” he said.

Frydenberg said he was more disappointed by the multiple ministries scandal, in which Morrison secretly swore himself into the portfolios of several colleagues, including Frydenberg’s.

“I was angry about it, and I felt undermined. It was completely unnecessary for him to do that, and I think a lot of colleagues felt blindsided,” he said.

“I made it very clear that it was unnecessary, and he said to me that he would have made the same decision again, and I said you can’t be serious. So that’s something that he’ll obviously have to explain for himself. But it has damaged our relationship.”

Current Kooyong MP, independent Monique Ryan, on Monday said she was not bothered who the Liberal Party put up as a candidate at the next election. She added that Frydenberg had his chance with voters.

“He was the member for that seat for 12 years, and in 2022, our community rejected him because they were so frustrated with his inability to affect any change to government policy on climate change,” Ryan told Seven’s Sunrise.

“People were unhappy with his economic management. People were very unhappy with the way that he punched down on Victoria during the COVID years. I’m not sure what has changed since that time that Mr Frydenberg now thinks that the community will welcome him back with open arms.”

She accused Frydenberg of being too focused on ongoing prime ministerial ambitions instead of his community.

“He doesn’t speak much about Kooyong, and that’s the part of the world that I’m most focused on.”

After initially avoiding Frydenberg’s claims last week that her supporters had run a campaign rife with personal abuse, Ryan said on Monday she rejected that characterisation.

“It does not match with my own recollections or the recollections of the more than 2000 people who volunteered with me. We know that we conducted a campaign run with integrity and in a good spirit,” she told reporters in Canberra.

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