Joshua Anthony "Josh" Frydenberg (born 17 July 1971) is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n banker and politician. He has been the Liberal

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

 member for Kooyong

Division of Kooyong

The Division of Kooyong is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria. It is located in the inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and encompasses the suburbs of Kew, Hawthorn, Hawthorn East, Balwyn, Canterbury, Camberwell and Surrey Hills. The Division was proclaimed in 1900, and was...

 in the Australian House of Representatives

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

 since August 2010.

Frydenberg was born in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 and educated at Bialik

Bialik College

Bialik College is a Jewish Independent school located in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn East. The school currently has a capacity to cater for over 1000 students from 3-year old Kindergarten to year 12....

 and Mount Scopus

Mount Scopus Memorial College

Mount Scopus Memorial College is a Jewish private school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.- History :Mount Scopus Memorial College opened on St Kilda Road in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in 1949, taking its name from Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, which remained under Israeli control after the 1948...

 Colleges. His mother is a psychologist and University of Melbourne

University of Melbourne

The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...

 Professor, and his father is a general surgeon. He studied law and economics at Monash University

Monash University

Monash University is a public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight and the ASAIHL....

, earning honours in both degrees, before working at Mallesons Stephen Jaques

Mallesons Stephen Jaques

Mallesons Stephen Jaques is a commercial law firm that operates in the Asia-Pacific region. It is one of the 30 largest law firms in Australia, and is widely regarded as one of the top commercial law firms in Australia.-Offices:...

, a large Australian commercial law firm. He attended the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

 on a Commonwealth scholarship, where he attained a Master of International Relations degree in 1998 and was a student at University College

University College, Oxford

.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...

. He also attained the degree of Master of Public Administration

Master of Public Administration

The Master of Public Administration is a professional post-graduate degree in Public Administration. The MPA program prepares individuals to serve as managers in the executive arm of local, state/provincial, and federal/national government, and increasingly in nongovernmental organization and...

 at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

's Kennedy School of Government.

In 1999 he worked as an assistant adviser to Attorney-General

Attorney-General of Australia

The Attorney-General of Australia is the first law officer of the Crown, chief law officer of the Commonwealth of Australia and a minister of the Crown. The Attorney-General is usually a member of the Federal Cabinet, but there is no constitutional requirement that this be the case since the...

 Daryl Williams

Daryl Williams

Daryl Robert Williams AM QC , Australianpolitician, was a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from March 1993 to October 2004, representing the Division of Tangney, Western Australia.-Biography:...

 before becoming an adviser to Foreign Affairs Minister

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Australia)

In the Government of Australia, the Minister for Foreign Affairs is responsible for overseeing the international diplomacy section of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In common with international practice, the office is often informally referred to as Foreign Minister...

 Alexander Downer

Alexander Downer

Alexander John Gosse Downer is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was Foreign Minister of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007, the longest-serving in Australian history...

, a post he held until 2003. From 2003 to 2005 he was a policy adviser to Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Australia

The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...

 John Howard

John Howard

John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....

, specialising in domestic security issues, border protection, justice and industrial relations. In 2005 he took up a position as a Director of Global Banking with Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...

 in the company's Melbourne office.

2006 political candidacy

In 2006 Frydenberg announced that he was seeking Liberal preselection for Kooyong, a safe Liberal seat in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The seat's incumbent member, Petro Georgiou

Petro Georgiou

Petro Georgiou , Australian politician, was a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from November 1994 to July 2010, representing the Division of Kooyong, Victoria.-Early life:...

, had held the seat since 1994. Kooyong is regarded as a Liberal "leadership seat": its three members before Georgiou were Andrew Peacock

Andrew Peacock

Andrew Sharp Peacock AC, GCL , is a former Australian Liberal politician. He was a minister in the Gorton, McMahon and Fraser governments, and was federal leader of the Liberal Party of Australia 1983–1985 and 1989–1990...

 (leader of the Liberal Party 1983-85 and 1989-90), Sir Robert Menzies

Robert Menzies

Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....

 (founder of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister 1939-41 and 1949-66), and Sir John Latham

John Latham (Australian jurist)

Sir John Greig Latham GCMG QC was an Australian judge and politician who served as fifth Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia for seventeen years, from 1935 to 1952.-Biography:...

 (leader of the Nationalist Party

Nationalist Party of Australia

The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...

 1929-31).

In the days leading to the preselection convention, Queensland frontbenchers Ian Macfarlane

Ian Macfarlane (politician)

Ian Elgin Macfarlane , is an Australian politician. He was elected as a member of the Australian House of Representatives in October 1998, representing the Division of Groom, Queensland for the Liberal National Party...

, Peter Dutton

Peter Dutton

Peter Craig Dutton MP , Australian politician, has been a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives since November 2001, representing the Division of Dickson, Queensland...

 and Santo Santoro

Santo Santoro

Santo Santoro , Australian politician, was a Liberal member of the Australian Senate from October 2002 to March 2007, representing the state of Queensland....

 backed Frydenberg's credentials, for which they were criticised by former Victorian Premier

Premiers of Victoria

The Premier of Victoria is the leader of the government in the Australian state of Victoria. The Premier is appointed by the Governor of Victoria, and is the leader of the political party able to secure a majority in the Legislative Assembly....

 Jeff Kennett

Jeff Kennett

Jeffrey Gibb Kennett AC , a former Australian politician, was the Premier of Victoria between 1992 and 1999. He is currently the President of Hawthorn Football Club. He is the founding Chairman of beyondblue, a national depression initiative.- Early life :Kennett was born in Melbourne on 2 March...

.

The preselection was held at Trinity Grammar School

Trinity Grammar School, Victoria

Trinity Grammar School is an independent Anglican day and boarding school for boys, located across several campuses in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....

 on 23 April 2006.
Georgiou received 62 of the 85 Liberal Party delegates' votes, with Frydenberg receiving 22 votes and a third candidate, Alastair Armstrong, receiving one vote. After his defeat, Frydenberg was encouraged to run for preselection in the Division of Chisholm

Division of Chisholm

The Division of Chisholm is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was created in 1949 and is named for Caroline Chisholm, a social worker and promoter of women's immigration. It is located in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne...

 by Peter Costello, a marginal electorate neighbouring Kooyong; the seat was held by Anna Burke

Anna Burke

Anna Elizabeth Burke , Australian politician, has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 1998, representing the Division of Chisholm, Victoria...

 of the ALP

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

, and was previously held by one of Frydenberg's mentors, Michael Wooldridge

Michael Wooldridge

Michael Richard Lewis Wooldridge is an Australian doctor, company director, and a former politician. He was a Member of the Australian House of Representatives for the Liberal Party representing the Division of Chisholm, Victoria, between 1987 and 1996, and representing the Division of Casey,...

. Frydenberg declined the offer, saying, "This is where I am from, this is where I feel most comfortable and this is where I think there is real work to be done."

Parliamentary career

After Georgiou had announced his intention to retire at the next election, Frydenberg won preselection to contest the seat of Kooyong after beating industrial lawyer John Pesutto at the Melbourne Convention Centre on 20 June 2009. At the 2010 federal election, he won the seat with 52.56% of the primary vote and 57.55% of the two party preferred vote.

In his maiden speech, he recounted the story of his grandparents' and great-aunt's migration to Australia from Nazi controlled Europe and lauded the contribution of migrants to communities within his electorate. He also enunciated his belief in small government, called for stronger ties with Asia while also maintaining a solid alliance with the US and proposed a target of having two Australian universities within the world's top ten by 2030.