07:24

Wild times in Kooyong



Folks following the campaign closely will know the treasurer Josh Frydenberg is under the pump in his blue ribbon seat of Kooyong, with GetUp pouring resources into the seat and challenges from a high profile Greens candidate and a climate-focussed independent. Frydenberg has happened upon a script that GetUp is using in his seat for voter contacts.

Under a heading: “what are some bad things Josh Frydenberg has done” volunteers are prompted to say “Josh Frydenberg was part of the coup that removed Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister. Frydenberg failed to get any real action on climate change. He’s part of the chaos in Canberra. He’s in Coalition with Peter Dutton, Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce”.

Under a heading: “Josh Frydenberg is a good person!” volunteers are prompted to say “Mr Frydenberg might be a nice person, but he is part of a bad government. Malcolm Turnbull was a nice person too, but he was cut down by Peter Dutton and Tony Abbott, and they are the people who run the Liberal party today.”



As a consequence of the script, the head of GetUp, Paul Oosting, also found himself under the pump on Melbourne radio on Wednesday morning, given there is no evidence Frydenberg was directly involved in the move against Turnbull.



Here’s a bit of that.



Jon Faine: The words in your script are, and your volunteers are saying to people “Josh Frydenberg was part of the coup that removed Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister” – that is misleading.

Paul Oosting: Well I don’t think he became deputy prime minister by accident did he?



Jon Faine: Your words that you’re putting in your volunteers’ mouths, do you concede they are wrong? “Was part of the coup that removed Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister.”

Paul Oosting: Well there was undoubtedly a coup that he was part of within the Liberal party as all Australians saw it play out. There’s been a lot of um-

Jon Faine: It depends what your definition of part of actually is isn’t it? I mean in that sense every member of the Liberal party caucus was part of the coup but that’s not really fair is it?

Paul Oosting: Um well I think it is fair actually. I think Australians are fed up with those leadership coups that occur whether it’s in the Liberal party or the Labor party-

Jon Faine: But you’re implying that Josh Frydenberg was part of the plot to get rid of Malcolm Turnbull which is factually wrong. Do you acknowledge that it’s wrong or not?Greg Hunt was part of the coup, Michael Sukkar was part of the coup, Alan Tudge was part of the coup, Peter Dutton was the leader of the coup, but to say Josh Frydenberg was part of the coup is just wrong. Why don’t you acknowledge that?

Paul Oosting: On what basis are you ruling out his involvement ah Jon?

Jon Faine: Do you acknowledge it’s wrong or not?

Paul Oosting: No ... I’m just asking on what basis you think that he wasn’t involved given the position that he played throughout that saga and um since?

And so it went.