Josh Frydenberg

Former

Birthday July 17, 1971

Birth Sign Cancer

Birthplace Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Age 52 years old

Nationality Australia

#24140 Most Popular

1930

His father is also Jewish; his grandparents emigrated to Australia from Poland in the 1930s.

His grandfather owned a haberdashery store, along with two other Jewish families, with locations in Colac, Camperdown, and Mortlake.

Frydenberg was educated at Jewish schools Bialik College and Mount Scopus Memorial College.

Throughout his childhood, Frydenberg was a keen tennis player.

He lobbied his parents, unsuccessfully, to drop out of high school to pursue a career in tennis.

When they refused, Frydenberg stuck up a handwritten sign on his bedroom, reading, "The pain of discipline is far easier than the pain of regret".

After finishing high school, he took a gap year to play tennis full-time in Australia and Europe.

Frydenberg played against Mark Philippoussis and Pat Rafter, and represented Australia at two World University Games.

1931

Frydenberg became the first sitting treasurer to lose his seat since Ted Theodore at the 1931 election.

After leaving politics, he became an advisor at investment bank Goldman Sachs.

Frydenberg was born in Melbourne.

His mother, Erika Strausz, is a psychologist and University of Melbourne professor and his father Harry is a general surgeon.

1943

His mother was a Jewish Hungarian born in 1943 who arrived in Australia in 1950 as a stateless child from a refugee camp after escaping the Holocaust.

His great aunt, Mary Frydenberg, is also a victim of the Holocaust; she spent 2 years at the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp.

1946

Frydenberg is one of seven Liberal MPs in the 46th Parliament of Australia who have obtained degrees at an Oxbridge or Ivy League university, the others being Alan Tudge, Angus Taylor, Andrew Laming, Dave Sharma, Greg Hunt and Paul Fletcher.

1971

Joshua Anthony Frydenberg (born 17 July 1971) is an Australian former politician who served as the treasurer of Australia and deputy leader of the Liberal Party from 2018 to 2022.

1994

He was contesting it against the incumbent member, Petro Georgiou, who had held the seat since 1994.

In the days leading to the preselection convention, Queensland frontbenchers Ian Macfarlane, Peter Dutton and Santo Santoro backed Frydenberg's credentials, for which they were criticised by former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett.

Georgiou won the nomination by gaining 62 of the 85 delegates' votes, with Frydenberg receiving 22 votes and a third candidate, Alastair Armstrong, receiving one vote.

1997

He and his father were present at the 1997 Maccabiah bridge collapse.

A photograph of Frydenberg carrying a man on a stretcher was used in Israeli newspapers.

Frydenberg completed honours degrees in economics and law at Monash University, where he became president of the Law Students Society, before working at Mallesons Stephen Jaques, a large Australian commercial law firm.

Frydenberg won both a Fulbright Scholarship to attend Yale University and a Commonwealth Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford.

He opted to accept the latter, completing a Master of International Relations at University College, Oxford, with a thesis on Indonesian politics.

While deciding between Oxford and Yale, he was introduced to and developed a friendship with Greg Hunt, a Fulbright Scholar and future cabinet colleague, who introduced him to the Liberal Party.

Frydenberg was best man at Hunt's wedding, and Hunt was a groomsman at Frydenberg's wedding.

When attending Oxford, mutual friend Steven Skala introduced Frydenberg to Sir Zelman Cowen, a former Australian governor-general and Oxford provost at Oriel College.

Cowen "became a mentor to Frydenberg and they spent many Sundays together discussing literature, music, philosophy and law".

Frydenberg also earned a Master of Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

1999

In 1999, Frydenberg worked as an assistant adviser to Attorney-General Daryl Williams before becoming an adviser to Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, a post he held until 2003.

2003

From 2003 to 2005 he was a policy adviser to Prime Minister John Howard, specialising in domestic security issues, border protection, justice and industrial relations.

2005

In 2005 he took up a position as a Director of Global Banking with Deutsche Bank in the company's Melbourne office.

2006

In 2006, Frydenberg announced that he was seeking Liberal preselection for Kooyong, a safe Liberal seat in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

2010

He also served as a member of parliament (MP) for the division of Kooyong from 2010 to 2022.

After leaving university, Frydenberg served as an adviser to Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer during the Howard government.

He also worked for Deutsche Bank until his election to the Australian House of Representatives at the 2010 federal election.

2013

Quickly appointed to the frontbench, he went on to serve in several ministerial roles during the Abbott and Turnbull governments from 2013 to 2018, including as Minister for Resources and Minister for the Environment and Energy.

2018

In August 2018, he was elected as deputy leader of the Liberal Party following a leadership spill, which saw Scott Morrison elected as leader and prime minister.

Morrison subsequently appointed Frydenberg as Treasurer.

At the 2022 federal election, Frydenberg suffered a significant swing against him, and lost his seat to the teal independent candidate Monique Ryan.