The son of former Victorian Liberal Premier Ted Baillieu says the party has abandoned its small-l liberal values and that independents offer a vision for the future, not the past. | OPINION by Rob Baillieu
Fifteen months ago, Josh Frydenberg asked if we could get coffee. Today, I’m the volunteer manager for Monique Ryan – leading her 1500 volunteers in an attempt to unseat him. How did this happen?
Good people would take action on climate change, they protect the rights of LGBT people, and support an anti-corruption commission. Good people don’t attack their own state as it struggles to control a pandemic, or use charities and public institutions to advance their own political causes.
I’ve slowly distanced myself from the party – in this generation of leadership, I saw little to admire. If we want better leadership we have to foster it in the community ourselves.Josh never followed up on that coffee. That’s OK. Three months after that call, I joined 20 other people in founding Voices of Kooyong. Seven months later, I met Monique Ryan, a paediatric neurologist, and head of the Department of Neurology at the Royal Children’s Hospital.