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Frydenberg's leadership credentials intact

Colin Brinsden, AAP Economics and Business CorrespondentAAP
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will hand down his third budget as Australia climbs out of recession.
Camera IconTreasurer Josh Frydenberg will hand down his third budget as Australia climbs out of recession. Credit: AAP

Any ambition Josh Frydenberg may have to one day lead the Liberal party remains intact while other contenders have fallen by the wayside during some tough times for the Morrison government since the last election.

Scandals have left a mark on many ministers - justified or not - but the treasurer has largely skated through like a modern day Steven Bradbury.

While he had a few stoushes with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews over the handling of his home state's coronavirus outbreak last year, Frydenberg has largely been unblemished by the nation's fractious vaccine rollout.

He has also avoided being sucked into parliament's culture problem with regards to women.

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While Frydenberg was severely mocked for prematurely declaring a surplus in his first budget in 2019 - collector item "Back in Black" mugs are still gathering dust - he now stands at the helm of a rapidly recovering economy.

Whether it has been luck or astute management, the economy has recorded its fastest pace of growth over a six month period on record and unemployment has declined far quicker that anyone anticipated.

While economic support during the pandemic came at a huge cost to the budget, the financial books are set to be in substantially better shape than just a few months ago when Frydenberg hands down his third budget on May 11.

Whether it proves to be his pre-election budget remains to be seen but further billions of dollars are expected to be spent in a drive to get the unemployment rate below five per cent.

It has been a dramatic few years for the MP from Kooyong since becoming the treasurer, a portfolio of his choice after being voted deputy Liberal leader by parliamentary colleagues during the 2018 leadership spill.

Frydenberg, 49, has been a rising star in the party that he joined 22 years ago and long seen as a future leader.

And he has had some serious mentors on the way.

Before being elected to the House of Representatives in 2010, he was a senior adviser to then foreign minister Alexander Downer and prime minster John Howard, followed by five years with Deutsche Bank.

He quickly climbed the political ladder under Tony Abbott's prime ministership - Parliamentary Secretary (2013-14), Assistant Treasurer (2014-15) and Resources Minister (2015-2016).

He was handed the poisoned chalice of the highly-politically charged environment portfolio under Malcolm Turnbull in 2016, a role he held up until the 2018 leadership coup which saw Scott Morrison take charge.

And as treasurer, he has so far come out of the first recession in decades unscarred.

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