Josh Frydenberg was Treasurer of Australia from 2018 to 2022 and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, steering the economy through the pandemic. For 12 years he held the Melbourne seat of Kooyong, until he lost it to an independent at the 2022 election. His mother was born in Budapest in 1943, survived the Holocaust as a baby, and arrived in Australia as a stateless refugee.

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Since the Bondi Hanukkah attack of December 2025, he has become one of the most forceful voices in Australia against antisemitism. He is now chairman of Goldman Sachs Australia and New Zealand, and his memoir, A Grateful Son, is out this week.

Bondi was preventable, he tells Claire Lehmann, because the writing was on the wall. Drawing on his years in government, Frydenberg explains why he believes leadership on antisemitism can be the difference between life and death, and what the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion must confront. They also discuss the campaign against his citizenship, capital gains tax, ending JobKeeper, Daniel Andrews' lockdowns, and whether young Australians will have the same reasons to be grateful as he does.

Transcript

This transcript has been edited for clarity.