Focus Wentworth: Liberal plan to reclaim their heartland

The Liberal Party is said to have blue in its blood. But Ro Knox says the special ingredient in her genes is public service. Her great aunt was one of the first women to be pre-selected by Menzies’ new Liberal Party in the 1940s and she grew up hearing stories about the importance of community service. Then there was her grandfather, who had a senior role in the RAAF, and would quote Roosevelt to her: ‘you need to make a difference’.”

The Liberal candidate for Wentworth has a strong background in the big end of town. Having worked as a management consultant for Deloitte in New York and later starting a venture capital fund, she dipped her toe into politics in 2022 after being persuaded to run for Liberal preselection in the state seat of Vaucluse.

These are solid credentials for a Liberal candidate but it will take more than a high-flying career in business for Knox to succeed in politics — especially when her main rival, independent Allegra Spender, toppled a high-profile Liberal member in one of Australia’s most blue ribbon Liberal seats.  

Spender’s outspoken advocacy for the Jewish and LGBTQ+ communities, her voice on climate and tax reform, and her personal warmth have generated strong support from both conservative and progressive voters. She starts this campaign as a favourite to retain the seat, her prospects boosted by an electoral redistribution that has shifted a large number of progressive voters from Tanya Plibersek’s seat of Sydney into Wentworth.

When Knox was pre-selected in May, the seat was widely thought to be unwinnable. But that perception has changed over the past few months after a spate of antisemitic attacks and the government’s sense of being wedged over the Middle East and national security have turned Jewish voters towards the Liberal party. And at 16% of the electorate, Jewish voters are a more significant demographic in Wentworth than in any other electorate in Australia.