He refused an early offer to join Howard’s frontbench, making it clear he put a higher value on exercising his freedom to oppose the party’s hardline policies, particularly towards asylum seekers.
As member for the blue ribbon Melbourne electorate of Kooyong – famously the seat of his old political hero, Liberal Party founder Sir Robert Menzies, and now held by a teal – Georgiou was a voice for diversity and considered a champion of Indigenous Australians, underdogs and outsiders.
In mid-2006, Georgiou joined fellow Liberals of the time Russell Broadbent and Judi Moylan to cross the floor and vote against Howard’s legislation that would force all asylum seekers to be processed offshore.
Petro Georgiou, the ‘conscience of the Liberal Party’, dies at 77. By Tony Wright, SMH