For independent MP Monique Ryan, unseating federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg at the May election was an incredible feeling. “It was the most fun night of my life,” Ryan says of becoming the member for Kooyong, a blue ribbon Victorian seat that had always been Liberal. “There’s no doubt about it.”

And yet in the wash up - assessing the three month election campaign and the three months since her win - she’s also come to see politics as a “very brutal blood sport”, filled with emotional and interpersonal challenges she simply didn't see coming. As she heads to Canberra, she freely admits she's on a very steep learning curve.

Ryan discusses her former life as a paediatrician, the election campaign and her hopes for the next three years with Good Weekend senior writer Melissa Fyfe, who penned today’s magazine cover story about Ryan.

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