Openly gay Liberal Party politician Tim Wilson has officially claimed victory in the federal seat of Goldstein.
At a press conference in Melbourne’s Brighton this morning, Wilson claimed victory against Zoe Daniel – the teal independent who wrested the seat from him in 2022.
“I am genuinely very proud to say that we are pleased to accept that we have won the seat of Goldstein back for the Liberal Party,” Wilson said.
“We’ve been waiting since Saturday night to do that,” he said, despite the Australian Electoral Commission yet to declare a winner.
“Tenacity” the key
Wilson said his 2022 defeat had been crushing and attributed his re-emergence to “tenacity”.
“The reality is, three years ago, we were written off,” Wilson said.
“Three years ago, people said that Goldstein could not be won, that I was written off, that the Liberal party was written off in this part of the world,” he said.
“While my name was on the ballot paper, we have won.”
Tim Wilson and husband Ryan Bolger casting their votes on Saturday, 3 May. Photo: @TimWilsonGoldstein/Facebook.Chequered political career
Tim Wilson has long been a controversial figure.
His pre-parliamentary career included a 2007 to 2013 stint as policy director of the right-wing think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA).
He was jettisoned into the role of Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner from 2014 to 2016 by the then-Liberal government.
During his time at the IPA, Wilson was a vocal critic of the Human Rights Commission, calling for its abolition.
In 2019, he joined the Parliamentary Friends of Climate Action group.
“Some of us want sensible, sustainable policy that confronts Australia’s emissions challenge, focuses on technology and economic growth and doesn’t leave Australians behind,” he said at the time.
The move drew widespread scorn. Wilson had previously argued for Australia to dump the Kyoto Protocol treaty, which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
He had also argued against government pricing on carbon emissions.
The Liberals’ lurch to the right
It is unclear how Wilson will fare in the present-day Liberal Party, which has moved further to the right since his last stint as a Liberal MP.
Former Liberal finance minister Simon Birmingham said on Sunday the melding of liberal and conservative thinking within the party had been lost, Guardian Australia reported.
“The Liberal party has failed to learn lessons from the past,” Birmingham said.
“If it fails to do so in the face of [the election] result then its future viability to govern will be questioned.”
Readers of conservative newspaper Daily Mail Australia animatedly discussed the tensions between Wilson’s sexuality and the political right.
“I wonder how RWNJs (right-wing nutjobs) cope with the fact that the Liberals’ Tim Wilson … is one of the ‘alphabet people’ they so despise?” wrote one reader in the newspaper’s comments section.
“The mind tricks they must have to play on themselves.”
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I am disappointed that Mr. Hackney has published this article before the current member for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel, had conceded defeat.
The Goldstein count concluded this morning as I was writing this comment. Media made a call too early on Saturday night in the incumbent’s favour and too early this week in Wilson’s. I write this on Friday 9th May.
Half of the electorate – of which I am one – emphatically do not welcome the victory of Tim Wilson as MP for Goldstein.
But the principal reason I write is that no gay media – Q news included – have called Wilson out for listing Family First as second on his senate voting card.
You will be aware that that organisation along with the ACL were the most vocal and damaging in speaking out against the marriage equality vote.
Why would a gay MP sanction this? Power at all costs of course. And we still don’t know who Wilson’s donors are, despite him bleating about Climate 200 and Daniel’s openly declared admissions of hers.
“It is unclear how Wilson will fare in the present-day Liberal Party, which has moved further to the right since his last stint as a Liberal MP.”
Oh, he’ll fit in perfectly, don’t worry.