Before Tim Wilson lost his seat of Goldstein after six years, in a bruising defeat to teal MP Zoe Daniel in 2022, he was well known in Canberra for being partial to the media spotlight. But this time around it’s clear he has something a little different in mind.
“Less talking. More listening.”
That was the reason Wilson gave Capital Brief when explaining why he wasn’t up for any interviews after last month winning Liberal preselection for the Melbourne bayside electorate.
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In fact, he’s done scant mainstream media since right before Christmas, when he was interviewed by The Age’s Paul Sakkal. Then, he said coming to terms with his sexuality meant he had become a man “in a hurry”, and that didn’t always translate.
He’s obviously been thinking deeply about his electoral loss. Some of the backlash was inarguably related to a rejection of then-prime minister Scott Morrison, considering four other Liberal MPs also lost inner-city seats to teal independents. But there’s no doubt some of it was about Wilson.