“I think there’s a scenario where that can happen, but I think events will have to turn in my favour,” he told the podcast.<\/p>\n
Wilson says while he “didn’t come here to explicitly be the leader”, he believes the country and his party needs “a certain intellectual leadership about where it should be heading and who it should be fighting for”.<\/p>\n
“And over the next coming months, you’ll see how I plan to go about doing that, because I think political parties, if they’re just seen as sort of custodians of political values or traditions, it’s not enough,” he says.<\/p>\n
“They have to be seen to be out there fighting for people and enlivening people’s sense of ambition and dreams. If people actually then want to connect with them enough they want to fight for them too.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tim Wilson rehearses his maiden speech among his colleagues in 2016. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)<\/p>\n
Asked if he believes the Liberal party room could elect a gay man as their federal leader, Wilson says it may affect some people but would not be a dominant issue.<\/p>\n
“I’m not going to say that some people won’t factor it in as they look at any calculus in electing a leader, but do I think it’ll be the primary consideration, like it was once, these days? Nah.”<\/p>\n
He says the leadership conversation will be “about who is going to be the answer to the problem the party faces at a time, and that’s actually going to be the driver”.<\/p>\n
“But I think sometimes these sorts of unique contributions that you can make can sometimes be an asset, but sometimes it’s not revealed until you get there.”<\/p>\n
Liberal Party must fight for its values<\/p>\n
Sussan Ley’s leadership has been under pressure in recent months, and conservatives Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor are most often talked about as contenders. Wilson, who says he is not a conservative but struggles with the label “moderate”, argues the party needs to fight for its values around wealth and aspiration unashamedly.<\/p>\n