‘Defeat was a gift’: Tim Wilson to recontest Goldstein against independent MP Zoe Daniel

Sharma recently returned to politics but via a Senate vacancy, Hammond will not run again and Zimmerman and Frydenberg have opted for corporate careers. Falinski is still considering whether he will run again, which leaves Wilson as potentially the only member of the group fighting the well-funded teal machine to try and reclaim any of the seats lost.

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Political analysts and some Liberal MPs believe Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is running a two-term strategy that would see teal seats targeted at the subsequent election, but Dutton told his party room last month that the Coalition was in a “strong position” to seize power at the next election, due by the middle of 2025.

Wilson called the group of teals “passengers”.

“They sold a very big promise and what people bought they haven’t got,” Wilson said of Daniel and other members of the 2022 teal wave.

“Because they had no connection to how a parliament works, they didn’t realise that just jumping around in Parliament House wasn’t going to be enough to change national outcomes.”

Through conversations with his former constituents, Wilson is convinced the first-term MP has let down voters.

“It’s not just that people don’t feel like they have a connection to their local federal MP at the moment. There’s now a Facebook group of people who feel they’ve been blocked by her on social media,” he said.

Daniel’s office declined to comment.

The former assistant minister in the Morrison government is often described by Daniel and her supporters as an irritant with a hawk-like gaze on Daniel. This tension was on display during an awkward incident at Anzac Day this year. Wilson was confronted by a volunteer after laying a wreath, with the volunteer claiming the wreath had been set aside for Daniel, who was not present. Wilson claimed he was asked to lay the wreath by an RSL staffer.

Wilson defended his focus on Daniel, including a steady stream of FOI requests, and what he said was her questionable record on integrity, tax and infrastructure policy. She holds the seat with a 2.9 per cent margin.

Wilson said Australians had not got it wrong at the 2022 election, saying the former Coalition government had “well and truly reached its natural conclusion”.

Labor’s handling of the economy and cost of living concerns would work in his favour come the next election, Wilson predicted.

He said he had already overcome the greatest fear held by all politicians: “Most politicians live in a state of fear of defeat, whether it be government or at the hands of their electorate. What does it mean to have somebody who’s not afraid of defeat any more? I’ve lived it, the worst that can happen in politics has already happened.”

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