Tim Wilson (Australian politician)

Timothy Robert Wilson (born 12 March 1980) is an Australian politician and a member of the Liberal Party of Australia. Wilson serves as the Federal Member for Goldstein in the Australian House of Representatives. He was elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2019, and is currently the Chair of the Standing Committee on Economics.
Before entering politics, Wilson was a policy director at the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) from 2007 to 2013 and Australia's Human Rights Commissioner from 2014 to 2016.
Early life and education.
Wilson attended Mount Martha Primary School and The Peninsula School, Mount Eliza. Wilson completed a Bachelor of Arts (Policy Studies) and a Masters of Diplomacy and Trade (International Trade) at Monash University. He was elected President of the Monash University Student Union Caulfield in 2002 and again in 2003. Wilson also has a Graduate Certificate in Energy and Carbon Management from Murdoch University and has completed executive education at the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Worldwide Academy and at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.
Early career.
Institute of Public Affairs (IPA).
Wilson was employed by the Institute of Public Affairs for seven years, serving as Director of Climate Change Policy and of Intellectual Property and Free Trade. 
During this time, he argued against plain cigarette packaging, and to vote against the proposed local government referendum in Australia. He was a vocal critic of the Human Rights Commission and during his time at the IPA, the Institute called for the abolition of the Commission. 
At the institute, Wilson was a vocal critic of the Gillard Government's attempts to institute carbon pricing in the "Clean Energy Act 2011". At the IPA, Wilson stood strongly against environmental groups and environmental regulations that they were proposing, calling them a 'threat' to Australia's economic success, and "unsustainable".
Human Rights Commissioner (HRC).
Wilson served as Australia's Human Rights Commissioner between February 2014 and February 2016. On appointment to the Human Rights Commission, Wilson resigned his membership of the Liberal Party. 
During the term of his appointment he supported the Abbott Government's attempted changes to Section 18C of the "1975 Racial Discrimination Act." In the high profile case of broadcaster Andrew Bolt, who was prosecuted under 18C for vilification of light skinned indigenous Australians, Wilson defended Bolt and repeated his calls for the abolition of 18C. He was also in favor of people's rights to use racial slurs, such as the word "nigger".
In July 2020, it was revealed that, while a commissioner, he had used his Commission email account to invite a prominent international speaker for an Institute of Public Affairs event, as well as arrange his attendance at the free market think-tank's functions, and to obtain from someone an endorsement in support of his campaign to gain Liberal preselection for Parliament. Wilson acknowledged that he had opposed release of the emails, which had been sought through a freedom of information application, but considered them "utterly irrelevant" and a "non-story”, saying his support of the IPA was publicly disclosed and well known throughout his term. Furthermore Wilson stated he originally halted the release of the emails to toy with the freedom of information applicant to "make sure the applicant thought there was something salacious in these emails only to be disappointed that they were utterly irrelevant and they’d wasted their time, and sadly that of the hard-working people at the Australian Human Rights Commission, who had to compile and redact these documents".
Politics.
Early campaign.
In 2008, Wilson, then a Liberal Party member, unsuccessfully ran for the position of deputy mayor of the City of Melbourne in a joint ticket with Peter McMullin, a former Labor mayor of Geelong.
Federal parliament.
On 19 March 2016, Wilson was preselected as the Liberal candidate for the seat of Goldstein. He defeated Denis Dragovic by two votes. Fellow IPA member, Georgina Downer was also a preselection candidate, but lost in the first round of voting. He was subsequently elected to the Australian House of Representatives at the 2016 election. Wilson served on the Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport, the Standing Committee on Industry, Innovation, Science and Resources and the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs.
When Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called a spill of leadership positions in 2018, Wilson supported Turnbull against Peter Dutton. Following the vote to remove Turnbull, Wilson moved his support behind the eventual winner, Scott Morrison as the new Liberal leader and Prime Minister.
In 2018, Wilson was appointed by Morrison as the chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics.
Wilson won a second term at the 2019 election, although there was a swing against him of 4.89% even though there was a swing towards the coalition of over 1%.
Controversies and political positions.
LGBT issues.
While human rights commissioner, Wilson claimed that asylum seekers were going to brothels to get a blow job from a male prostitute, and use the receipt to prove their status as a gay man. This would be used to assist in their claim for asylum, as they would be have persecuted had they been returned to their country of origin. In writing the story, Crikey contacted a number of sex workers who called the claim 'absurd' and they could not find a single asylum lawyer who could verify the claims.
Wilson also defended the rights of religious groups to discriminate against LGBTI people. He was praised by the Australian Christian Lobby for this stance.
Same sex marriage.
Wilson had been a public advocate for same-sex marriage for more than a decade prior to it becoming legal in Australia.
The Abbott Government in 2015 promised a public vote on same-sex marriage, which was remained the coalition policy for the Turnbull Government. Following the 2016 federal election, Wilson supported the legislation for a public plebiscite on the basis that it was the fastest route to reform, although other advocates for the amendments to the law suggested the quickest and cheapest way was through a conscience vote on the floor of parliament. Those against the plebiscite said that Labor had already guaranteed a conscience vote on the topic in 2011, and if the Liberals would follow suit there would be a majority for the change.
Wilson opposed efforts to block the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey in the High Court and continued as a prominent Liberal campaigner for the 'YES' vote during the plebiscite process. The Yes vote was ultimately successful with 61.6% of the vote.
Freedom of speech.
Wilson has been a strong advocate for freedom of speech, wanting almost all speech to be able to be expressed in public. This includes a pushing to repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act which outlaws offensive behavior because of "race, colour or national or ethnic origin". When testifying before the senate committee he was unsure if freedom from discrimination did exist or if it should. He also argued that there was a human right to defend rights of fringe minorities to express offensive opinions.
Wilson has received some criticism for applying the principles of freedom of speech inconsistently.
In 2019 he tweeted his support for the protests in Hong Kong against the Chinese government, and the importance of their voices being heard. However a tweet surfaced from several years earlier where he said of the Occupy Melbourne protests "all people who think freedom of speech = freedom 2 b heard, time wasters ... send in the water cannons".
He also defended the government's rights to collect and store all Australian's metadata, and did not consider it a risk to citizens privacy, although experts disagreed with that assessment calling it a "serious threat" to privacy.
In parliament, Wilson has regularly voted with the government to shut down debate in parliament, and to prevent Labor members from talking.
Franking credits.
When Scott Morrison ascended to the prime ministership he appointed Wilson as Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics. Under Wilson's tenure, the Committee launched an inquiry into Labor's election promise, the proposed changes to refundable franking credits, holding a series of public hearings around the country. Wilson argued that Labor's policy constituted a 'retiree tax' that would damage the savings and superannuation balances of up to one million retirees. Opponents of the hearings saw the process as a series of sham hearings aimed at advancing the Coalition's agenda.
It was later revealed that the inquiry had a number of legal and procedural issues that were directly linked back to Wilson.
In February 2019, Labor accused Wilson of improperly interfering with the committee's inquiry into dividend imputations and had committed a contempt of parliament. The Speaker found that while no contempt had been committed, Wilson had not honoured committee conventions and rebuked Wilson for the manner in which the inquiry took place. 
Superannuation.
In September 2020, Wilson was criticised in responding to concerns regarding the level of the superannuation guarantee rate for women on Twitter with “[I’d prefer that] they can buy their own home so they’re not homeless”.
He then began a push for people to be able to use their superannuation to pay for a deposit on a house. Wilson began using the hashtag on Twitter of #housefirstsupersecond to support his campaign. Opponents of Wilson's idea say that it will not help housing affordability and will make planning for retirement more difficult.
Wilson began pushing this policy harder during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There were a number of negative reactions to Wilson's policy including former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull calling it "the craziest idea I've heard" and said that the policy had "some really poor arguments".
Others focused on several tweets by Wilson's that appeared to be giving unlicensed financial advice.
The chief executive of Industry Super Australia said that Wilson had "a clear conflict of interest", Wilson responded by saying the group was "bullying" the government.
Covid-19.
Amid the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Wilson wrote to the Australian Human Rights Commission (as a previous head) and the Victorian Equal Opportunity & Human Rights Commission asking whether the Andrews Government’s COVID-19 curfew could be justified on human rights grounds and whether there were ground for the commissions to take action to protect rights and freedoms. Wilson stated that he believed the curfew was “unjustified and does not meet the justification for a limitation on Victorians’ human rights” due to public statements by the Chief Health Officer and Victorian Police Commissioner. 
During the pandemic, Wilson was also critical of the actions of commercial airlines in relation to excessive fees charged to stranded overseas Australians describing the process as “gouging”. Wilson called on National Cabinet to increase the number of Australians able to return from overseas on a state-by-state basis.
China.
Wilson has been on record as being a hawk with relation to the government's China policy, and has been outspoken in his support for anti-China protests in Hong Kong.
During his first term in Parliament, Wilson was a leading agitator against the Turnbull Government's attempts to ratify an extradition treaty with China. The treaty was later abandoned.
Wilson also joined other parliamentarians to call on the Australian government to ban Chinese company Huawei from being able to build Australia's 5-G network. This position attracted the ire of Huawei in Australia who said they had no connection to the Chinese Communist Party. They also directly referenced Wilson in a press release calling on him to return the costs of a Chinese junket he went on while at the IPA, paid for Huawei that amounted to $20,000. Huawei promised to donate any refunded money to charity.
MyHealth.
Following the announcement by the Turnbull government of a deadline for Australians to opt out of the MyHealthRecord scheme, Wilson publicly opted-out and called for the Government to make 'opt-in' the default position because of privacy concerns.
Personal life.
Wilson is openly gay. Wilson proposed to his partner, Ryan Bolger, on the floor of parliament while giving a speech on the amendments to the marriage act on 4 December 2017. Both the proposal and Bolger's affirmative answer were recorded in Hansard and went viral on the internet. They were married on 11 March 2018.
Wilson said about his religious beliefs "I'm more of an agnostic, but I prefer to say that I haven't found God but I'm on a journey and I may one day find God." 