Gather round – all who dare – as the Liberal Party indulges in its triannual version of The Hunger Games.
With all the grace of a rhinoceros in a tutu, you will witness those who were in a position to avert this defeat claim they had no idea, while simultaneously blaming those who were expressing scepticism for all that befell us.

A review will be convened, naturally, led by those with close associations to the very architects of this campaign, who will sagely conclude that mistakes were made, scapegoats will be roasted, and it’s time to move on. All conveyed with the understatement of “Houston, we have a problem”.

The Liberal Party suffers from a chronic messiah complex, a delusion that salvation lies in a single, easy to make change that just requires adding more water: from more women to shinier technology, better candidates, new policy, going further right, moving to the centre and a different leader.

This obsession with pinning success or failure on a single solution is the festering core of our malaise. It’s not about a person, it is about our character as a movement.

When I boldly, some may say foolishly, suggested that Tim Wilson should lead the Liberal Party, I was not suggesting we anoint him as some caped crusader. What I meant was that the energy, the faith and the devotion he exhibits if brought to this endeavour could light our party and all who serve it.

Long before Kos Samaras was tweeting demographic doomscrolls, Tim Wilson penned a book warning that changing demographics and Australia’s single biggest public policy failure of housing affordability would consign the Liberals to the electoral margins.

Prophetic? Perhaps. But in a party that has shown a shortfall in intellectual courage, such foresight is sorely required.
When Bill Shorten proposed what now seem like quaint tax changes compared to the proposed unrealised capital gains tax, Tim Wilson was able to turn it into a cause celebre that filled stadiums from Sydney to Perth.

To this day I still feel sorry for Matt Thistlewaite having to turn up to justify Chris Bowen's idea.
Yet in the last three years we were unable to explain how a tax on unrealised capital gains is an extraordinary breech of basic taxation principles that will cause long lasting and possibly irreversible damage to Australians.

What we need now, more than ever, is an entire team of people who are willing to put themselves on the line to fight for those things that matter.  For a political movement that throughout history has liberated billions, nourished the hungry, housed the homeless, educated the neglected, empowered the oppressed, cared for the vulnerable and preserved the sacred.
To do so by courageously telling truth to power. (Yes Hamish more affordable housing means reducing house prices).
Not flinching in the face of vibe lead hatred, and taking on holy shibboleths with facts, logic and reason.

You just know with Tim Wilson that from day one he will be out there fighting for the soul of the nation trying to win the hearts and minds of all Australians, not taking the lazy option of a small target strategy that waits for Labor, the Greens and the Teals to lose the faith of people.

Did I mention that Tim Wilson is the first person in Australian history to win back a seat from an independent in one term?
Tim Wilson is not the messiah, but he is someone who has walked through the valley of death and come out the other side.  That changes you.

He is the type of person who can tell the party that we have to stop talking to each other about each other and go out, more united than ever before in our purpose of improving the lives of all Australians, and tell the people that we may be fewer in numbers, but we have the vision, the values and the principles that they have been looking for.

That is what I am looking for in a political movement, and whoever leads it, should embody those characteristics.