Hastie, the 43-year-old former soldier who quit the frontbench last week, and Wilson, 45, have at different times been held up by colleagues as exemplars of the moderate and conservative visions of the party’s future.
Wilson said the pair used to sit together in their early years in parliament, swapped books, bought gifts for family and shared a close bond, although he said he was more “retail” than Hastie, whom Wilson described as a political “romantic”.
Liberal MPs Andrew Hastie (left) and Tim Wilson (right) chat in 2019 when the Coalition was in government.Credit: Sydney Morning Herald
Wilson acknowledged the party was at a crossroads and required hope and ideas that grappled with a changed nation: higher rates of migration, new geopolitical threats and what he said was a growing appetite across the West for “majoritarianism” – the rights of dominant cultural groups.
Speaking about Hastie, Wilson said the pair shared many of the same ideals despite perceptions that the pair had little in common politically.
“He’s talking about deindustrialisation. If you go and look at my campaign launch speech back on the 29th of March of this year, I explicitly talk about re-industrialising the country.”
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“We’re both very focused on national unity, what it is we need to build out for the future of Australia.”
The Hastie drama has sparked public debate about the future of centre-right politics in Australia as populist movements surge in the US and UK and support for One Nation ticks up in Australia.
Former Howard government ministers Amanda Vanstone and Arthur Sinodinos have criticised Hastie for engaging in so-called culture wars. But the Institute of Public Affairs’ John Roskam and others have argued conservative parties cannot ignore rising community concern about national symbols and migration.
Wilson argued in favour of a migration system with greater focus on integration and Australian history from the period of British settlement onwards.
He said the party needed to espouse positions which created a more “culturally confident nation” at ease with its history, binding people together regardless cultural background.
“We should be selling that story about people being massive contributors to our country … who care for each other, who take responsibility.
“There is not just big Liberal energy, but there is big small business and aspiration energy. The more we instil that across the rest of the country, the more you have people who stand on their own two feet.
“Liberalism has many dimensions to it. But, if anything, it is about that sort of mutual dependency and support that we give to each other because that’s the strength of our country.”
The party has been in turmoil over its position on net zero. Wilson, who supports nuclear energy, and some senior Right faction MPs want to work with Ley to find a compromise that includes maintaining the net zero target with new economic caveats.
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Wilson warned the Coalition got caught “taking the bait” and fighting over net zero.
“Labor wants us to be debating this issue. The Greens want us to be debating this issue. The teals want us to be,” he said.
“When people email me and say ‘scrap net zero’ … I always reply and say, ’What do you think will happen if we do it? And people sort of say, ‘Well, prices will come down,’ and I say, ‘Well, how?’”
“Because inevitably what they think is, well, suddenly new coal-fired power stations will pop up, the price of energy will collapse, et cetera. And it’s like, no, that’s not going to happen … because this is a problem that’s been 20 years in the making.”
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