Before Tim Wilson was gifted the high-paying job as a Human Rights Commissioner, he hadn’t really worked unless you count “media whore” for the IPA. Sure, he had done a few courses and been on a few committees, but actual experience (or expertise) at anything was zero.
What was even more bizarre was the fact that, until he was handed a job he hadn’t even applied for (because it didn’t exist), he had been strident in his calls for the HRC to be abolished. All six of Wilson’s fellow commissioners gained their positions after expressions of interest were called for in the Commonwealth Government Gazettes. Wilson says “George” simply rang him and “asked if I was interested”.
The haste with which the conservative free marketeer dumped his Liberal Party membership and grabbed his taxpayer funded position was unseemly.
He then set about making good use of whatever perks were available to him, racking up $77,763 in expenses in his first year on the job. These were in addition to his $332,000 salary package and $40,000 accommodation allowance.
Wilson’s campaigns over the years have been less than impressive.
He fought against plain packaging of cigarettes saying the trademarks were intellectual property and the tobacco companies would have to be compensated to the tune of $3 billion per year.
In 2012 Wilson was prolific in his writing against a carbon tax:
“Australia’s climate leadership will saddle us with the world’s largest carbon tax, without any long-term advantages, while our competitors get a free ride on our efforts.
Like traditional protectionism, the carbon tax will create a constituency of rent-seekers who will fight to protect their interests. Abbott will face a backlash from renewable energy companies claiming that repealing the tax will result in lost investment and jobs. Technically they’ll be right that their business will be harmed. But it will require them to ignore that disproportionately more investment and jobs would flow if the scheme were scrapped.”
As Freedom Commissioner, and no doubt to help his friend and benefactor George Brandis, Wilson championed the repeal of Section 18C of the racial discrimination act, a cause that not only failed but one that seemed completely at odds with his new job. He was loud in his defence of the rights of bigots but embarrassingly silent about the rights of children in detention when his boss, Gillian Triggs, was under fire from his dear friend George.
Our Freedom Commissioner had a go at a religious freedom seminar but caused more angst than he solved by failing to invite the Muslim community to participate. Then off he flew to Israel and Palestine on a trip that showed the ineptitude of the delegation when the Palestinian Education Minister complained they were rude and ill-educated.
Wilson’s friends describe him as ambitious, with a dizzying sense of his own destiny – very status-conscious and interested in how much people earn, a self-promoting name-dropper.
In early 2014 in an interview with the SMH, a close friend said, “He wants to be a Liberal Party senator, that’s his goal,” and lo and behold, we now hear he is being strongly encouraged by party faithful to put his hat into the ring for Senator Michael Ronaldson’s vacant position.
As he gave up his Liberal Party membership to take up the current sinecure, this is unlikely, with the position to possibly be gifted to his IPA colleague James Paterson. Some believe he has his eye on the Melbourne seat of Goldstein, currently held by Trade Minister Andrew Robb.
Wilson is very much into self-promotion and shameless about the tactics he uses as revealed in this interview he gave in 2014:
He became heavily involved with student politics, eventually becoming president of the Student Union in 2001, thanks in part to his talent for favour-trading – plying opponents with “a whole bunch of delegateships” in return for their support. He also had “this really clever little trick”, using a digital camera, “which very few people had back then”, to take photos of himself at university club functions, several of which he would attend in a single night. He would then send the photos to the club magazines the next morning. “They didn’t have any photos, certainly not that immediately. So they’d run them, and of course I was in half of them, and it made me look as if I was the centre of everything.”
One look at his Twitter account reveals he is still using the same tactics but now it is us footing the bill for him to fly around having his photo taken, accompanied by his partner, staying in good hotels and dining in good restaurants.
After listening to his endless assault popping up everywhere in the media, the only thing that distinguishes Tim Wilson’s words is the smirking certainty with which they are delivered. This is a man determined to secure his position on the gravy train despite displaying no talent whatsoever.
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