Why the Yes campaign needs a Tim Wilson

Turns out that what we are missing in this country is a generation of great persuaders; people who charm or frighten us. The people whose advice we seek and follow, whose example we admire.

I might have been tempted to nominate football great, national sweetie-pie and thoroughly decent human being Craig Foster, but I fear the co-chair of the Australian Republican Movement has aligned himself to a cause which has only recently divided us, if you can call 24 years ago recent.

Former Liberal federal MP Tim Wilson successfully weaponised the issue of franking credits in 2019.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Anyway, here we are, with two big-ticket items – the Voice and housing – on the national agenda and there is no single charismatic leader whose advice we want to follow. And if we don’t have the persuaders, we have to have warriors.

There is only one way forward and that’s all-out war. If we want to pass the Voice referendum (which, honestly, should not even be up for discussion) we will need a leader to lead us to the vote. Same with housing. And to go to war – indeed to win a war – you need a chief warrior, either a politician with conviction or one who will perform as a proxy for that conviction.

There is no clear leader of the Voice campaign. We can’t have Albo because he’s too busy being prime minister. Pat Dodson is sick and can’t really campaign. Noel Pearson has become too negative (hilarious, perspicacious but getting a little on the mean side). Pat Anderson and Linda Burney are both my vintage with far too many responsibilities and, probably, exhausted from all of that.

Perhaps whippersnapper Malarndirri McCarthy is the answer. She’s just 53 and filled with verve and drive. Or David Pocock, who understands we have to take what’s on offer and build on it, excuse the poor pun.

To bring the country with you, you have to inspire or frighten or both. You have to be able to motivate an entire nation. This isn’t a post-it-in plebiscite where you knew it would pass because everyone loves a good wedding.

Here’s how it works. Let me introduce you to the most aggressive warriors we have: Katy Gallagher and Tim Wilson. These two are eminent political strategists of their political generation (look, yes Wilson lost his seat at the last election to independent Zoe Daniel but cast your mind back before that).

Why? Both Gallagher and Wilson were able to read the political landscape and turn their particular issues into hot potatoes, into weapons.

Wilson, you will remember, ensured the 2019 federal election was unwinnable by Labor. He galvanised grey nomads into a political force, one which would not be separated from its franking credits, come hell or high net wealth. Previously we were a group mostly fretting about whether the Airbnb would have a dishwasher (before you shout at me, this is me I’m talking about).

Gallagher and Tanya Plibersek did precisely the same in the lead-up to the 2022 election. They had an even bigger group of people ready to fight for justice. If campaigning around sexual assault makes you feel queasy, harden up.

How the hell do you think policy gets made in this country? Sorry, a brief outburst. But I have become increasingly annoyed over claims made in the last few weeks that the Labor Party used the alleged sexual assault of Brittany Higgins by Bruce Lehrmann (against whom the charges were dropped and who has always maintained his innocence) to undermine the Coalition government. As if that’s a bad thing.

For nearly ten years, the Coalition completely ignored the needs of half the population. It wilfully ignored, dismissed and belittled issues around childcare, paid parental leave, women’s safety. Any meaningful evidence-based reform of policies which researchers knew would work was shoved to one side. Georgie Dent, CEO of The Parenthood, made these points time and time again and persevered.

How on earth do you get a government to pay attention? You politicise the incidents you think can be turning points. You remind people that the former prime minister Scott Morrison said women should definitely rise so long as no men were hurt in the meantime.

This won’t always result in a change of government. See Wilson, circa 2019. But if it’s policy change (or indeed, no change) that matters, you need a full-on battle.

We need one if this country is going to pass the Voice referendum. And even when you win the battle, the war is ongoing. Still no housing fund. Still no independent parliamentary standards agency up and working. And at this rate, unless we get behind the Voice, still no change in the number of Aboriginal people dying by suicide, dying in custody, dying 10 years earlier than non-Aboriginal people.

Sure, run all the advertising campaigns you want. But in front of the campaigns, fronting the campaigns, you – we – need a voice we can trust on the Voice.

Jenna Price is a visiting fellow at the Australian National University and a regular columnist.

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