Tim Wilson has emerged as a potential outside contender for the Liberal Party leadership alongside Sussan Ley and Angus Taylor. 

The Liberals will elect the new opposition leader on Tuesday, with current deputy leader Ley and shadow treasurer Taylor vying for the top spot, and Northern Territory senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price joining forces with Taylor in a tilt for deputy leader.

However, ex-NSW Liberal president Jason Falinski has added Wilson’s name into the mix after he claimed victory in the Melbourne seat of Goldstein.

“Tim is a fighter, and I think our supporters – any supporters of any political party after the loss that we’ve just had – want someone who’s going to fight,” Falinski said.

“But it’s not really a pay-in to Tim Wilson. Whoever the next leader is has to embody that fighting spirit if we’re going to get ahead.”

Wilson lost Goldstein to teal independent Zoe Daniel in 2022 but reclaimed the seat in the latest election (although Daniel has not yet officially conceded).

Wilson told The Age that colleagues had asked him about running for leader, and he would make his decision after the National Party held its leadership ballot on Monday. 

 “I have not canvassed any colleagues, but some have reached out to me on their initiative, and Jason Falinski has made his view extremely clear,” he said.

The main leadership contenders have been pitching their cases in recent days.

Ley is backed by party moderates who believe having a woman at the helm will help repair the Liberals’ negative image among female voters, while former PM Tony Abbott is among those backing the Taylor-Price team.

The Liberal Party owes Australia a much stronger performance at the next election and that has to start now.

We need to be a strong, clear and principled alternative to a government that we know, on its record so far, will be damaging the economy, dividing our society, and…

— Tony Abbott (@HonTonyAbbott) May 11, 2025

As the party tries to rebuild after its worst election defeat since World War II, Falinski has called on MPs to rethink their priorities.

“I don’t think we need to focus on left or right,” he told ABC radio on Monday.

“I don’t think Australians think along that sort of ideological spectrum. What we need to focus on is helping Australians get ahead.”

Falinski used to hold the Sydney seat of Mackellar but came under scrutiny during the 2022 federal election after he attended an event with controversial Liberal candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves, who once claimed transgender children were being “surgically mutilated and sterilised”.

Both lost their respective battles in those seats during an election that arguably marked the start of the Liberal Party’s downward trajectory.

The former politician urged Liberals to move away from the culture wars over societal issues.

“You can’t say we want government out of the boardroom, just so we can put it in the bedroom,” he said.

“When the Liberal Party is framing its policies in terms of the so-called culture wars, we’re losing votes, we’re splintering our electorate coalition. When we are framing issues in terms of economic policy, we’re bringing our electoral coalition together.”

NSW Liberal senator Dave Sharma warned that whoever wins the leadership can’t allow the party to break into warring left-right camps.

“They’re both honest about the scale of the challenge we face and they’re both committed,” he said of Ley and Taylor.

“It’s important to make a collegiate approach after this leadership ballot – there are not enough of us to break apart into warring camps. We need to all pull in the same direction.”

Nationals’ leadership ballot 

Meanwhile, the Nationals leadership is expected to be decided within hours, with Queensland Senator Matt Canavan challenging current party leader David Littleproud as the parties go to a vote on Monday afternoon.

Canavan said he hopes to give the coalition a “fighting chance” at the next election after Australian voters delivered a bruising defeat at the most recent political contest.

Party leaders generally sit in the lower house, but having leaders in the Senate is not unprecedented, he said.

“It’s unconventional … [but] we are in unconventional times. The Liberal-National Coalition has suffered the worst defeat since World War II and so I think it is time we perhaps look to unconventional responses to get ourselves back in the game.”

Littleproud is still tipped to re-take the Nationals crown, but while Senator Canavan says he has done an excellent job, he believes change is needed.

“We didn’t win,” he said. “This job, like any major leadership role, is a performance-based job, and I think we do need a different strategy.”

–with AAP