Jess Wilson: The standout performer ready to make race for premier an all-female affair

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In just three years, Kew MP Jess Wilson has climbed from new Liberal recruit to shadow treasurer – a swift rise that has cast her as one of the key figures to revive the bruised Victorian Liberal Party.

Raised in Melbourne’s east and educated at Strathcona Girls Grammar, Wilson grew up steeped in politics. Her father, Ron Wilson – whom she has described as her “first political hero” – was also a state Liberal MP.

Jess Wilson will make a run for the Liberal Party leadership.

Like her father, Wilson served as president of the Monash University Liberal Club and later as state president of the Victorian Young Liberals.

She studied arts and law at Monash University and was a Hansard Society scholar, which took her to the London School of Economics and an internship at the House of Commons.

Before entering parliament, Wilson worked as a senior adviser to then-federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg and later as the Business Council of Australia’s head of energy and climate policy. There, she worked with big businesses and helped them develop a policy agenda and work out a pathway to a net zero economy.

“The transition must be a market-based approach, not through top-down regulation,” she told parliament in her maiden speech. “Governments must take the least cost, most efficient pathway, not the politically convenient.”

Brad Battin and Wilson put on a show of unity earlier this year.

Wilson, who is politically aligned with Liberal senator James Paterson and more moderate members of the party, has described herself as a “classical, small-l Liberal”. She was the only Victorian Liberal MP who publicly supported the Indigenous Voice to parliament.

“I’m pro-choice, I supported marriage equality,” she once said.

More recently, she has also used her platform to call for the party to return to its core values: supporting home ownership, tackling the budget and addressing crime.

Elected to the blue-ribbon seat of Kew in 2022, Wilson was immediately promoted to the frontbench as part of a new guard of Liberal MPs keen to rebuild the battered Victorian party.

As a Millennial MP, Wilson also sees housing affordability as key to the Coalition’s path back to power.

“It is concerning that the rate of home ownership has been in decline for decades, especially among younger Victorians,” she told parliament.

“Home ownership gives individuals and families a stake in their future and in their community.

“I know how difficult it is for my peers in their late 20s and 30s, working hard, saving for a deposit, being outbid at auctions and being hit with stamp duty as almost a second deposit.”

Wilson married husband Aaron Lane - also a former Young Liberals president – in 2017.

In 2014, he was preselected to contest an upper house seat for the Liberlas but resigned before election day over social media posts.

Wilson and Lane, who now works as a barrister and academic, welcomed their first child, a son called Patrick, in August 2024.

Wilson put her hand up to lead the party when her moderate ally John Pesutto faced a challenge from Brad Battin late last year. She was unsuccessful in her bid, paving the way for Battin to take over as opposition leader.

But after 11 months as party leader, Battin struggled to unite the deeply fractured Liberals, and a recent reshuffle – in which Wilson was promoted to shadow treasurer – triggered fresh anger in the party room.

Wilson had been widely viewed as the standout performer in the Liberal Party this year. MPs have privately praised her energy and efficiency in mastering her portfolios, as well as her clear communication style.

If successful, Wilson would be in a head-to-head contest at the state election against Premier Jacinta Allan to become the first woman to win a state election in Victoria.

Allan and Joan Kirner both took the top job from their predecessors without winning the electoral vote.