After the Scott Morrison-led Coalition lost the support of many women in major city suburbs at the last election,aLiberal Party review called for a 50 per cent female representation target in 10 years.
The party,led by the work of senior frontbencher Jane Hume,is months away from the establishment of the Dame Margaret Guilfoyle Network. The organisation will aim to connect Liberal-leaning women with employment opportunities and pathways within the party.
Of the Coalition’s 45 MPs in the shadow ministry,17 are women. It has preselected Mary Aldred (Monash),Katie Allen (Higgins),Gisele Kapterian (North Sydney),Susie Bower (Lyons),and Katie Mullins (Parramatta),though only Aldred’s seat is currently held by the Liberals.
The dearth of women in safe Liberal seats prompted Karen Andrews,a former home affairs minister,to argue there was no discernible plan to broaden the party’s ranks.
“What is the strategy?” she asked,lamenting that four men had nominated for her Queensland seat of McPherson.
She argued that the party should look at opening up pre-selections to allow greater community buy-in,as in US-style primaries.
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Andrews said the existing model of picking candidates incentivised years of attending meetings in local branches to build up numbers – a form of party activism often overlooked by women in the workforce who entered preselection races at a later stage than men.
Andrews agreed with the argument that the best candidate,regardless of gender,should win pre-selections.
“But who says one gender is more meritorious than the other?” she said.
“We need to make sure we are preselecting candidates who are representative of the community rather than just being party animals.”
In her home state of Queensland,where the Coalition holds 25 of 30 federal seats,there will likely be just one or two Liberal National Party women in the lower house after the next federal election.
In West Australia,departing MPs Nola Marino and Ian Goodenough will both be replaced by men.
Alan Tudge would have been replaced by a woman,Roshena Campbell,but the Liberalslost the 2023 Aston by-election.
A woman and a man filled NSW senate vacancies created by a woman and a man,resulting in no net change. Former minister Stuart Robert wasreplaced by Cameron Caldwell.
Nationals deputy leader and NSW senator,Perin Davey,survived a preselection challenge on Friday,prompting party leader David Littleproud to say:“On International Women’s Day,the Nationals have selected two strong women”.
Charlotte Mortlock,a Coalition staffer who runs women’s advocacy group Hilma’s Network,said she supported mandated quotas to get more women into parliament but was pursuing other strategies because quotas had little support.
“I think it would be a waste of my time because I think it would fail,” she told the ABC’s Insiders podcast this week.
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