How to annoy Liberal women. Tell them they are ‘sufficiently assertive’

With the Liberal Party’s founding father looming over their shoulder – quite literally – two octogenarian men from Victoria thought it wise to lecture women on the future of the NSW party. Women are now “sufficiently assertive” in the Liberal Party, ex-Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale bemoaned, that it is probably time to start giving blokes a leg up.

Alan Stockdale raised eyebrows at the NSW Liberal Women’s Council meeting. Credit: AAPIMAGE

Stockdale and former Victorian senator Richard Alston, combined age 164, positioned themselves under a portrait of Robert Menzies as they fronted the NSW Liberal Women’s Council on Tuesday night to argue why they should continue to run the troubled division.

The sole female and NSW representative on the federal takeover committee, appointed by former leader Peter Dutton, is Peta Seaton, who was seemingly the third wheel as Stockdale held court, reminding the NSW Liberals exactly why they still have a women’s problem.

“Women are sufficiently assertive now,” Stockdale told the virtual meeting of at least 50 women, “that we should be giving some thought to whether we need to protect men’s involvement”. Great idea. Reverse quotas for men. If it were not so ludicrous and offensive, it would be comical.

Richard Alston and Alan Stockdale underneath a portrait of Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies. Credit:

A brief look back to why Stockdale and Co are running NSW. Dutton imposed a federal takeover on the NSW Liberals after the embarrassing debacle of the party failing to nominate 144 candidates for last year’s local government elections. The trio (which was initially going to be all men, until wiser heads prevailed) was sent in to clean up the mess and help NSW secure an election win for the Liberals. They have failed to do either. Now the administrators are arguing for an extension of their term, which was due to expire on June 30.

After his comment, which followed discussion over whether he would commit to quotas to get more Liberal women preselected, Stockdale chuckled, according to several women who were on the call. But if it was meant as a joke, Stockdale did not read the room. These women were already angry. Now they are positively apoplectic.

Charlotte Mortlock, a former journalist and Liberal staffer who founded Hilma’s Network, which supports women for Liberal preselection, last month launched a petition calling on the party to establish gender quotas. “Women in the party and across the country more broadly have been demanding the Liberal Party improves its female representation for decades,” Mortlock wrote. “We have failed to act.” As of Wednesday, the petition had 449 signatures.

Charlotte Mortlock from Hilma’s Network: “Heavens to Betsy a woman be assertive. Did he forget uppity and hysterical?”Credit: Edwina Pickles

Mortlock was, unsurprisingly, outraged by Stockdale’s comments. “Heavens to Betsy a woman be assertive. Did he forget uppity and hysterical?” she asked.

Stockdale, for his part, said: “Following a discussion of quotas, I made a light-hearted but poorly chosen remark. I certainly intended no disrespect to anyone, and I regret that people felt disrespected.”

The women’s council is a powerful, cross-factional group that cares deeply about the Liberals. They have watched on in dismay as the party has failed to learn the lessons of past elections. The final straw for plenty of them was the disastrous work-from-home policy, which Dutton had to overturn in a panic mid-election campaign after it became blatantly clear that it was viewed as anti-women.

While it was his assertiveness comment that was spreading like wildfire among Liberal chat groups on Wednesday, it was not the only remark made by Stockdale that stunned. At least three sources on the call confirmed that moderate powerbroker Senator Maria Kovacic asked Stockdale if he would issue a public statement backing the NSW Liberal leader Mark Speakman in light of extraordinary comments made by anti-abortion influencer Joanna Howe.

Howe, a Labor Party member, has used her YouTube channel to describe Speakman as a “the weakest, most pathetic, lamest man in the country” after he refused to buckle to her demands and vote against a recent bill to expand access to abortions. She has gone further and, according to a recent episode of her podcast, The Dr Jo Show, she wants to branch stack the NSW Liberals to gain enough opposition to Speakman to have him rolled as leader.

Stockdale’s thoughts? Any statement supporting Speakman’s leadership could defame Howe. (Speakman, a moderate, was passionately against the federal takeover). Stockdale may not have felt it necessary to back Speakman, but the NSW Liberal leader was keen to fire back.

“Of course we don’t need reverse quotas for men,” Speakman scoffed. “We have 45 per cent women on the NSW frontbench and 45 per cent of the Liberal Party room are women. I welcome the talented strong women who have joined our parliamentary ranks in recent years”.

Stockdale’s pitch to Liberal women on Tuesday night should be enough to send the clear message that he and Alston were not the right pick, let alone demographic, to turn around a troubled party which has been reduced to a rump of just six federal seats in NSW. Their term should not be extended, and the talented women of the Liberal Party should take the reins.

Alexandra Smith is the state political editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.

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