Saudi Arabia very safe for women, says Liberal candidate who does business there

A Liberal candidate who connects Australian businesses with the Saudi government has praised its autocratic leader and argued the country is as safe for women as any other in the world.

Fiona Douskou, the opposition candidate in the NSW seat of Barton and a Bayside councillor, endorsed the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a podcast, frequently travels to the Arab powerhouse, and met with the Australian consul general.

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.Credit: NPearson

“That’s the first question that everyone asks me: ‘How is it to be a single female in Saudi Arabia?’ And I say I feel like I’m at the most secure country in the world – extremely safe,” Douskou in a business podcast called Brain Splat in August.

“I feel that Prince Mohammed bin Salman is … a huge game changer. Never have I been in a country where everyone is so hopeful and that’s really powerful.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton with candidate Fiona Douskou.Credit: Facebook

Douskou’s comments emerged as the opposition faces negative coverage of its candidates in Whitlam, where army veteran Ben Britton was dumped for saying women should not be in combat positions, and Bennelong where Scott Yung has faced scrutiny for his association with a casino high roller linked to the Chinese Communist Party.

Supporters of the prince argue he is modernising Saudi Arabia and diminishing the role of fundamentalist Islam. But the World Economic Forum rates Saudi Arabia 126th out of 146 countries for gender parity. Women only recently gained the right to drive.

Amnesty International continues to raise the alarm about its 2022 male guardianship laws that give men authority over women in most aspects of family life, including marriage, divorce, and when making decisions about their children.

Amnesty has claimed Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on women’s rights activists is becoming harsher.

Manahel al-Otaibi, a fitness instructor, was sentenced to 11 years in prison last year for calling for an end to the male guardianship system on social media, publishing videos of herself wearing “indecent clothes”, and failing to wear traditional dress in public.

Douskou did not respond directly to questions about her praise of Saudi Arabia and its leader, but spoke of the financial opportunity created by the $1.5 trillion Neom development on the Red Sea coast.

“There are more than 6000 Australians living and working in the Neom tech space, which I was able to be a part of – bringing my technology sector expertise to revolutionary high-tech projects,” she said in a statement.

“As part of my work there, I had met with a number of officials from various government departments and agencies, with support from the Australian embassy, but I did not work for the government or its agencies.”

Douskou said on social media that she had visited the kingdom six times in 2023.

Saudi Arabia’s history of human rights abuses includes exploitation of migrant workers and an opaque court system.

The kingdom executed 345 people last year, according to Amnesty, more than double the previous year and the highest figure in decades. US intelligence agencies concluded that the crown prince was involved in the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The oil-rich kingdom sits in the G20 alongside Australia and the two countries share a billion-dollar trade relationship. In December last year, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles visited the Saudi capital of Riyadh and met with government officials. South Australian Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas has received criticism for bringing the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour to his state.

Douskou was a founder of Palisades Consulting, a business which connects entrepreneurs with businesses in Saudi Arabia, and engaged with the country’s sovereign wealth fund, according to her LinkedIn profile.

On that profile, she posted and shared pro-Saudi messages more than 45 times in the past year, many of which were announcements by the Saudi government.

A LinkedIn post from Fiona Douskou of her business dealings in Saudi Arabia.Credit: LinkedIn

In one post, Douskou announced her company facilitated meetings for its client with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which human rights organisations say has played a role in committing human rights abuses.

“I am certainly proud to announce that Palisades Consulting successfully held a range of meetings for our client with leading Saudi Arabian pharmaceutical companies & PIF pharma government agencies,” Douskou said in the post.

Human Rights Watch’s 2025 World Report said the PIF has “facilitated and benefited directly from serious human rights abuses”.

Barton is a safe Labor seat, but its incumbent Labor MP, the former Indigenous affairs minister Linda Burney, is retiring.

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