Opinion: Deb Frecklington and the LNP have a problem with women
DEB Frecklington needs issues that define her leadership, beyond griping about the Government. One of the most obvious ones is a problem she has shown little interest in tackling, writes Steven Wardill.
Opinion
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DEB Frecklington has a problem with women.
There is nowhere near enough of them in her party room and little effort being made by the LNP hierarchy to do anything about it.
Currently, just six out of 39 LNP MPs are women, a pathetic 15 per cent. Compare that to Labor which has 22 women out of 48 members, just shy of half. Frecklington is leading a veritable boys’ club.
Almost a year into the top job, the LNP leader has so far shown little interest in doing anything about tackling the internal problems in her party causing this gender imbalance.
Instead, she has doled out the usual arguments about wanting more women in Parliament while dismissing the affirmative action mechanisms used by the Labor Party to force the issue. This is not a new problem for the LNP.
After the 2015 election, women made up 19 per cent of LNP MPs, while in the Newman government, when the party hit a record 78 members, it was just 17 per cent.
The LNP’s grassroots preselection process is consistently taking a “jobs for the boys” approach. Last year’s state election aptly demonstrated this. In Labor’s 16 most marginal seats the LNP picked just four women as candidates.
The party’s youngest MP, Verity Barton, was forced out in a preselection fight and when three men retired in safe LNP seats, they were replaced by three other men.
This is a problem that the party has either not recognised or doesn’t have the gumption to address. Conservative leaders have long argued that quotas are an affront to their founding principle of individualism and people should be selected on merit alone.
Theoretically, they are right.
However, when entrenched sexism, both conscious and subconscious, is perverting outcomes then merit-based processes have no merit at all.
Federally, the penny has begun to drop. The recent ousting of Malcolm Turnbull and allegations of bullying of female MPs has led to a conversation about the lack of Liberal women in Parliament. Victorian party president Michael Kroger has mooted the prospect of head office intervention to ensure more women are contesting safe seats.
“If the current preselection branches don’t work to preselect women, then the party executives have to do it,” Kroger said this week. “The level of representation is unacceptable, we have been talking about this since I joined the Liberal Party in 1973.’’
Former federal minister Craig Laundy suggested the party might have to consider quotas.
“Whilst I agree completely with the principle of merit-based preselections, where we find ourselves today is at a disproportionate representation of men versus women,” he said.
Frecklington should be at the vanguard of this change although not because she’s a women. The Nanango MP, who often refers to how she is the mother of three daughters, should be leading this evolution because the principle is right and the politics could work in her favour.
Queenslanders have always liked backing political leaders who take on the task of reforming their own party.
Peter Beattie did it with aplomb after the 2001 Shepherdson Inquiry into branch stacking and Lawrence Springborg was well regarded after forging the Nationals and Liberals into a single party.
Given Frecklington is largely unknown to voters, she need issues that define her leadership beyond griping about the Government. She also must win votes in Brisbane where the LNP currently has just four seats. This is not going to be an easy task.
The LNP’s women’s branch might have set an ambitious target of 50 per cent female representation by 2025. But the movement champions merit selection as one of the “great values” of the LNP and derides Labor’s quota system. That system has delivered its share of duds. It has, however, ensured Labor’s parliamentary ranks reflect the community, which is important to many voters, while the LNP’s merit-based selection has a bias towards blokes.
There are risks if Frecklington fails, but gains if she can reform the LNP’s antiquated approach.
PITT’S TRAVELS IN THE SPOTLIGHT
CURTIS Pitt has become the latest Speaker of the Queensland Parliament whose international travel has caused controversy.
The former treasurer blew $31,000 last month travelling to Los Angeles and New York with his wife.
Labor’s John Mickel had the Japan leg of a 12-day excursion cancelled mid trip in 2011 after The Courier-Mail informed then premier Anna Bligh that the speaker had jetted off without her approval.
In 2005, Peter Beattie retrospectively ticked off on unsanctioned international junkets by speaker Ray Hollis, when his love affair with travel was exposed.
Former Nationals speaker Kev Lingard — who didn’t mind the front end of an aeroplane — was not so lucky and was forced by the Goss government to repay $29,000 for unauthorised trips to Britain and Europe. Pitt’s week-long sojourn and its itinerary were approved by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. The cost included almost $20,000 of flights.
However, the bigger question here might actually be why is Pitt representing the Government at all on international travel trips?
The Speaker spruiked the Government’s tourism and advanced manufacturing agenda during meetings, his travel report indicates.
He also discussed the prospect of a movie sound stage for his home region of far-north Queensland with Paramount Pictures executives.
Surely that’s the role of executive government, particularly the trade minister, and not the person who is supposed to be the independent arbiter of what goes on in State Parliament.
HOLIDAY PICKED OVER DEB’S PARTY
SOME LNP MP types are none too impressed Burleigh MP Michael Hart skipped last week’s sittings to go on an overseas holiday. They reckon it reflects poorly on Hart, a frontbencher, and made leader Deb Frecklington look weak. Apparently the family trip was booked before the parliamentary sitting schedule was released.
PREMIER’S PRESS CALL FOR STAFFERS
ANNASTACIA Palaszczuk can pull a crowd. Almost 900 people attended the Premier’s “State of the State” speech this week. What raised eyebrows was how many staff Palaszczuk had in tow — four press staff, a photographer and another videoing. They almost outnumbered the media.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“QUEENSLAND is now the largest vehicle manufacturer in Queensland,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk posted on Twitter.
GOOD WEEK
FEDERAL LNP MP Jane Prentice who received many well wishes from LinkedIn connections about her eighth anniversary as an MP. She won’t, however, be getting a ninth.
BAD WEEK
TREASURER Jackie Trad had little to celebrate when employment data showed Queensland’s jobless rate spiked to become the worst in the country.
NEXT WEEK
STATE Parliament resumes and pressure will mount on the LNP over the question of whether the party will allow MPs a conscience vote on abortion reform.
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