Opinion: Gender quotas will be a minefield if introduced

Equal representation in Parliament is a desirable goal, but forced parity is undemocratic, writes Des Houghton. VOTE IN OUR POLL

I thought Scott Morrison erred when Andrew Laming announced he would quit politics at the next federal election after accusations of poor behaviour.

The Prime Minister said he wanted a female candidate to replace Laming in the federal seat of Bowman.

What if the best candidate to run in the seat turns out to be a bloke?

And what happens if the local branch selects a male, say Henry Pike, who is subsequently sidelined by head office? Will the rejected Pike, a popular local character, have a case of discrimination or an appeal under Queensland’s shiny new Human Rights Act?

There is another problem. If a female candidate is chosen – and I believe there two excellent nominees waiting in the wings – that candidate will have to battle the perception she is a token woman planted there by ScoMo.

This is part of a broader gender debate that will make it hard for the conservatives to win the next election.

ScoMo did his best to appease what was described as a “gender revolt” amid allegations of rape and sexual harassment in the Canberra bubble.

Labor has successfully politicised the events and the LNP vote nosedived in the opinion polls.

ScoMo knows he will be dead man walking if he does not play the gender equity violin.

He said: “These events have triggered, right across this building, and indeed right across the country, women who have been putting up with this rubbish and this crap for their entire lives, as their mothers did, as their grandmothers did.”

I thought he spoke with sincerity, yet woke tribalists of Labor and the green Left found fault and went on the warpath against him.

Back in Bowman, which overlaps suburbs of Brisbane and Redland City, it took the police less than half a day to dismiss a complaint against Laming that I’m told was over-egged.

Laming got national exposure. Compare the media reaction to the claims last year of dodgy accounts and sexism in the Redlands branch of the ALP.

Some members from the branch behaved “more like a bunch of hooligans”, swearing and intimidating voters and political rivals at the last federal election, I reported.

Federal Member for Bowman Andrew Laming will quit politics at the next election over harassment scandals.

Labor members told me of sexism and misogyny in the branch, with a woman “subjected to verbal abuse and howled down” simply for attempting to suggest it was improper to change the minutes of a previous meeting.

As Laming was being hung out to dry, ScoMo backed moves for gender quotas in selecting all candidates.

Most would agree that equal representation in our elected parliaments and councils is a desirable goal.

However, forced parity is profoundly undemocratic. Quotas may stop the LNP endorsing the best candidates, as they have done in the ALP.

Quotas treat women as the weaker sex and victims. Quotas are condescending and demeaning and discriminate against men. The conservatives are already bickering over proposed quotas.

Alex Dore, a NSW party executive said quotas went against traditional Liberal Party ideals. In an email reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, he said: “These quota motions are an astounding betrayal of fundamental Liberal beliefs – in our unwavering belief in the power, potential and dignity of the individual, in equality of opportunity and in liberalism.

“It is no exaggeration to say that this is a battle for the very future of the Liberal Party.

Senator Michaelia Cash is one of the Coalition’s few female ministers.

“If quota motions are successful, there will be no mainstream political party in Australia left to stand against the dehumanising instruments of collectivism. Who will remain to fight against identity politics when even the party of the individual has abandoned it?”

Dore is right.

Women don’t need quotas to succeed. The number of women in state and federal parliament – and in company boardrooms _ is increasing as thousands of years of patriarchy is gradually swept aside.

The federal executive of the Liberal Party has a goal of 50 per cent female representation in parliament by 2025. Many hope to achieve that without quotas.

In his recent Cabinet reshuffle, ScoMo promoted several women and established a special women’s taskforce to drive a pro-woman agenda. He even said he hoped a woman followed him into his seat of Cook when he retired. He was doing his best to smooth the unlevel playing field.

But the media wasn’t listening.

Des Houghton is a media consultant and a former editor of The Courier-Mail, Sunday Mail and Sunday Sun