‘Repelling women’: Female voters unleash on Dutton and Albo

They are everyday Aussie women just like you and they’ve got a message that they want to send Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese. SEE THE VIDEO.

Female voters believe Labor is doing a better job of selling their vision to women but both parties need to do more to tackle domestic violence and homelessness.

Female members of News Corp’s Voter Verdict panel have weighed in on how Labor and the Coalition are performing with women this election as Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton prepare to face-off in their first election debate on Tuesday.

WATCH THE VERDICT IN THE PLAYER ABOVE

Mr Dutton has been forced to into an embarrassing backflip on the party’s work-from-home crackdown and apologised to female voters for the policy that would have particularly impacted mums working in the Canberra public service.

Student Emily Cookson, 24, is from the electorate of Mitchell and currently thinks Labor is ahead on the female vote.

She said the Coalition’s initial promise of cracking down on ACT-based public servants working from home was repelling female voters.

“The coalition probably has more of their policies repelling women from voting for them, particularly like the work from home policy,” she said.

Undecided voter Emily Cookson. Picture: Thomas Lisson

“I feel (it) has been a big one that the coalition has created their own women problem with, but I think the Coalition’s main problem is their disconnection from the general public and women in particular.”

Ms Cookson said Labor’s endometriosis clinics would be popular with women.

“I think the Labor Party do a better job at portraying their policies towards women and families,” she said.

“For example, in regards to the promise of introducing more endometriosis clinics as a way of enticing female voters and promising tax cuts which would be beneficial to families.”

She said both parties needed to do more on domestic violence.

Voter verdict participant Gail McIntyre from Mountain Creek. Picture Lachie Millard

“I know one of the biggest issues for me personally as a woman is the domestic violence situation across Australia.

“I’ve seen last year alone over a hundred women were killed in domestic violence situations.”

Gail McIntyre from the Queensland electorate of Fairfax said she was divided on Mr Dutton’s remote work backflip.

“The working from home thing, I’m actually in two minds about that,” she said.

“One, he’s obviously realised that with some parts of the population, his working-from-home policy isn’t popular (but) on the other hand, I’m looking for strong leadership.”

Ms McIntyre said she didn’t think either leader was succeeding at talking to women.

“I don’t think either of the leaders or the parties are particularly talking well to women at all.”

Karen Treloar will be voting in the Federal Election in the seat of Blair. Picture: Richard Walker

Fellow undecided voter Karen Treloar from the electorate of Blair in Queensland said Mr Dutton’s decision to backflip and apologise would cost him votes.

“It’s broken promises and Australia doesn’t want a leader like Dutton that keeps breaking promises,” she said.

“He says something and then it falls away and he says, ‘oh, I’m sorry, I made a mistake’. Glad he made the mistake and he owned it, but at the same time, it is not right.”

Ms Treloar said the Coalition was not considering young people when making their policies.

“You know, like, we’re talking (about) young people that are coming out and decided like they’re in their 30s and they finally want to have a child,” she said.

Julie-Anne Perich staying at the The Retreat in the West Beach Parks, SA. Picture: Emma Brasier

“So they’ve been working for quite a long time … they want to know that their job is still safe, they want to know that if they decide they want to work from home a bit, then they can and not neglect their babies.”

South Australian Julie-anne Perich is from the electorate of Barker and wants more action on homelessness, particularly for older women.

“They still haven’t really touched on the homelessness (issue), what about all the women that find themselves after being in marriages for 50 odd years and then all of a sudden there’s a breakdown and they’re finding themselves homeless?,” she said.

“We still haven’t heard any of that and we still haven’t heard enough for the women. We’ve heard a few (policies for) our health. But what’s the good of having health if we’ve got no shelter either? So we still have a long way to go.”

Originally published as ‘Repelling women’: Female voters unleash on Dutton and Albo