Liberal party vice president’s election warning: Take women seriously

Another high-profile Liberal woman has put her hand up for the Sydney seat of Vaucluse, as party election analysis reveals female candidates outperformed their male counterparts.

Voters have not turned on the Liberals, they have turned on Liberal men, says one of the party’s most senior women.

NSW Liberals Vice President Mary-Lou Jarvis said an internal analysis of the party’s federal election loss revealed female candidates had consistently shown better electoral prospects.

Ms Jarvis is pushing for the party to not repeat the same mistakes — which saw affluent female candidates standing as independents to overthrow Liberal men — at the March 2023 state election.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that Ms Jarvis, a former environmental lawyer Woollahra deputy Mayor, will nominate for the Sydney seat of Vaucluse — left vacant by former Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton’s resignation.

Ms Jarvis intends to step down from her role as president of the party’s NSW Women’s Council to focus on her contest for Vaucluse and “allow others to continue the work that we have achieved”.

Vice president of the Liberal Party Mary-Lou Jarvis will make a bid for Vaucluse. Picture: Gaye Gerard

She backed her push for more strong female candidates by citing the numbers: the party suffered a 3.66 per cent swing to Labor nationally and 3.2 per cent swing in NSW — many female candidates had swings well below those figures.

Ms Jarvis said women also raked in high personal votes which showed “people who might not normally vote Liberal were voting for them in their particular electorates”.

“Overall, where we have Liberal women standing in seats to contest elections … we do well,” she said.

“In many cases with the women, their personal vote was higher than the senate vote, suggesting they were popular beyond the Liberal party.”

Ms Jarvis said swings against women “across the board” were more “contained” compared to swings against Liberal men including 12.33 per cent against Paul Fletcher and 15.72 per cent against Jason Falinski.

She highlighted Parramatta candidate Maria Kovacic, Shortland candidate Nel McGill and Jen Ware for Hughes as some of the women who outperformed the party’s men.

Former Member for Robertson Lucy Wicks. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

“Nel McGill in Shortland, she only suffered a 1.37 per cent against her and she did amazingly well at the last election where she turned it from a safe Labor seat to a marginal Labor seat. Maria Kovacic, first time candidate at 1.07 per cent … then you get Paul Fletcher, 12.33 (swing),” she said.

“When you look at the swings against the men, they ranged as high as 15.72 in Mackellar.

“There is an understanding that the next election is going to be challenging. We have to do everything we can to make sure we have good policies in place but also good candidates.”

First time candidate Maria Kovacic had a 1.07 per cent swing against her. Picture: John Grainger

Ms Jarvis said the party needed to read the “whole story” as they licked their wounds from the May election defeat.

“The lesson I think at the last federal election should teach us the wisdom of good local female candidates. The electorate wants people to represent them who are in touch with their community and where you had people like Melissa McIntosh.

Ms Jarvis is speaking up about the need for her party to put their women first. Picture: Gaye Gerard

“You can see what Melissa was doing in her local area. Look at Susan Ley, she has one of the biggest electorates and she was everywhere.”

“Lucy Wicks lost her seat in Roberston but she got a higher personal vote … 35,448, higher than the senate vote. These women had a personal following that went beyond the Liberal party.
“If you say she lost it tells you part of the story but not the whole story.”

Her comments come as the party’s federal division has been embroiled in allegations that women have missed out due to factional games.

Premier Dominic Perrottet has repeatedly claimed he wants Liberals to “do better” when it comes to gender equality.

“I don’t think the party has done well in the past in terms of preselecting high calibre high quality women for parliament … we need to do better,” he said previously.

The contest for Vaucluse may set the tone for how the party treats women with the wealthy inner city seat being eyed by talented Liberal women including Ms Jarvis, Woollahra mayor Susan Wynne, Women’s Council vice president Cristina Talako and former TV host Kellie Sloane.