Loss of senior female MPs could leave Libs with even fewer women in parliament
The loss of two senior female MPs in Julie Bishop and Kelly O’Dwyer has highlighted the Liberal Party’s desperate need to get serious about recruiting women if it is to re-establish its once-broad appeal.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Kelly O’Dwyer announces she is quitting politics
- My years photographing Julie Bishop, the ‘Rock Star of Politics’
Almost 10 years ago, when Peter Costello retired from the Liberal Party, the preselection contest for his replacement turned a little nasty.
The Coalition’s women’s affairs spokeswoman Sophie Mirabella claimed some Liberals were telling those with a vote not to elect Kelly O’Dwyer because Higgins was “not a seat for a woman because it’s a leadership seat”.
Apparently some Liberals were curious how Kelly could fulfil her duties as a wife and one day a mother should she be chosen to go to Canberra.
Thankfully for O’Dwyer, most of the 350 delegates did not agree with this antiquated view. Today, preselectors in the affluent Melbourne seat will vote to replace O’Dwyer.
And sadly, a decade on, the Liberal Party is still grappling with its lady problem.
MORE OPINION FROM ANNIKA SMETHURST
POOR TAKEN TO CLEANERS BY LEASING COMPANIES
BILL’S LIKELY BACKFLIP WILL SAVE FACE FOR SCOTT MORRISON
INDEPENDENTS WILL SPICE UP A BLAND ELECTION
Eight candidates — five of them women — have put their hand up to run for the seat at the May election.
Former state MP Margaret Fitzherbert, paediatrician and former state candidate Katie Allen, and Andrew Robb’s former chief-of-staff Zoe McKenzie are among the favourites.
But energy executive Greg Hannan, who has served as the party’s campaign manager, is also in the hunt.
“We need a woman but Greg has done the work,” one Liberal source said yesterday.
Should one of the three men win today’s contest, Victoria is likely to be without a female Liberal representative in the 151-seat lower house after polling day.
Over in Western Australia, the hunt is also on for a female to replace Julie Bishop in the seat of Curtin, one of the party’s safest electorates.
Addressing parliament on Thursday, Bishop made it clear she wanted a woman to take her place.
“I have been contacted by a number of talented, indeed extraordinary, people, including women, who have indicated to me that should I not reconsidered the seat of Curtin, they would seek preselection from the Curtin division of the Liberal Party for that seat,” she said.
Sources believe foreign affairs specialist Erin Watson-Lynn, who recently moved back to Western Australia, and Aurizon general manager Anna Dartnell are the two women Bishop alluded to in her speech to the House.
Unlike Higgins, the healthy buffer in Curtin means the successful Curtin candidate will be able to spend more time climbing the greasy pole in Canberra, perhaps quickly making it to the frontbench.
Given the Liberal Party’s decade-low number of female MPs, it is more important than ever that it rediscover its once-broad appeal.
Key to that is recruiting women.
Women hold 11 of the Liberal party’s 58 seats in the House of Representatives.
In a worst-case scenario, that number could drop to five after the next election.
Penbo: Awkward new lesson on Australia’s crazy energy situation
There’s a yawning chasm between meaningful gestures and practical solutions that was laid bare again this week, writes David Penberthy.
Why winery trip is nothing next to the great green grift
Power is not bought or sold like anything in any other marketplace in Australia, but try doing the math on the opaque mystery tour of the green grift, writes Vikki Campion.