Susie O’Brien: Women prove to be this election’s ‘quiet Australians’

In seat after seat, Liberal voters may have turned away from male representatives but to say teal candidates won just because of their gender is simply wrong.

At the Auburn Hotel on Saturday night, the teal army united in an enthusiastic rendition of “I am Woman” in honour of Dr Monique Ryan’s historic win.

It didn’t matter that most didn’t know the words of the verses. The chorus rang out loud: “I can do anything. I am strong. I am invincible. I am woman”.

The election of six teal independents – some of whom ousted moderate Liberal men – is a victory for female voters who supported them in numbers too big to ignore.

But the teal independents didn’t win just because they were women.

They won because they were the right women who stepped up at the right time.

Just when people gave up trusting, or even liking, politicians, a new crop of candidates emerged.

The successful teal independents are all respected, mid-career professionals who don’t have political backgrounds.

Most would never have made it through the ranks of either major party, where accomplished women are still losing out to less-impressive young men.

Monique Ryan celebrates alongside family and a sea of teal supporters.

A large number of female voters saw themselves reflected in these female candidates for the first time, and trusted them to make sound decisions on all the big issues.

This is why it didn’t matter that voters didn’t know where the teal independents stood on headline issues such as China, defence or the economy.

And it didn’t matter that we didn’t see their telegenic kids or get to know their cute dogs, because it’s about them as individuals, and not who they are married to. (It’s a lesson Scott Morrison would do well to learn.)

The teal independents are also not beholden to party structures constraining them and telling them what to do.

One of the most misguided criticisms of this group was the suggestion they were “fake independents” and mere puppets of their backer Simon Holmes a Court.

In seat after seat, former Liberal voters turned away from men who’d represented them for years and supported these women instead.

The “quiet Australians” didn’t end up being male tradies but two million professional women who voted against the Liberals in record numbers.

Since Saturday night, Liberal MPs have been wheeled out to assert their party needs to do more to listen to the concerns of women and elect more women.

Many suggested the teal women were ‘fake independents’ and mere puppets of backer Simon Holmes a Court.

But there’s no point having more women in politics if they are powerless to effect change within their parties.

Similarly, electing Karen Andrews or Bridget Archer as a deputy party leader will do little to help with the Liberals’ “women problem” if men like Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton or Alan Tudge are in charge.

Remember Archer, a first-term Liberal MP, being hauled into a meeting with Scott Morrison after she crossed the floor to support independent MP Helen Haines’ integrity bill?

Hard-line Dutton is no better. He’s the one who played politics with the lives of the Nadesalingam Tamil refugee family, refusing to let them return to Biloela in Queensland.

Tudge, who was accused of abuse by Rachel Miller, a woman he had an affair with,

was back in the spotlight on Monday, speaking on Sky News in support of Dutton.

To the chagrin of many, Tudge, who denies the allegations against him, has retained the support of Morrison and has not yet been ruled out as a potential shadow minister.

Parties like this need more women who use their power to support issues of concern to other women, and support other females in the house.

One in three members of the Morrison cabinet were female, and yet it didn’t lead to government implementing the recommendations of the Respect@Work report, taking action on the gender pay gap or dropping the religious discrimination bill.

Peter Dutton could become the Liberals new leader. Picture: Zak Simmonds

The presence of women like Marise Payne, Michaelia Cash and Karen Andrews also didn’t stop Morrison captain’s pick of the transphobic Katherine Deves, or the appalling treatment of former Australia Post boss Christine Holgate or the bullying of Australian of the Year Grace Tame.

Former Liberal MP Julie Bishop is right that the Liberals need to listen to women and have policies that respond to their concerns.

But women have been sliding away from voting Liberal for four decades and the party – and Bishop herself – haven’t done much about it.

On Monday, another former Liberal MP Christopher Pyne weighed in, noting that the loss of MP Fiona Martin in Reid was a “big blow to the Liberal party”. He’s also missing the point.

There’s no point having women like Fiona Martin, Bridget Archer or Katie Allen if no one is listening to them inside the party.

We need more than women; we need the right women, and we need men who will listen to them.

As Helen Reddy also sang in her famous anthem, there’s “a long long way to go/Until I make my brother understand”.