Morrison-era minister Greg Hunt pushes Liberals to pick more women

Scott Morrison’s health minister, Greg Hunt, has urged the Liberal Party to pick more women and diverse MPs, arguing his party does not fully reflect Australian society as it nominates female candidates for just a quarter of recent preselections.

As a key internal pressure group makes its first call for gender quotas and Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley urges female voters to give the Liberals “another look-in”, the trajectory to a 50 per cent target recommended in a 2022 party review will be tested as candidates are chosen for several key seats.

Former health minister Greg Hunt says it’s vital that the party actively seeks out diverse candidates.Credit: Eddie Jim

“There’s no question in my mind when I look at the UK, New Zealand and Canadian [conservative party] ministries, they are more diverse than the Australian Liberal representation,” Hunt said at a Robert Menzies Institute event last month, adding he believed Opposition Leader Peter Dutton could win the next election.

As the Liberals try to win back inner-urban seats where professional women voters deserted the Morrison government, Hunt said it was vital that the party actively sought out diverse candidates. He pointed to the boost in the number of women on health boards during his time as health minister without the need for quotas as an example of cultural change.

“We do not, at this stage, represent the diversity that our fraternal parties do. We are making progress but we can do more,” said Hunt, who backed the selection of Zoe McKenzie to replace him when he retired at the 2022 election.

The latest data on Liberal candidate selections shows 27 per cent of incumbents and new candidates picked so far are women. In 11 of Labor’s most marginal seats, the Coalition has so far picked eight men and three women.

The Liberals selected Maria Kovacic for a Senate vacancy in this term of parliament and have preselected some women for safe seats including Mary Aldred in Monash in Victoria’s Gippsland region.

Hunt added the party in which he served as minister for a decade must maintain the health of each of the “three legs of the stool” – liberalism, conservatism and libertarianism – as centre-right parties worldwide confront threats from the populist far-right.

“The party will not prosper if it loses any part of the base,” Hunt said.

Emphasising the ongoing relevance of former prime minister John Howard’s “broad church” description, Hunt’s remarks add heft to recent calls from Tony Abbott and senior Liberal women to grapple with its “women problem”.

Charlotte Mortlock’s Hilma’s Network tracks the number of Liberal women in parliaments and advocates for greater representation.Credit: Edwina Pickles

A key internal Liberal Party campaigner on boosting women, Charlotte Mortlock, said the party should consider a formal quota system after the next election.

“We set targets in 2015 which we haven’t achieved. We are already behind on the 2022 Hume-Loughnane [party review] target,” said Mortlock, the executive director of Hilma’s Network, a group devoted to getting women into parliament.

“After the election, if we don’t see a seismic improvement, I don’t see how anyone with genuine commitment to increasing female representation couldn’t call for quotas.”

There are still opportunities to nominate women in a number of preselections in the coming weeks after the electoral commission confirms final seat boundaries.

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley says the party has strong female candidates but “we need more”.Credit: Rhett Wyman

In NSW, Lucy Wicks is vying to return in the bellwether Central Coast seat of Robertson. In the previously Liberal seat of Reid, now held by Labor’s Sally Sitou, several men and women are contesting for the Liberal candidacy. In teal-held Warringah, a woman and man – Jamie Rogers and Lincoln Parker – are likely to face off. In Paterson, three men are running for preselection against one woman.

In Melbourne, party chiefs must decide whether to re-open preselections in the Labor-held seat of Chisholm, which the Liberal Party lost at the last election.

Councillor Theo Zographos is the Liberal candidate, but Katie Allen wants to run in the seat because the seat of Higgins, which she lost at the last election, was abolished by the electoral commission. Much of the old seat of Higgins has moved into Chisholm, giving party leaders the option of opening up the race to consider Allen as the candidate.

Ley said the party had strong female candidates but “we need more”.

“No shade of politics has a monopoly on the lived experience of being a professional woman,” said Ley, one of two women in Abbott’s first cabinet.

“I have been a pilot, a working mum, a mature-aged student and now a grandmother. I have lived through marriage separation. I have seen what happens when women are left with empty superannuation accounts or without assets.

“We have strong women around the shadow cabinet and we have outstanding women candidates coming through.”

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