Taylor undercuts Ley on gender quotas, saying they ‘subvert democracy’
Opposition defence spokesman Angus Taylor has slammed gender quotas for political parties, undercutting Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s openness to the idea just six weeks after the pair fought a bitter battle for the Liberal Party leadership.
Days after Ley gave an address at the National Press Club saying she would consider quotas if the party’s state divisions saw them as the solution to gender equity, Taylor argued mentoring and recruitment support was a better alternative before claiming the Labor Party “subverted democracy” with its quotas.
At odds: Angus Taylor and Sussan Ley.Credit: Eamon Gallagher, James Brickwood
“I believe in democratic processes, and I don’t believe in subverting them, but I also know from my past experiences that mentoring, recruitment support is the way to make sure you have the people you need,” Taylor told ABC Radio National on Friday.
“The Labor Party will do things their own way. And they do subvert democracy, and that’s a matter for them, at the end of the day, if you’re going to have quotas, it means you are going to subvert democratic processes.”
Later on Friday, Taylor denied he was at odds with Ley and said both he and his leader “absolutely agree on the importance of making sure we are attracting talented women”. But Taylor doubled down on his opposition to quotas, setting up a battle within the party on how it would recruit more women.
The Liberal Party’s gender imbalance in its ranks of MPs has barely changed in a decade. Only one-third of Liberal MPs are women despite the party having a target of 50 per cent. Labor has had a quota system for decades and 56 per cent of its MPs are women.
Following the devastating election loss when then-opposition leader Peter Dutton lost his seat, Ley won the leadership on a thin margin of 29 votes to Taylor’s 25.
Senior Labor minister Tanya Plibersek slammed Taylor’s comments as proof the party had not changed since the election.
“Well Angus Taylor is all the proof you need that Liberal Party preselection is not based on merit. It’s extremely disappointing to see the Liberal Party still not learning the lessons of their recent defeat,” she said.
“I also think it’s incredible that the blokes in the Liberal Party haven’t even given Sussan Ley two months in the leadership without beginning to undermine her.”
The opposition leader spoke before Taylor on Friday, repeating her stance that she was a “zealot” for improving female representation in the party and noted proposed models that could make this goal possible.
“I just wanted to mention that my colleague Julian Leeser has proposed a primary model. The Tories in the UK have a list model. There are a lot of different ideas. And as I said, I’m agnostic about how we get there, but I am a complete zealot that we do get there,” she told Nine’s Today.
Illustration:Credit: Matt Golding
A primary model would see community elections held before candidates were put forward in hopes that candidates would better reflect the community. A list model identifies preferred candidates for when seats open up.
The conservative wing of the Liberal Party remains firmly against introducing quotas, while the moderates remain open to the idea.
During Ley’s Wednesday press club address, she said she was open to quotas, but did not use the speech to advocate for them. “If some state divisions choose to implement quotas, that is fine,” Ley said. “If others don’t, that is also fine. But what is not fine is not having enough women.”
Hours after Ley’s speech, former prime minister Tony Abbott rubbished the idea of quotas being the solution for improved representation.
“I am very much opposed to quotas,” he said. “I think they are fundamentally ... contrary to the merit and what should be at the heart of our Liberal conservative philosophy.”
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