Libs debated quotas plan in 2017

The Liberal Party considered a detailed plan to introduce gender quotas in federal, state and local levels more than three years ago, internal documents show.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was ‘open-minded’ on gender quotas. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

The Liberal Party considered a detailed plan to introduce gender quotas in federal, state and local levels more than three years ago, internal documents show.

Amid internal debate about whether a quota system would help ameliorate cultural issues plaguing the party, documents obtained by The Australian show the NSW Liberals considered introducing a system in 2017 that would have almost doubled the number of seats held by females.

Detailed in minutes from a NSW Liberal executive committee in October 2017, the plan would have given female candidates a 20 per cent boost during preselection voting until women held 40 per cent of the party’s NSW seats at federal, state and local governments, and 25 per cent of its Senate seats.

Currently, women hold only 20 per cent of the Coalition’s 76 federal seats, with seven of those 15 seats considered marginal.

By comparison, women hold 40 per cent of Labor’s 68 seats.

According to sources present at the meeting, the Liberal Party’s then federal president, Nick Greiner, originally proposed the plan that was brought to the meeting by the then acting state president Kent Johns.

Mr Greiner, now Australia’s consul-general in New York, did not respond to questions.

If successful, the plan would have come into effect after the 2021 federal election, and the 2023 NSW state election.

“Where Liberal Party representatives of a gender fall below 40 per cent in the current parliament, then any candidate for the next round of preselections … will be given a weighting of 20 per cent … until representation is equal to or greater than 40 per cent,” the document said. “These changes would take effect after two federal, state or local government elections cycles have elapsed.”

Four years on, the debate surrounding gender quotas is still raging within the Liberal Party.

After weeks of scandal, including accusations a Nationals MP raped a sex worker, prominent NSW Liberal figures say gender quotas were an appropriate mechanism for increasing female representation in the party.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was “open-minded” on gender quotas, as she conceded targets had failed the Liberal Party’s bid to reach 50 per cent of females, while several of her senior ministers lead the chorus of calls for greater gender parity across the party.

With only two Liberal women currently in the ministry — Ms Berejiklian and Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock — Environment Minister Matt Kean said the only way to fix the discrimination faced by women across society was to ensure they were effectively represented in the halls of parliament.

“The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. You cannot be chronically under-representing half the population and still have the best candidates. A quota system is more than overdue,” Mr Kean told The Australian. “It’s time we changed.”

Attorney-General Mark Speakman, Planning Minister Rob Stokes and Jobs Investment and Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres said they supported the implementation of a quota system.

“I haven’t supported quotas in the past but talk for decades about alternatives has failed,” Mr Speakman said. “We now need quotas.”

In a statement, the NSW Liberals said they “recognised that more needed to be done” but wouldn’t commit to implementing a gender quota system.