LNP women reject gender quotas, calling for safe-seat picks

Senior women in Queensland’s LNP say more women need to be pre­selected in safe seats but enforcing gender quotas is not the answer.

Queensland LNP vice president Amanda Cooper. Pic Annette Dew

More women need to be pre­selected in safe seats after the ­Coalition’s crushing defeat at the federal election, but enforcing gender quotas is not the answer, senior women in Queensland’s Liberal National Party say.

An emergency motion to ­debate “equal representation” of men and women in preselection at the LNP’s annual three-day conference was abandoned by the women’s arm of the party on Thursday.

Plans to move the motion came after senior Liberal women, including federal deputy leader Sussan Ley and former defence minister Linda Reynolds, suggested gender quotas to boost representation with the Coalition under renewed pressure over its lack of gender diversity.

Just 11 of the Coalition’s 58 lower house MPs and 14 senators are women, and former prime minister Scott Morrison’s handling of alleged sexual violence in politics is widely believed to have resulted in women across the country turning away from the Coalition at the May 21 poll.

But in Queensland, where the Liberal and National Parties are merged, women have historically been opposed to affirmative ­action policies.

The LNP Women last year passed a resolution to block ­quotas, instead endorsing candidates being “selected on merit”.

Party vice-president Amanda Cooper described quotas on Friday as a “blunt instrument”, ­insisting more needed to be done to encourage women to run.

“Solutions are not black and white. Let’s not have a solution without understanding the problem, what is the issue that is making people a bit reluctant?” she said, citing public speaking fears and social media abuse as key ­deterrents.

“In some situations you can see when you force a number on a person you are not necessarily getting the right outcome. I think mentoring is a really powerful way to encourage people to be ­involved.”

Senator Susan McDonald does not support gender quotas. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Opposition resources spokeswoman Susan McDonald said she did not support quotas, but agreed “we need to do something so we have more women successfully contesting safe seats”.

“I think quotas address the symptom but it does not address the cause,” the Nationals senator said.

“Certainly I would not be happy to ever think I was in a job, not because I was qualified and capable, but for another agenda.”

Senator MacDonald, who is home about five nights a month, said most women she had ­approached to run for preselection did not want to spend 23 weeks of the year in Canberra.

Other senior Queensland LNP women, including frontbenchers Karen Andrews and Angie Bell, have been more open to considering quotas.

In his opening address to the LNP convention, which began in Brisbane on Friday, party president Lawrence Springborg said the party would “ensure a broader representation of candidates” at the next state election.

Of the LNP’s 93 candidates at the 2020 state election, 26 were women compared with Labor’s 40.