Signs of light as Liberal women run for change

These nine SA women are the exact people the Liberal Party must find to shield itself from claims of indifference to gender equity and demonstrate its commitment to promoting ­female talent.

Liberal candidates Kerrynne Liddle, Laura Curran, Heidi Girolamo, Kathleen Bourne, Amy Williams, Ashton Hurn, Penny Pratt, Tania Stock and Rachel Swift. Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

These nine South Australian women are the exact people the Liberal Party must find to shield itself from claims of indifference to gender equity and demonstrate its commitment to promoting ­female talent.

After decades as a safe haven for gentlemen farmers and suburban male solicitors, the state Liberal Party is moving to address years of gender imbalance, not with quotas but a grassroots recognition that things have to change.

Over the past four months, and before the sexual assault and harassment scandals beset federal politics, the South Australian division has ensured that nine of its past 10 preselected candidates for winnable seats have been women. It has done so without a formal target or any rules demanding a set number of female preselectors.

The moderate-dominated division has endorsed women such as 24-year-old Laura Curran, who cites retiring Boothby MP Nicolle Flint as her mentor and regards herself as an example of what can be achieved without quotas.

A law graduate and former ­adviser, Ms Curran moved from Canberra to Saudi Arabia as a teenager after her family was put under witness protection on ­account of her father’s work as an undercover policeman.

Ms Curran says she is proud of her background and prouder that she has secured preselection on her own merits.

“I want to think and I want people to think that I got here ­because I deserved it,” Ms Curran said.

“We are a party of individual freedom and a party that rewards merit. I am glad that I have got here but I am especially glad that I did it off my own bat.”

The success of the South Australian Liberals over the past 12 months is not without its detractors, principally in SA Labor where the number of women has ­already reached parity with men as a result of the party’s affirmative action rules.

Labor leader Peter Malinauskas reshuffled his shadow ministry last year with an equal number of male and female frontbenchers, and points out that just three of the 14 frontbenchers in the Marshall government are women, as are just four of the state’s 25 lower house Liberal MPs.

But state Liberal director ­Sascha Meldrum says all that is set to change, openly acknowledging that the party has had a problem, but one it is determined to address.

She says the move to address the imbalance has come from the party’s rank and file itself, and she says suggestions that the absence of a target for quota means the Liberals aren’t serious about promotion of female talent is wrong.

“The Liberal Party is committed to increasing the number of Liberal women in our parliaments,” Ms Meldrum said.

The women the Liberals have preselected include four women lined up for the state’s upper house, replacing men such as low-profile journeyman John Dawkins who was expelled from the party for voting against an ­endorsed party candidate, and Treasurer Rob Lucas, both of whom are retiring at next year’s election.

In the state’s lower house, three women have already been preselected for safe or winnable seats. They include Premier Steven Marshall’s former communications director Ashton Hurn, whose family has strong links to the Barossa Valley where she will easily win the safe seat of Schubert at next year’s poll. Ms Hurn, a moderate, is regarded by many as a potential future leader of the party.

Two women have also been preselected for the Senate, including journalist Kerrynne Liddle, who if elected will become South Australia’s first Indigenous federal MP.

Ms Meldrum conceded there was a still a debate within the party about whether quotas were needed but believed the SA Liberals were showing change was possible without targets.

She said the party was encouraging more women into senior positions through initiatives such as the Enid Lyons Fighting Fund, established by former federal ­financial services minister Kelly O’Dwyer. The fund provides grants to women to help them embark on political careers.