Tanya Plibersek says Liberal Party blokes prove merit doesn’t work

Tanya Plibersek says “Liberal blokes” prove that merit does not work when it comes to preselecting women.

Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek says the Liberal Party shouldn’t shy away from discussion about women. Picture: Alan Barber

Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek says “Liberal blokes” prove that merit does not work when it comes to preselecting women and dismisses concerns Labor has weaponised the issue.

The Acting Opposition Leader said a recent outpouring of elected women in the Liberal Party defending the party’s relationship with female office holders and voters was “disappointing.”

Labor has a mandatory target of 50 per cent female representation in federal parliament, and Ms Plibersek told reporters in Adelaide that the male members of the government were proof merit “doesn’t apply to Liberal preselection.”

“You only have to look at some of the Liberal blokes that have been elected to parliament to see that the merit principle plainly doesn’t apply to Liberal preselection,” she said.

“There are some pretty unimpressive characters there and if they’re sitting there on merit, I’ll eat my hat.”

NSW Liberal moderate Jason Falinski called for an overhaul of the party’s candidate selection process to ensure more females entered parliament.

Mr Falinski criticised the party’s recruitment process and told The Australian the organisational wing should have a dedicated team of headhunters to identify and ­mentor talented prospective ­candidates.

His comments earned him an endorsement from Ms Plibersek today.

“It not just individual seats that you need to look at. You really need to look at the culture and processes within parties and I think that’s why Jason Falinski’s comments today about looking at Liberal Party preselection processes are so important,” she said.

Assistant minister Linda Reynolds wrote in The Australian this week that Labor were harming moves to increase female representation in parliament by weaponising the issue of gender.

Ms Plibersek dismissed Senator Reynolds’ comments and said it took decades of public discussion to increase female MPs in the Labor Party.

“What’s disappointing is that you have people in the Liberal Party who are trying to shut down the debate because they feel it is a debate that reflects badly on the Liberal Party,” she said.

“This is not something that the Labor Party has achieved overnight. We are close to 50 per cent representation. But it’s taken decades to do this. It’s taken a concerted effort to do this. And it’s taken discussion within our own party.

“If the Liberals are serious about improvements. They shouldn’t shy away from this discussion, they should embrace it.”