‘We’ll never know if Julie would’ve won’: Shorten hits out as Bishop insists she could have won election for Coalition

Bill Shorten has blasted the Coalition’s loyalty to women after Julie Bishop insisted she could’ve beaten Labor at the election.

Julie Bishop with PM Scott Morrison. Picture: Kym Smith

Bill Shorten has blasted the Coalition’s loyalty to women and declared Australia will never know if Julie Bishop could have beaten him at the election, after the former deputy Liberal leader insisted she could.

In her first major interview since announcing she would quit politics, Ms Bishop hit out at her senior West Australian colleague Mathias Cormann for attempting to install Peter Dutton as leader and at outgoing moderate MP Christopher Pyne for backing Scott Morrison in the August coup.

“I am now told that there was a view, led by Christopher Pyne and others, that even though I would have 28 votes — which was many more than Scott Morrison — it wouldn’t be enough to beat Peter Dutton,” Ms Bishop told The Sunday Times.

“So, they wanted to make sure that happened. If I had known that was what their thinking was, I could have dissuaded them of it but also I would have pointed out that the question was: Who could beat Bill Shorten? And I was confident that I could and that was Labor’s thought too.”

The Labor leader said he was “not too worried” about Ms Bishop’s comments. Asked if she would have won the May election, Mr Shorten told Nine’s Today show: “It’s up to the Australian people but we will never know.

“Even though she was the loyal deputy for four Liberal leaders it says a lot for the way the Liberal Party treats its women MPs that she never got the chance to be the leader even though she was deputy to four leaders. This is the challenge for the Liberal Party. They have a women’s problem.

“In the parliament there’s only 11 women MPs out of the 58 in the House of Representatives. Of those 11 MPs four of them are quitting. One of the women quitting said it’s because the party is anti-women. Two of the other women quitting are being replaced by men. The final one Julie Bishop after 10 years could only get 10 Liberals to vote for her to be leader. There’s not a lot of loyalty that goes to the women of the Liberal Party.”

Ms Bishop emphasised she wasn’t bitter over the outcome and was looking forward to the next chapter of her life.

“I always aimed to be foreign minister and I achieved that,” she said. “I am absolutely leaving on a high note.”

Mr Pyne officially announced his resignation yesterday, along with former defence industry minister Steven Ciobo. Both will retire at the election expected in May.

Minister for Defence Christopher Pyne formally announced his retirement from politics on Saturday. Picture: AAP

“It’s time to retire while people are asking me to stay, rather than continue and end up later with people telling me to go,” Mr Pyne said.

“I’m confident that I leave my seat in good shape. I’m sure the Liberal Party will retain Sturt [his Adelaide seat] at the coming election.

“I have every confidence that the Prime Minister will lead the Coalition to victory when the election is held in May.”

Mr Morrison yesterday promoted Emergency Management Minister Linda Reynolds to Mr Ciobo’s role, and she will replace Mr Pyne as defence minister if the Coalition wins the next election.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor said the departures of Mr Pyne and Mr Ciobo on the eve of the election had not affected the Coalition’s morale even though they had 45 years of parliamentary experience between them.

“The faces change whilst the policies stay focused (on) the same things — a stronger economy, safe and secure Australia, strong borders, fairer deal for Australians on energy prices,” Mr Taylor told the ABC’s Insiders program.

“The $200 billion in taxes from Labor, weak borders, the contrast is clear. I was at the Goulburn Show yesterday in my electorate and it was really stark. You can see now the differentiation, you can see how clearly our policies are working on the ground and morale is strong.”

Mr Pyne and Mr Ciobo join Ms Bishop, Jobs Minister Kelly O’Dwyer, Human Services Minister Michael Keenan and Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion in deciding to leave politics at the federal election, which is due by May 18.

Speculation is mounting that Liberal MP Craig Laundy, the member for the Sydney seat of Reid and a close ally of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, will also announce he will not contest the election.

The Prime Minister said yesterday it was not his understanding any other ministers would step down before the poll but Mr Laundy is a backbencher.

Meanwhile, five people, including four women, will contest Liberal Party preselection to replace Ms Bishop in her prized West Aust­ralian seat of Curtin.

Among them is former Universit­y of Notre Dame vice-chancellor Celia Hammond, 50, who is considered by many to be the frontrunner.

Her main rival will be foreign affairs specialist Erin Watson-Lynn, 33, who is believed to have the backing of Ms Bishop.

Nominations for the preselection ballot closed on Friday night. The other nominees are Aurizon genera­l manager Anna Darnell, longstanding Liberal figure­ And­res Timmermanis and former Rio Tinto engineer Karen Caddy.

The Australian revealed this week that Liberal powerbrokers, including Senator Cormann, worked behind the scenes for weeks to install Professor Hammon­d as a replacement for Ms Bishop, in part to thwart plans by Ms Bishop to help choose her successor.

— With Andrew Burrell and AAP