Julie Bishop ridicules Tony Abbott for appointing himself minister for women in 2013

Julie Bishop ridicules Tony Abbott for appointing himself minister for women in 2013 when she was sole female in cabinet.

Tony Abbott with Julie Bishop in 2010.

Julie Bishop has ridiculed her former leader Tony Abbott for appointing himself minister for women when she was the only female in cabinet, as she called for a “critical mass” of women to achieve gender equality in federal parliament.

Addressing the Frankly Women Leadership Forum in Hobart to celebrate International Women’s Day, the former deputy Liberal leader and foreign minister used the opening of her speech to hit out at Mr Abbott’s contentious decision to make himself responsible for women.

“Back in 2006 I was appointed to cabinet as the minister for education, science and training and as the minister for women’s issues. I was asked constantly by men, only men, why isn’t there a minister for men’s issues?” Ms Bishop said.

“I thought the answer so self-evident that it didn’t require a response. Fast forward to 2013 when I was back in cabinet as the deputy leader of the Liberal party and the minister for foreign affairs. I was the only woman in that 19-member cabinet so prime minister Tony Abbott appointed himself the minister for women’s issues.

“Some seven years on I thought it was quite clear that we have some way to go in addressing the issues of gender equality and stagnation.”

The retiring member for Curtin stoked anger in the Liberal Party this week after she used a Sunday interview to accuse fellow leading moderate Christopher Pyne of shifting votes away from her to Scott Morrison in the August leadership ballot.

She also questioned conservative West Australian powerbroker Mathias Cormann’s motives for wanting to change leader (from Malcolm Turnbull to Peter Dutton) and declared she could have beaten Bill Shorten.

The first Liberal woman to contest a leadership ballot remained defiant in her assertion but the Prime Minister has refused to endorse her view.

Then minister for ageing Julie Bishop and health minister Tony Abbott in 2003.

In Hobart, Ms Bishop noted Australia’s representation of female MPs had fallen behind other countries and pushed for political parties to “dig a little deeper” to find women candidates.

“Australia started so well. Twenty years ago we were ranked 15th in the world in terms of female representation in our national parliament. Today we’re ranked 50th and numbers haven’t changed, it’s about 30 per cent, but so many other nations have increased their female representation in their parliaments,” she said.

“We can have quotas, we can have laws, we can mandate equality, but attitudes can be entrenched, can be ingrained for cultural, social, religious issues.

“The issue of quotas versus targets is one that will continue for some time. The point is this, you need a critical mass of women to ensure that they can fulfil their ambitions. The talent is there. You might have to dig a little deeper for women notoriously don’t put themselves forward and women often think that somebody might be better in the role than they would be, under selling their achievements in a way that men invariably do not do.”

Mr Morrison vowed outgoing Jobs and Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O’Dwyer would be replaced in cabinet by at least one woman if he won the May election and insisted he was “just getting on” with boosting the number of women in Liberal Party ranks.

“This is what getting on with it looks like: 19 female members of the party selected in either Senate or House seats since I became Prime Minister. A record number of women now sitting in my cabinet, the highest of all time. They are actually firm results,” he said.