Silence on bullying spells career fear, says Lib elder

Liberal elder Judith Troeth says female MPs have backed away from bullying allegations because of threats to their careers.

The Liberal Party’s first female president Christine McDiven.

Liberal Party elder Judith Troeth has suggested female MPs in the Coalition have backed away from bullying allegations because of threats to their careers.

Ms Troeth, a parliamentary secretary under John Howard, made the claim as Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared in question time that he was “absolutely satisfied that there was no gender-specific lobbying or pressure placed on members” during last month’s leadership spill.

Assistant Home Affairs Minister Linda Reynolds yesterday stood by her criticism in the Senate chamber during the spill of colleagues she accused of “bullying and intimidation”, but declared she would not be discussing the matter publicly.

“I strongly believe that the correct forum to address these concerns is via robust and constructive discussion within the Liberal parliamentary party processes, not in the media and not in this chamber,” Senator Reynolds said.

On Tuesday, South Australian Liberal senator Lucy Gichuhi appeared to back down from a threat to “name and shame” colleagues she accused of bullying, saying she had spoken to Mr Morrison, who had “taken up the issue”.

Ms Troeth, a Victorian senator from 1993 to 2011, said she believed Liberal colleagues who had told her the bullying allegations, which have not been publicly aired, were credible.

“I’ve been assured from colleagues that I know quite well and whose words I would believe that it all is verifiable, that it is all true, and probably that the women have backed down because of the threat to their future career,” Ms Troeth said. “I just think it’s reprehensible that that’s been used against them in that way. It would deter women or men from going into parliament to face that behaviour.”

Mr Morrison invoked the work of the Liberal Party’s first female president Christine McDiven, who implemented programs to help women win preselections and adjust to parliamentary life, during an interview on the ABC’s 7.30 on Tuesday night, citing the record number of women who were elected when John Howard won government in 1996.

The Prime Minister said Minister for Women Kelly O’Dwyer was taking a similar approach.

Howard minister for workforce participation Sharman Stone, who was elected in 1996 and is the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s ambassador for women and girls, said the only reason so many women won seats in 1996 was because there was a huge swing towards the Coalition.

“There wasn’t anything other than that at that time, and a number of them lost their seats in 1998,” Dr Stone said.

She said the party should introduce measures to address the gender imbalance, such as requiring preselections to remain open until there were equal numbers of men and women contesting.

“It’s nonsense to suggest that we don’t already have numerical quotas now in the Coalition,” Dr Stone said, referring to the number of ministries allocated to Nationals MPs.

“That is a purely numerical calculation, not based on merit. It’s purely a mathematical formula.

“Let’s stop being hypocritical about this. Every democracy in developed countries in the world with gender parity or above has achieved that through quotas.”