Sussan Ley seeks quotas to fix Liberal Party gender bias

Liberal frontbencher Sussan Ley has urged the party to introduce quotas “as soon as possible” to fix an image problem.

Liberal frontbencher Sussan Ley suggested the NSW division could set a “sensible” date by which to achieve a higher representation of female candidates across the state’s seats.

Liberal frontbencher Sussan Ley has urged her state division of NSW to introduce quotas “as soon as possible” to boost the number of female MPs and fix an image problem, warning that the party’s low representation of women in federal parliament is putting off potential candidates.

The Assistant Regional Development Minister’s demand for ­action comes as 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 said the organisational wing should have a dedicated team of headhunters to identify and ­mentor talented prospective ­candidates.

There has been a concerted push by a growing number of female Liberal MPs to shift any negative perception of the party’s treatment of women ahead of the election, with Ms Ley the latest to declare it was “not anti-women”.

But she and Mr Falinski — who represent rural and outer metropolitan NSW seats — said the party had a mammoth task ahead to fix the image it presented with just 19 of its 83 MPs in federal parliament being women.

“If we are stuck at 20 (per cent female representation) and it doesn’t look as though we are heading towards 50 per cent, then I think the community would rightly look at us and say, ‘What is going on?’ It doesn’t make sense,” Mr Falinski said. “Clearly men and women are equal. I don’t think the community expects us to fix it overnight but they do expect to see us addressing the issue.”

Ms Ley, who first endorsed quotas in September last year despite an overwhelming majority of her colleagues opposing the measure, suggested the NSW division could set a “sensible” date by which to achieve a higher representation of female candidates across the state’s seats.

“(The NSW division could say) ‘by such and such a date we want 40 per cent of them (candidates) to be female’. You have to pick a sensible number and date but then we’re heading in the right direction, we’re heading away from what is a bit of a cliff face,” she told The Australian.

“I believe the divisions (of NSW and Victoria) are putting things in place (to introduce ­quotas), now they’re really having a look at it. Of course it needs to be implemented as soon as possible. I’ll certainly be encouraging my NSW division, where honestly there are some really good women who are pushing this barrow.”

Mr Falinski said the profiles of potential candidates should be held in a database to give party figures an indication of whether there is enough diversity in future MPs, including gender and industry background so “we don’t just turn into this monolithic party”.

He added there should be more parliamentarians from the childcare sector. A similar process was adopted by the Conservative Party in Britain under David Cameron and it had worked in bringing more ­diversity to its ranks. “The issue that we have in the Liberal Party is that we basically wait for someone to leave and then open nominations and pretty much hope someone good nominates,” Mr Falinski said.

“Whereas most well-run organisations are constantly identifying talent, developing that talent and making sure that there is a good pipeline of talent … We are just leaving it to almost chaos ­theory and it requires a lot more management.”

Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said she was pleased her colleagues “now agree that there is no harassment or bullying in the Liberal Party” after several female MPs dismissed claims of a bullying culture.

“Unlike the Labor Party, the Liberal Party does not have quota girls. I have long argued for plebiscites in NSW which will broaden the community base of the Liberal Party and ensure good male and female candidates are preselected on merit,” she said.