Vanstone calls on local strategies to attract female candidates

Amanda Vanstone has backed Scott Morrison’s call to encourage strong female candidates.

Former Howard government minister Amanda Vanstone. Picture: Keryn Stevens

One of John Howard’s most prominent female ministers has backed Scott Morrison’s call for the Liberal Party to follow the ­example of its first female federal president and ­develop local recruitment strategies to encourage strong female candidates to run for preselection in winnable seats.

Former South Australian senator Amanda Vanstone, who held the immigration, employment, justice, and family and community services portfolios in the Howard government, credited Chris McDiven with helping to get a ­record number of Liberal women elected in 1996.

Ms Vanstone’s call comes after the Prime Minister’s preference for a ­female candidate in the contest for Wentworth was overruled by local party members, who chose a former ambassador to Israel, Dave ­Sharma.

Mr Morrison’s preferred candidate, former Woollahra deputy mayor Katherine O’Regan, was knocked out in the first round after having received less than 10 per cent of the vote.

Mr Morrison subsequently declared Mr Sharma had been the “best candidate”.

Ms Vanstone said she was not in favour of quotas, but did believe the Liberal Party had to address its shortage of women.

“If a bloke is doing a job well, let him have that job,” she said.

“What they have to look at is the preselection itself.”

Ms Vanstone said Ms ­McDiven, who was then president of the party’s federal women’s committee, had visited each state branch with Fraser cabinet minister Dame Margaret Guilfoyle, who was “a huge attraction” ahead of the 1996 campaign.

Ms McDiven later served as federal president from 2005 to 2008.

Ms Vanstone said any strategy to boost numbers of women in the parliamentary party also needed to focus on the preselectors, and on encouraging strong local ­female candidates to run.

“It’s the preselectors, who know the local area, who make the decision,” she said.

“The solution here is to make sure our preselectors understand the consequences for the Liberal Party of us not having enough women, and those consequences are at the ballot box.”

Asked ­yesterday, as he toured Wentworth with Mr Sharma, how he would get more women into safe seats, Mr Morrison said he would “go back to another ­great Liberal woman, who lives in this electorate: Christine McDiven”.

“What Chris did was that she would work with women on the ground and help them prepare for contests like last night,” he said.