Laundy’s quick fix for a major Coalition problem

Former minister for small business Craig Laundy during Question Time in the House of Representatives yesterday.

Former minister and close Malcolm Turnbull confidant Craig Laundy is the first male Liberal member of parliament to come out in support of gender quotas to address the party’s low number of female representatives. He describes the need for quotas as a “short-term intervention” to help lift the party’s female representation to 50 per cent.

Mr Laundy told The Australian: “Whilst I agree completely with the principle of merit-based preselections, where we find our self today is at a disproportionate representation of men versus women.”

Within the Coalition, there are only 13 females in the House of Representatives compared with 62 men. The overall number of women in the parliament for the Liberals is less than 25 per cent across both chambers.

Senator Linda Reynolds has said that given women disproportionately hold marginal seats, she expects that number to decline at the next election.

Labor has had a gender quota for decades and has 48 per cent women in its parliamentary ranks.

Mr Laundy is concerned that without a quota, the Liberals won’t adequately increase female representation from where it is now. “We need to change this and perhaps a first step is short-term intervention with a quota system in safe seats and selected safe Senate spots”, Mr Laundy said, “so the party can grow its female representation to the 50/50 level.”

His comments follow strong remarks by Victorian party president Michael Kroger, who said intervention was necessary to increase female representation, but stopped short of advocating a formal quota. It is understood Mr Kroger favours state executive intervention to remove under-performing MPs and replace them with quality female candidates, bypassing the traditional preselection process.

Mr Laundy’s support for gender quotas follows current minister Sussan Ley’s advocacy of quotas last week, as well as a tweet by former PM Turnbull’s daughter, Daisy Turnbull-Brown, suggesting that quotas might be necessary.

Former Liberal senator Judith Troeth also came out in support of gender quotas last week.

The Australian understands Mr Laundy is planning in the coming weeks to raise a variety of ideas he has for improving the Liberal Party’s capacity to better represent a broader spectrum of Australian society, including ways to better appeal to ethnic communities and other minority groups.

Mr Laundy holds the NSW marginal seat of Reid and turned down an offer by Scott Morrison to continuing serving in the ministry.

There is speculation Mr Laundy may not recontest his seat of Reid in Sydney’s inner west. He won it from the Labor Party at the 2013 election, and increased his majority at the 2016 election despite the Coalition’s vote going backwards right around the country, including in his home state of NSW.

Peter van Onselen is a professor at The University of Western Australia and Griffith University