Senior Liberal women are quietly campaigning to preselect more female candidates ahead of the next federal election as representation plummets to decade lows.
The preselection of Simon Kennedy in the safe Liberal seat of Cook has reignited a battle within the Liberals to take its gender targets seriously and deal with its “women problem”.Male candidates have also been chosen for preselection in Chisholm, Dunkley, Aston, Curtin – all previously held or contested by a Liberal woman – leading some politicians to contemplate whether it is time for gender quotas.
Just nine women sit on the Liberal benches in the lower house while the party has 10 women in the Senate. It means the party’s “women problem” has worsened in the nine years since it introduced a 50-50 gender target by 2026.
Eric Abetz behind push to dump moderate Liberals, including Bridget Archer, party sources say.
Those fighting for gender parity grumble the campaign to elevate women in preselection battles has been consistently stymied by the party’s conservative old guard.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott and his factional colleague Angus Taylor were named by two NSW Liberals, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, as undermining efforts to promote the sole female candidate, Gwen Cherne, over Kennedy in the recent Cook battle.
Abbott declined to comment while Taylor did not address the questions on the record.Taylor said he supported the local party members’ decision to choose Kennedy, adding he was a “fierce advocate for plebiscite-based preselections”.
Factional in-fighting and the “boys’ club” have continued to hamper efforts to reach the gender targets, Liberal sources say.“It just takes a couple of high-profile people, like those two, to set us back [on meeting gender targets],” one NSW Liberal, who would not speak on the record for fear of retribution, said.“It’s not that it’s not happening, but the way they operate and the things that they do make it a hell of a lot harder.
“I actually think people want to vote for us. I think what we’re actually doing is giving them reasons not to.”
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