Latest news with #MariaKovacic
The Guardian
01-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Liberal figures push for expiry dates on gender quotas in bid to win party support
Liberals pushing for changes to party rules to boost female representation in parliament will propose gender quotas with enforceable expiry dates, in a bid to win the broadest possible support for the plan. Wednesday night's meeting of the NSW Liberal Women's Council is set to include preliminary discussions about gender quotas for party preselections, days after the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, said she was open to rule changes. Proponents of quotas, including the NSW senator Maria Kovacic, say sunset provisions to remove preferential treatment for women must be included in any rule change. The new House of Representatives will include just six Liberal women, a level of gender diversity not seen since the Howard era. The president of the council, Berenice Walker, said practical solutions to bring in more women were urgently needed. 'Men are just not going to give up their power and that's where it needs to be mandated,' she said. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Walker warned 'review points' would be required for any quota plan to assess their effectiveness after certain thresholds were met. 'I've noticed that there are more people coming on board to discuss the potential for quotas. They do want to look at solutions.' Kovacic said any quota rules would take multiple electoral cycles to be effective, and would require the support of state and territory divisions. 'Our goal must be genuine gender parity, with equal numbers of men and women contesting both marginal and safe seats,' she said. 'Achieving this goal will likely take two election cycles. 'Once that balance is reached, we can return to the existing system with confidence that equity has been successfully embedded. A sunset clause would be an appropriate mechanism to ensure the temporary nature of a quota system.' The senior Liberal frontbencher Angus Taylor and the former prime minister Tony Abbott are among the high-profile opponents of quotas. Taylor has said they 'subvert democratic processes' and has called for more mentoring of women as a measure to improve representation. The federal Liberal vice-president and former MP Fiona Scott said quotas 'could be a solution', provided they were part of a suite of changes. 'We need more pathways and organisations for women to inspire professional women to join,' she said. The shadow minister for women, Melissa McIntosh, said the quotas debate oversimplified the issue. She called for the review into the party's future, established after its devastating federal election defeat, to consider a range of mechanisms, including mentorship, pathways and quotas. 'The review must first and foremost, when it comes to women, look at addressing the culture of the Liberal party because you could have all the quotas in the world but that won't make any difference if the cultural issues aren't fixed,' McIntosh said. 'We need to reflect, attract and support women – in our communities, within our party and the parliament. There is no question the Liberal party needs greater female representation.' The newly elected NSW Liberal senator Jess Collins said quotas were a bad idea, and ignored the many women who were preselected without preferential rules. 'I think that is a complete slap in the face for all of those terrific women, and I think it'll take the party backwards,' she said. 'I see gender quotas being weaponised as a means of consolidating factional power. We are trying now to move the New South Wales division out of that factional maelstrom, and I see gender quotas as a way to hold on to that power for those people at the top.' The NSW Young Liberals president, Georgia Lowden, said party members were open to trying new approaches, because 'things aren't getting better'. 'We need structural and cultural reform to recruit, mentor and promote more women. We should look at quotas as a temporary measure to level the playing field while we build lasting change.' 'We need to show women across the country that there's a place for them in the Liberal party.'
News.com.au
26-06-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Senior Liberal women shift on gender quotas to boost gender representation
Two senior Liberal women have left the door open for the use of gender quotas to boost female representation, with South Australian senator Anne Ruston shifting her position, stating the party can 'no longer rule out the temporary use of quotas as an option'. The debate into a short-term gender quotas, pushed by NSW senator Maria Kovacic and former Liberal senator Linda Reynolds, has been reheated after Sussan Ley ordered state divisions to increase the number of women preselected in winnable seats. Coalition health spokesperson Senator Ruston, who rejected gender-based quotas in 2021 and said 'decisions about preselections are for the grassroots members,' loosened her stance, and said the Liberals needed to increase the number of women in its party room. 'We can no longer rule out the temporary use of quotas as an option, given we have not met our targets to date by other means,' she told NewsWire. 'We must encourage more women to join the Liberal Party, and we must get Liberal women into the parliament.' The Coalition's spokesman for women, Melissa McIntosh said that while she was open to a gender-quotas, she wanted the topic to be 'thoroughly' canvassed in the election post-mortem. 'It's just not as simple as saying yes or no to quotas,' she said, urging the party to look at whether allocations would be implemented during preselection, or for safe or marginal seats. 'We shouldn't be closing the door to any possible work to be done within the party, whether they are quotas, or targets … but the work should be done and then we can have an evidence based position on whether we should be adopting quotas.' However she said a review into the party's culture and how it treats women needs to be the 'first and foremost' priority, adding that there was 'no question' that the Liberals need greater female representation. 'There has to be a lot of work on the culture of the Liberal Party and the way women are treated within the Liberal Party,' she said. 'It needs to be fixed. It doesn't really matter if we have quotas if the culture isn't conducive to the success of women (and doesn't allow them) to contribute to the party at all levels.' Ms McIntosh also said more support needed to be given to women 'once they get into parliamentary positions'. She referenced a local conference ahead of the 2022 election which had been 'quite aggressively taken out by blokes'. 'They challenged me for my seat, even though I'd won one election and increased the margin,' she said. 'That shouldn't be able to happen in a party and to a parliamentarian, and it particularly shouldn't be happening to our female MPs. We shouldn't be feeling that insecurity within our own party.' The tone shift comes after Coalition defence spokesman, and former Liberal leadership contender, Angus Taylor maintained that he has 'never been a supporter of quotas' to increase gender representation. 'I think there are better ways of doing that, and I've seen that in my own business career,' he said. While Ms Ley has said she is 'agnostic' on how state branches chose to increase gender representation ahead of the 2028 poll, the Liberal Leader said the party must 'recruit better,' 'retain better,' and 'support better'. Asked whether she would intervene on unruly state branches unwilling to head her call, she told reporters at National Press Club: 'I'm not prepared to accept that we won't'. Ms Ley also emphasised the broaden the Liberal Party's base as the Coalition rebuilds after they were 'smashed' on May 3. Speaking to the Coalition party room in Canberra on Thursday, Ms Ley told members: 'Our job is to present that alternative narrative for Australians so they look at us and know that we're a party that respects, reflects and will represent modern Australia, and we can restore their faith and trust in us'. Nationals Leader David Littleproud said the 'mob will turn' on Labor, issuing a call to arms for the party to 'come out swinging,' and focus on the cost-of-living crisis still affecting Aussies. 'The mob will turn as they turn in this election, they can turn again, and when they turn, they'll turn big time,' he said. 'So let's come out swinging. Let's hold this government to account, and let's show Australians that we are here for them and we have the solutions for them.'
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Coalition MPs should embrace net zero policies or risk alienating voters, Liberal senator warns
Coalition MPs should stop questioning climate change science and instead fully embrace emissions policies to deliver net zero by 2050, the Liberal senator Maria Kovacic says, warning Australia's environment and economy is at risk. After its historic drubbing at the 3 May election, some Coalition MPs are preparing for a protracted brawl over climate targets, leaving support for net zero policies under the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, in significant doubt. Nationals including Matt Canavan and Barnaby Joyce, as well as Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie, have questioned net zero plans ahead of a policy review ordered by Ley. The shadow environment minister, Dan Tehan, told Guardian Australia this week the financial cost may shape the Coalition's decision on whether to abandon the target. But the New South Wales moderate and newly appointed shadow assistant minister, Kovacic, said the Coalition needed to maintain support for net zero, first agreed by the former Morrison government. 'Ultimately, we believe, as the Liberal party, in reducing emissions and ensuring that we are part of a global effort,' Kovacic said. 'In terms of developing further policies … that's going to be a matter for the party room, but I think it's really important that we don't talk about, 'Oh, is it real, or isn't it real?' 'It's real, and our job is now to determine how we're going to reduce emissions and ensure that we don't leave a significant problem for future generations, in terms of how they're going to manage the impacts of climate on our environment and on our economy.' Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email She made the comments in an interview for Guardian Australia's Australian Politics podcast released on Friday. 'This is not just an environmental imperative. It's an economic imperative, and we have some great opportunities with our solar and wind resources in Australia to actually become global leaders in that space. 'Let's find a solution for people that ensures we get our emissions down and we have clean and cheap energy. I think that's what Australians are looking for us to do.' Kovacic called for respectful and constructive discussions in the Coalition joint party room about the topic. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'We need to ensure that the people who vote for us feel that what we're going to do is aligned with what's important to them. Otherwise, guess what? They're not going to vote for us again. 'If we don't listen it's not going to get better for us. It will get worse.' Ley has appointed Kovacic shadow assistant minister to the opposition leader, as well as shadow assistant minister for women, child protection and the prevention of family violence. The former prime minister Scott Morrison on Thursday said he believed Australia should stick with net zero. 'My view hasn't changed and the reasons for saying it at the time hasn't changed,' he told Sky News. 'I didn't want us to become an island when it came to investment of capital, which was becoming a pretty serious problem, so I thought we took the right approach.'
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Australia news live: Liberals rue ‘fairy floss politics' and policy black hole under Dutton; looting warning follows floods
Update: Date: 2025-05-26T20:38:08.000Z Title: Culture war cost us seats, senior Liberals tell Four Corners Content: Current and former Liberal party MPs and senators have said the party's focus on culture war has seen their inner-city constituencies abandon them and contributed to their election loss in what one called 'fairy floss politics'. Speaking to ABC's Four Corners on Monday night, former NSW Liberal president Jason Falinski, former senator George Brandis and NSW senator Maria Kovacic criticised their party's focus on small, hard-right constituencies and culture wars. The party alienated women, especially those who wanted to work from home, offended public servants, multicultural communities, people in the inner cities, students and 'other minority groups as well', Brandis said: It was almost as if we were running out of new people to offend. People who felt the party needed to lean harder into the culture wars were 'nuts', Brandis said: The people you have to persuade are the people who didn't vote for you last time but are open to persuasion. And those people live in the centre ground of Australian politics. And if you spend your time drinking your own political bathwater and only living in an echo chamber of far-rightwing opinion, you're never going to get them. Falinski said that 'fairy floss politics' – that is, 'high-calorie, low-nutrition politics' such as copying Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, concept – was 'not healthy for us'. Kovacic said: I don't think that everyday Australians are particularly interested in culture wars. People have abandoned us in the cities because our messaging doesn't resonate with them, and they haven't gone to the right. They voted for Labor and the teals because what we're selling them isn't aligned with them. Update: Date: 2025-05-26T20:36:49.000Z Title: Coalition wanted to erase Aboriginal people from national memory: Dodson Content: Pat Dodson has also decried what he called the 'new assimilation' policies pushed by the Coalition during the election campaign, saying it is another way of trying to erase Aboriginal people from national memory. Speaking to 7.30 on Monday night, Dodson said: If you looked at what they were talking about in the opposition at the last election, getting rid of land councils, revising a whole range of symbolism, throw out the welcome to country, get rid of the flags, rescind the ambassador. Anything that indicates the presence of Aboriginal people would have gone. That's what the new assimilation's about, is completing the obliteration of Aboriginal people from the landscape. Cultural heritage is another very important aspect of that. The more you smash and destroy the cultural heritage of Aboriginal people, the greater it is to say that there is a substantive argument to say that they had a substantive presence here, because there's no evidence – you've blown it up. Update: Date: 2025-05-26T20:30:55.000Z Title: Labor should return to 'treaty-making process', Pat Dodson says Content: Yaruwu elder and former Labor senator Pat Dodson has urged the Albanese government to 'go back to the treaty-making process' in order to continue the project of reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, arguing the 'resounding victory' of Labor at the election gave them a new opportunity. Speaking to ABC's 7.30 on Monday night, Dodson said he was 'very confident' Albanese could lead that process, but it would require going back to the Uluru statement from the heart. Dodson said: That doesn't mean they have to go down the constitutional path for a voice. But it does mean that they've got to honour the two aspects of the Makarrata commission. That wasn't voted on by the people. That wasn't part of the provision that we voted on, to vote down. So they have to go back to the treaty-making process and the truth-telling process. And they can do that, because it doesn't require constitutional referendum. That can be done by way of legislation. Truth-telling needed to be a two-way street, Dodson said, and it needed to result in a 'national narrative' that was not simply 'Captain Cook came here and no one was here'. Dodson continued: I think that the government's come back with a resounding victory. The horror that they anticipated [of electoral defeat] passed by. They've now got the confidence of the Australian people. The Australian people want to see unity. They don't want to see hatred. And they want to live with a national sense of Australian pride. The time has come. We can't keep kicking it down the road, and even the prime minister was saying during the referendum – if not now, when? So, OK, the referendum went up and it went down. That doesn't mean that that is the end of reconciliation. Reconciliation is about the substantive issues. Update: Date: 2025-05-26T20:30:55.000Z Title: Welcome Content: Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I'm Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it'll be Luca Ittimani with the main action. Current and former Liberal party MPs and senators have said the party's focus on culture war and a failure to properly develop and present policies cost the party the election. Speaking on Four Corner last night, former NSW Liberal president Jason Falinski said 'high-calorie, low-nutrition politics' – so-called 'fairy floss politics' – had proved costly. More details coming up. We have an exclusive story this morning from the veteran-led organisation on the frontline of disaster recovery calling for federal government support to help establish a 10,000-strong volunteer army. It comes as police are pouring resources into flood-ravaged towns in NSW to prevent a breakdown in law and order after two men were arrested for alleged looting. More coming up. In another exclusive, one of the architects of the Indigenous voice to parliament, Megan Davis, who says Aboriginal Australians increasingly feel the government is not listening to their views on laws and policy design, warns against closed-shop public consultations in the wake of the referendum defeat.
The Age
09-05-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Scrap nuclear: Key Liberal senator wants radioactive energy plan buried
The Liberal Party is set for a pivotal clash over nuclear power after a key senator broke ranks to urge her colleagues to dump their plans for atomic energy, shaping the choice over the party's leadership and direction. The warning from Liberal senator Maria Kovacic marks the first public rejection of the nuclear plan from a member of the federal party room ahead of a broader debate about how to recover from the catastrophic defeat at the election. The move comes as deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley and shadow treasurer Angus Taylor contest a tight race to decide the leadership, with each side approaching immigration spokesman Dan Tehan to serve as deputy. A damaging leak of internal polling, revealed by this masthead on Tuesday, has also fuelled discontent within the party, as MPs criticise the party's pollster, Freshwater Strategy, for providing data that that gave Liberal leader Peter Dutton a false sense of confidence. Kovacic said the election campaign showed that younger voters did not support the nuclear policy, based on her experience with Liberal candidates at polling stations, and that the party needed to listen to the verdict from voters last Saturday. Loading 'We know how tough it is out there, and we didn't offer Australian voters a legitimate alternative – and they sent that message very, very clearly on Saturday,' she said. 'And we can't deny the fact that our nuclear plan was a part of that because it was one of the keystone policies. 'So it's my view that the Liberal Party must immediately scrap the nuclear energy plan and back the private market's investment in renewable energy.'
