Latest news with #genderquotas
The Guardian
08-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Could US-style primaries be the answer to the Liberals' gender imbalance? Party figures are mixed
Senior Liberal party figures reject claims support is growing for US-style primaries for preselections and say the issue is 'distracting' from discussion on quotas, but the NSW Liberal Women's Council president says the idea merits further investigation. In the US, both Democrats and Republicans use primaries. Rules vary across states, and can be open (to any registered voter), closed (requiring party registration) or a mix of both. There can be thousands of participants, leading to high levels of voter engagement. Supporters among the Liberals believe primaries would allow local communities to choose and be better engaged with their candidate, and level the playing field for women who might be disadvantaged by current party structures. Some Liberals, including the shadow attorney general, Julian Leeser, have long backed the proposal. But one NSW Liberal, who asked not to be named in order to speak freely, said they believed opponents of gender quotas were using the 'ridiculous' idea as a distraction. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email 'The primary problem … is that we have a gender imbalance,' they said. They also said primaries were 'risky', with too many 'structural problems', and that the cost of running primaries would lock some potential candidates out. Neither the Liberals nor Labor, they said, would have the money to implement primaries in the style of the US. Another party figure, who did not want to comment publicly, criticised the idea, calling it 'a classic bait and switch to avert the subject of quotas'. A third NSW Liberal source, who did not wish to take a public stance on local primaries, said they were not aware of the idea being discussed at state branch or leadership meetings. The state Women's Council president, Berenice Walker, said the idea of primaries was worth looking into, but that the council was more focused on quotas. '[The] suggestion of community primaries is worth further investigation,' she told Guardian Australia. '[But] quotas are getting broader support around the party. Members are quite pragmatic about how to increase women's participation and are open to a range of solutions.' In June, Leeser told the ABC that community primaries were an opportunity for candidates to build and demonstrate 'actual community support'. 'I think it completely levels the playing field,' he said. 'Women often don't have the time to put into the years of building up support within a party that men do – because often women are juggling family and other responsibilities, and party structures are less friendly to women.' Former long-serving Liberal MP Karen Andrews has also supported primaries. When Andrews announced her retirement, no women stood up for preselection to replace her in her south-east Queensland seat of McPherson. Andrews said the teal independent movement showed how direct community engagement can increase support across the electorate. '[With] a different style of preselection where the community was engaged, you're more likely to have a greater level of commitment from the community.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The federal Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, has said she is 'agnostic' about what approach the party takes to increase female representation. Her deputy, Ted O'Brien, told the media on Tuesday 'all ideas are welcome'. The shadow minister for women, Melissa McIntosh, said in recent days that any reforms must include deeper cultural change within the party. McIntosh would not say if she supported US-style primaries, but has publicised her support for a 'candidate pool' model, similar to that introduced by former UK leader David Cameron to increase female and multicultural representation in the party. Sally Betts, a former Liberal mayor of Waverley and prominent moderate in Wentworth, said party reforms should focus on members and giving them value. Betts said that in her experience, preselections, which under the current rules are open to all members of a branch, often involved only a fraction of the members. 'We are a member-based organisation. When are we going to look after members and encourage them to participate?' As a result of changes introduced by Tony Abbott, all Liberal branch party members are now entitled to vote in preselections, sometimes referred to as plebiscites. Previously, candidates were chosen by a panel that was a mix of party members and party officials. She said preselection for Vaucluse held relatively early after the new plebiscite rules had attracted about 100 members to participate, out of a possible 600, reflecting a the party's more pressing problem – internal engagement. 'We should perhaps make it easier to register and encourage our members to participate.' Former NSW Liberal party president Jason Falinksi said the floating of possible US-style primaries was 'yet another example of us talking about ourselves' and did not believe the model would improve diverse representation in the party. 'Not a single part of this proposal helps us represent the people who are desperate for representation. We would spend yet more resources talking to ourselves while ignoring the very people who need our help and representation.'
The Guardian
04-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Liberals slam gender quotas as ‘disgraceful' and ‘antithetical' in leaked messages
Leaked messages from a WhatsApp group of Liberal party members in New South Wales have labelled calls for gender quotas as 'embarrassing', as the push for stronger female representation grows. The latest discord followed a meeting of the NSW Liberal Women's Council on Wednesday night, where attenders said a majority of the women were in support of quotas and broad cultural change after May's federal election loss. The WhatsApp chat exploded after the meeting's quotas discussion, which followed a public petition for quotas, endorsed by Hilma's Network founder, Charlotte Mortlock, the president and vice-president of the women's council, and former NSW Liberal MP Rob Stokes, with his wife, Sophie. The petition, created after the federal election, has 500 verified signatures as of Friday. It urges for quotas in the Liberal party to be established 'immediately' and claims the 'frustrations of women, both Liberal members and voters, continue to fall on deaf ears'. In the messages, the former Young Liberals president, Alex Dore, compared the quota push to the Liberal party putting former construction union leader John Setka into a leadership position. 'Gender quotas are as antithetical to most Liberals as putting Labor trade unionists like John Setka on the party's board of directors,' he wrote to the WhatsApp group. Another member said it was 'disgraceful' and 'unbelievable', and that they had 'never seen anything like this'. The group consists of about 50 Liberal members, including the former Liberal vice-president Teena McQueen, with most heralding from the right wing of the party. Guardian Australia has not seen the text messages but has spoken with multiple group members who have verified the contents. One Liberal source, who was not in the chat, described it as a small and 'cranky' group while another party source said they believed the purpose of the leak was to 'damage' the conversation on quotas and cultural reform. The current federal Liberal vice-president, and former MP, Fiona Scott, said she found it more disappointing that the Liberals had lost so many seats in the last decade. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'What is disgraceful, there are more women sitting on the crossbench in former Liberal seats, than sitting on our side of the bench in the House of Representatives,' she said. Party sources have told Guardian Australia a shift in sentiment could be emerging towards a quota plan, provided the right model can be agreed to. A rule change would require 60% support in a vote of the NSW state council. There were no models or motions presented at the Women's Council meeting, and one member said it would take time for the right model to be debated and accepted. Others in the party have publicly opposed quotas, including the frontbencher Angus Taylor, who has said he would actively campaign on 'sensible policies in line with Liberal values' to get more women into parliament. The new Liberal senator Jess Collins, aligned with Taylor, has also publicly opposed quotas.
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.'
The Guardian
27-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
If old school white-anting Sussan Ley on gender quotas works, the Liberals may pay a heavy political price
A day after the Labor party first voted to implement gender quotas to promote the representation of women in federal politics, five female Liberal MPs condemned the decision in a statement. Labor's national conference in Hobart in September 1994 featured heated debate about rules requiring that women be preselected for 35% of winnable seats by 2002. At the time, blokes made up more than 85% of Labor's parliamentary ranks. The five women in then opposition leader Alexander Downer's shadow cabinet – Bronwyn Bishop, Jocelyn Newman, Amanda Vanstone, Judi Moylan and Chris Gallus – signed a statement saying quotas demeaned women and would further institutionalise their minority status in frontline politics. 'It is effectively a vote of no confidence in women's own abilities and it is a reverse form of discrimination,' it read. 'It only treats the symptoms, not the cause of the problem.' The statement came just a few weeks after Downer had apologised for making light of domestic violence, joking that the opposition's policy on women's safety would be titled 'the things that batter'. Fast forward 30 years and the Liberals, emphatically rejected by voters at the 3 May federal election, are asking why just six of their 28 lower house MPs in the new parliament will be women. In contrast, Labor will have 50. An assessment by the outgoing Liberal senator Linda Reynolds found the Liberals will have their lowest number of women in parliament since 1993, a year before Labor adopted its first quotas. Charged with picking up the election defeat pieces, the party's first female leader, Sussan Ley, this week promised to be a 'zealot' on actions to get more diversity in Liberal ranks, but said she was agnostic about the right approach to do so. Ley reminded journalists that her party works as a federated organisation, and power over preselection rules rests with state and territory branches. Ley's appearance at the National Press Club in Canberra was impressive. Ending Peter Dutton's three-year boycott of the club, Ley outlined two formal reviews into the dire political state of the Coalition, and said she wanted new processes for policy design. She has a compelling personal backstory and resisted any risky captain's calls on policy or symbolism – recognition of deep divisions within her party. Previous reviews, including after the 2022 loss to Labor, recommended the Liberal federal executive adopt a target of 50% female representation within 10 years or three parliamentary terms. The recommendations were all but ignored by state branches. Challenged over just how many seats the Coalition would need to win at the next election to prevent Anthony Albanese securing a third term for Labor, Ley said she was prepared to work hard and remained optimistic about the Liberal party's future. She showed a successful rebuilding effort could be part of her legacy, even if victory itself would prove too difficult in 2028. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email But Ley's unwillingness to take a position on the best mechanism to boost female representation meant the question quickly fell to other Liberals speaking in the media this week. The former prime minister Tony Abbott was quick out of the blocks. Despite finding just one woman with sufficient talent or aptitude to be appointed to his cabinet line-up in 2013, Abbott rejected quota systems because such a move would contravene 'the merit principle that should be at the heart of our party'. He described quotas as 'fundamentally illiberal'. On Friday, the senior conservative Angus Taylor spoke out against quotas, arguing they 'subvert democratic processes'. After promising to 'crusade' to get more Liberal women elected, Taylor's prescription was mentoring, recruitment and support of potential candidates and staff. He correctly said the Liberals also needed to do better at other measures of diversity, including recruiting more multicultural candidates. Taylor pointed to branch level plebiscites in the New South Wales Liberal party, but neglected to mention the feral factionalism and branch stacking which often helps push men to the top of candidate selection lists, especially in winnable seats. Not all Liberals are opposed, however. The former finance minister Simon Birmingham called for 'hard, fast and ambitious' quotas after the election drubbing and Maria Kovacic, the NSW senator, has acknowledged current settings aren't working. She has called for quotas as a short-term circuit breaker. Reynolds used an opinion piece in the Australian on Friday to warn the Liberals were becoming increasingly irrelevant due to declining voter support, suggesting the prospects of the party surviving to its 90th anniversary in 2034 were slim without action on gender. One Liberal MP rubbished Taylor and Abbott's contributions, accusing them of 'white anting' Ley. 'Ultimately their attempts to destabilise Sussan have come very early,' they told Guardian Australia. 'They want to rule over the rubble. It's sad.' A frontbencher warned against quotas becoming an 'all consuming' fight for the party, like the civil war under way in the Victorian state opposition. 'We don't want it to be the defining issue of this term,' they said. Perhaps the post-election review being led by party elders Nick Minchin and Pru Goward, or a separate structural assessment by the Queensland senator and experienced strategist James McGrath, will recommend quotas, but the usual rearguard action against them is already under way. The problem for those opposing a new system is that quotas are the only method shown to have worked. Labor stuck to its original rules until 2012, when it moved to a '40:40:20' quota system, designed to ensure at least 40% of Labor's seats were filled by women, and not fewer than 40% were filled by men. The remaining 20% were open to any candidate. New goals adopted in 2015 required the party to hit gender equity by 2025, a milestone it achieved early, hitting 53% after the 2022 election. The former party strategist turned pollster Tony Barry said it best this week, when he observed drastic changes in approach usually come when opposition MPs reach a point 'where they just cannot stand losing any more'. There is apparently some way to go in Canberra. Bronwyn Bishop, Amanda Vanstone and their colleagues were wrong in 1994 when they belittled action to give more women a seat at the decision-making table. How much longer ideological opposition to smart strategies persists might just determine how long Labor stays in power.
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.'
