Will Australia’s Liberal Party fix its women quota problem in this week’s leadership vote? Deborah Knight | OPINION

OPINION — Post election periods are always rife with ‘what if’ and ‘what could have been’ analysis, but for the Liberal Party it does feel a lot like groundhog day. 

Many of the problems voters had with the party under the leadership of Scott Morrison in 2022 are the same reason they turned their backs on the Liberals once again with Peter Dutton in charge.

Only this time, the result was worse. 

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Dutton earned the ignominy of becoming the first Opposition Leader in Australian history to not only lose the election, but also his own seat. The vote count is still to be finalised, but the end result could be a shattered party with as few as 30 seats in the lower house and potentially less than a handful of women.

The Liberals have a serious ‘women problem’ that’s repeatedly acknowledged after every election but never fixed. 

“Will the lessons of yet another election thumping be learnt this time around?”

Forty-five per cent of women voted for the Coalition when Tony Abbott beat Kevin Rudd in the 2013 election, but that dropped to around 33 per cent at this election. 

Impressive female candidates who represent traditional Liberal values are instead running as Independents – Allegra Spender a case in point.

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The now second-term MP not only retained the former blue ribbon Sydney Liberal seat of Wentworth once held by former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, but increased her lead with a more than eight per cent swing her way.

Labor introduced quotas with great success close to a decade ago requiring women to be preselected to 35 per cent of winnable seats, but the Liberals still reject the idea of quotas to increase female numbers as against Party ideology. 

He grew up to become one of the biggest names in Australia

So would the Liberals now consider selecting a woman to run the whole show? 

Deputy Leader Sussan Ley has put herself forward as the candidate hoping to become the first female leader of the party, and there are some in the party still wondering where they might be today if they had elected perennial deputy Julie Bishop as leader back in 2018.

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Like her fellow leadership rival Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor, Sussan Ley has committed to bringing more women into the party and broadening its appeal to more female voters.

As senior members at the heart of decision-making, though, both candidates bear responsibility for this thumping election loss, and failing to learn the lessons of the previous defeat. 

Angus Taylor is hoping the star appeal of Senator Jacinta Nampijimpa Price running as his deputy might address part of the party’s women problem and help him get across the line.

Her decision to defect to the Liberal’s from the National’s this week has however caused a rift within the Coalition, with National’s Leader David Littleproud describing her move as “disappointing” while others delivered far more brutal off the record assessments. “Ambitious traitor” is one of the tamer descriptions of Senator Price’s move.

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Members of the party keen to see a sharper shift to the right welcome Senator Price’s adoption of Donald Trump-style phrases, saying she wanted to “make Australia great again”, and wearing a MAGA hat. Moderates wanting a more centrist approach believe she is part of the problem. 

Tuesday is D-Day for the Liberals leadership vote. Whoever is chosen is not even in contention to be Prime Minister for at least the next two terms considering the size of the Labor victory, but they will help shape the culture and policy of a party that needs a major re-think. 

Will the lessons of yet another election thumping be learnt this time around?

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