“The party will not prosper if it loses any part of the base,” Hunt said.
Emphasising the ongoing relevance of former prime minister John Howard’s “broad church” description, Hunt’s remarks add heft to recent calls from Tony Abbott and senior Liberal women to grapple with its “women problem”.
Charlotte Mortlock’s Hilma’s Network tracks the number of Liberal women in parliaments and advocates for greater representation.Credit: Edwina Pickles
A key internal Liberal Party campaigner on boosting women, Charlotte Mortlock, said the party should consider a formal quota system after the next election.
“We set targets in 2015 which we haven’t achieved. We are already behind on the 2022 Hume-Loughnane [party review] target,” said Mortlock, the executive director of Hilma’s Network, a group devoted to getting women into parliament.
“After the election, if we don’t see a seismic improvement, I don’t see how anyone with genuine commitment to increasing female representation couldn’t call for quotas.”
There are still opportunities to nominate women in a number of preselections in the coming weeks after the electoral commission confirms final seat boundaries.
Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley says the party has strong female candidates but “we need more”.Credit: Rhett Wyman
In NSW, Lucy Wicks is vying to return in the bellwether Central Coast seat of Robertson. In the previously Liberal seat of Reid, now held by Labor’s Sally Sitou, several men and women are contesting for the Liberal candidacy. In teal-held Warringah, a woman and man – Jamie Rogers and Lincoln Parker – are likely to face off. In Paterson, three men are running for preselection against one woman.
In Melbourne, party chiefs must decide whether to re-open preselections in the Labor-held seat of Chisholm, which the Liberal Party lost at the last election.
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Councillor Theo Zographos is the Liberal candidate, but Katie Allen wants to run in the seat because the seat of Higgins, which she lost at the last election, was abolished by the electoral commission. Much of the old seat of Higgins has moved into Chisholm, giving party leaders the option of opening up the race to consider Allen as the candidate.
Ley said the party had strong female candidates but “we need more”.
“No shade of politics has a monopoly on the lived experience of being a professional woman,” said Ley, one of two women in Abbott’s first cabinet.
“I have been a pilot, a working mum, a mature-aged student and now a grandmother. I have lived through marriage separation. I have seen what happens when women are left with empty superannuation accounts or without assets.
Source Agencies
