Liberal MP Karen Andrews has called on the Coalition to “do better” in having greater representation of women, saying her views on gender quotas have “softened”.
This month marks 30 years since the Australian Labor Party introduced its affirmative action rule, which created quotas for including women within the party. Labor’s current parliamentary caucus is 52.4 per cent women, the most gender-equal government in history.
Karen Andrews has been the Liberal Member for McPherson for 14 years, and while she has been consistently vocal on women in the Coalition, she admitted she has previously been against gender quotas.
Today, she gave a speech in the House of Representatives, saying her experience in the Coalition has “made me soften my views”.
“Initially I would have to say I have always been opposed to quotas because I never wanted to be considered to have been appointed into a role for anything other than my ability to do the job,” Andrews told the House of Representatives today.
“What I have seen over the last decade at least has made me soften my views into opposing quotas.”
Andrews previously worked in engineering and industrial relations before entering politics – three traditionally male-dominated industries in Australia. She said wants to see a Parliament that “truly reflects the people of Australia”.
“That means that there are a number of groups, for want of a better way of describing it, that need representation in the parliament. One significant group is women,” Andrews said.
“I look at this side of the house and I look at the female representation that we have here and I am absolutely convinced that we need to do better. We need to make sure that we are doing all that we can to promote this as a workplace that is desirable for women to enter. We need to promote from the Coalition’s point of view, in my view, as a welcoming place for women to be part of.”
Last year, Andrews announced she would not contest her seat of McPherson in the 2025 election.
In April, there was a Liberal National Party preselection vote for the Gold Coast seat, where four men – and not one woman – nominated to be the party’s next candidate.
At the time, Andrews told ABC News that it “wasn’t for want of trying” and she couldn’t convince any women to nominate themselves for the Liberal candidacy.
Today, in Parliament, Andrews admitted her initial resistance to gender quotas based on the Coalition’s view that “you get pre selected based on merit” – but went on to say something has to change to get more women in the party.
“What I have said before and I say again, if we want to make change here, we cannot simply cross our fingers and hope that things are going to change unless we take positive action because doing that in the past has been an abject failure,” Andrews said.
The 30-year anniversary of Labor’s affirmative action rule is on 26 September. As Parliament is sitting, the ALP is commemorating the anniversary with a special gathering this week, as well as introducing the legislation that gives early childhood educators a 15 per cent wage increase.