The Liberal Party has a ‘women’s problem’ which could be fixed by a “temporary” quota for women, according to former Minister for Defence, Linda Reynolds.
Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, the West Australian Senator said she believes that quotas would be help, follow the party’s poor election results, which revealed women were turning away from the party.
Currently, only nine out of the Liberal Party’s 42 seats are held by women — the lowest number since 1993. That is despite the number of women elected to the House of Representatives being at an all time high.
“I’ve never been in favour of quotas, but I am now open to the concept of a temporary quota,” Senator Reynolds told Sky News’ AM Agenda host, Laura Jayes.
“Just using the word quota. It sends shivers down the spines of many Liberals, men and women. I’ve done this to provoke discussion and it has certainly done that.
“People don’t realise or remember that for our first 50 years of our party’s history, we were the party that the majority over 50 per cent of Australian women voted for,” Senator Reynolds continued.
“But that changed in 2001 and we’ve been progressively losing the women’s vote to the point now where, as you’ve said, it’s under 30 per cent.”
“Whether it’s a target with teeth, as people in the Liberal Party are talking about, or whether it’s a temporary quota, you’ve still got to make the change within the organisation, culturally and structurally, to actually make sure that those changes stick.”
Senator Reynolds appeared on Sky News to discuss the ‘grim’ decline of female voters, six years after a 2016 report which included recommendations that have not been implemented.
“The report found the lack of female candidates had a direct correlation with a declining female vote,” Senator Reynolds said.
“The good news in all of this is that the party is now having overdue but welcome discussions on how to implement these recommendations.”
“Leaders Peter Dutton, Sussan Ley, are all having these discussions now … while we’ve recognised we’ve got the problem and that we need to act.”
“The best place for the party to start is with the report that we adopted in 2016, and actually implement the recommendations to meet voluntary targets of more women in our leadership positions in the party, but also as candidates in winnable seats.”
This year’s election campaign is being reviewed by former party director Brian Loughnane and Victorian senator Jane Hume.
The Young Liberals have submitted their lodgement to the review, criticising the party for failing to recruit, retain and promote women.
It also accused the party of failing to secure concrete plans to achieve its goal of 50 per cent female elected members by 2025.