Liberal Party returns to its political kabuki known as gender quotas, as ex-minister finds her voice

The Liberal Party is entering another round of what amounts to political kabuki over calls for gendered quotas within its ranks in the wake of the federal election. The party will have its lowest representation of females in the House of Representatives since 1993.

Liberal backbencher and former minister Senator Linda Reynolds today kicked off the debate. “In light of the outcome of the last election, I’m now also open to the concept of temporary quotas,” she said this morning.

The quotas debate is fast becoming a Liberal Party reflex. Whether the party is affronted by a ministerial group photo dominated by male faces or finds itself plagued by damning revelations of bullying, the quotas question appears to be its default response.

Here is a short recap:

• In 2013, then prime minister Tony Abbott’s single-woman cabinet put quotas centre stage. Nothing changed.
• In 2015, female Liberal politicians were emboldened by Labor upping the ante on its own gender quotas. Nothing changed.
• In 2017, there were calls to implement quotas following a Senate inquiry pushing for private organisations to improve gender balance. Then former PM Abbott shut down calls for the Liberals to do the same, saying while women needed a “fair go”, quotas seemed “anti-men”.
• In 2018, when former MP Julia Banks quit the Liberal Party to serve as an independent on the crossbench, quotas were again on the agenda. In response to these calls, and after assistant minister Jane Prentice was dumped for a young male candidate in the safe Brisbane seat of Ryan, then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull denied the party was sexist and warned a quota system can’t work “in a grassroots political system”.
• In 2019, allegations of rape and revelations of sexual harassment and misconduct towards women in Parliament House prompted senior female Liberal politicians to come forward in favour of quotas. In response, then prime minister Scott Morrison famously said on International Women’s Day, “We want to see women rise, but we don’t want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse.”

Will this time be any different?

Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley is on a listening tour of branches. She told The Australian she would advocate “for initiatives that would increase the number of Liberal women in Parliament”, stopping short of backing quotes. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has not addressed this issue this morning. In June after he was appointed leader, Dutton said he was “proud” that the women on his frontbench were promoted based on talent and ruled out that quotas would be used.

But changes are afoot. In line with sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins’ recommendations, Parliament is expected to introduce diversity targets and release public reporting on its characteristics, including staffers.

The Coalition is holding gender parity back: the Liberals have gone backwards in gender representation. There are more men named Andrew than female Liberals in the Senate. The party has just seven women in the House of Representatives, down from 13. During a press conference in May, Ley told the public not to worry about the lack of diversity, as Liberal men can also speak for women.

Despite Australia’s 47th Parliament coming in with a historically high representation of women, 33% still falls short of equal representation. Women make up 43% both of ministers and cabinet in the Labor Party, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the party is working towards 50-50 representation.

In short, Australia would be far closer to a gender-equal Parliament if the Liberals and Nationals weren’t holding it back. Is its election failings the prompt for quotas or just another round of kabuki?