The whole point of having more women in the party room isn’t to tick a box. It’s to have a variety of views at the table. From this campaign, it was evident there were not enough women involved in the sound-boarding process. We lost votes because of it.
Hilma’s Network was established three years ago after the Scott Morrison election defeat, in a bid to repair the relationship between the party and women. We quickly amassed a database of thousands of Liberal-minded women and hosted sold-out events across the country.
I was hopeful that Peter Dutton would tailor some policies towards women. On five occasions across the last term I asked for a meeting with him to share some of the insights I was getting from women. I was rejected every time. While his staff would meet with me, it was clear it wasn’t a priority for Dutton himself.
When it rains… The Liberal Party’s deputy leader Sussan Ley is one of only six Liberal women in the House of Representatives.Credit: Eddie Jim
Unsurprisingly, the lack of effort was reciprocated by female voters at the ballot box.
Now, even when we do preselect formidable female candidates, voters think they must have a form of Stockholm syndrome. The 2022 Hume Loughnane review into the last Liberal election loss found, “Liberal defectors in teal seats were highly likely to agree with the statement that ‘the treatment or attitude toward women within the Liberal Party had a strong influence on my vote’ “. Voters clearly think that, if they vote for Liberal women, those candidates won’t go into parliament and be vocal allies of women.
This election, the leader of the opposition and the campaign headquarters failed to lift a finger to challenge this perception, thus cementing the narrative that Liberal women are “crumb maidens” who will put up with anything for a pat on the head. This damaged many of our female candidates.
But it was our failure to produce any policy that spoke to women which was most mortifying. Our policy and messaging on work-from-home and the failure to acknowledge how hard women’s lives already are, without lumping them with more, was nothing short of abhorrent. It brazenly highlighted that the party was still disconnected from the everyday lives of women.
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Liberal women have been promised on so many occasions before that the party is ready to address its systemic and cultural flaws and evolve, but we have been left red-faced and frustrated when an election comes around and the same issues repeat themselves: lack of women preselected, lack of women promoted from within, lack of policy created for women. It’s rinse and repeat. Why would we stay around for another three years, leading lambs to the slaughter and promising fresh women that the party is ready to evolve when history tells us otherwise?
After the last election defeat in 2022 the Liberal Party had its worst result in 30 years for female representation. I thought that was scorched earth and that there was no option but to reform. And yet, we didn’t. And now here we are again.
The party should have implemented quotas after that 2022 loss, but we opted for targets yet again, (even though we failed the target we made in 2015). Now, we have just a handful of women in the House of Representatives.
As Liberal MPs begin counting numbers for the party leadership, they should consider that the fastest way to regain trust and show they’re truly ready for reform is by doing something they’ve never done before: appointing two women to party leader and deputy.
Charlotte Mortlock is the founder of Hilma’s Network, and a former Sky News anchor.
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