The Liberal Party must “lift its game” on getting women into parliament, according to one federal party MP.
In an appearance on the ABC’s Q+A, Victorian MP Keith Wolahan has also called members of his own party “disgraceful” for anonymously attacking a female colleague in the media.
On Saturday, Labor candidate Jodie Belyea won the outer-Melbourne seat of Dunkley against the Liberals’ Nathan Conroy, who won party preselection ahead of female candidates.
On Monday night, McKinsey consultant Simon Kennedy won preselection for the seat of Cook following the retirement of former prime minister Scott Morrison. Some in the party — including former PM John Howard — backed a woman, Gwen Cherne, for the seat.
“It looks like we’re falling short of the target, it really does,” Mr Wolahan said.
“We have significant work to do.
“The Liberal Party is ready to preselect women but we need to lift our game in making it happen more often.”
A review into the party’s federal 2022 election loss has recommended “internal targets for recruiting, developing and pre-selecting female candidates”.
But Mr Wolahan says party members must always choose their candidates.
“It is a very important value for the Liberal Party that every preselection is democratic,” he said, “and I take great pride in our preselections being democratic.
“But democracy is also about numbers — it just is, it’s about numbers. We are a democratic party.
“What we have to do is to feed through members and preselect candidates who will then succeed.”
‘Gender equality makes better policy’
Labor trumpets its gender equality on the government benches.
The Finance Minister and Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher, told Q+A it was delivering better policy.
“Whether it be child care, paid parental leave, single parenting payment increase, rent assistance, all of that, that’s all informed by gender analysis that our government considers now,” she said.
“So it absolutely makes a difference and women across the generations have been building that policy platform for us.”
‘They are not our enemies’
Keith Wolahan has also defended a female colleague and “good friend” who attracted criticism from some in the party over congratulating Labor’s winning Dunkley candidate.
On Instagram, Zoe McKenzie posted a photo with the victor and said: “You have been a good friend to women across the Mornington Peninsula. Look forward to working with you in looking after paradise!”
In The Australian, unnamed Liberal “sources” called the post “unforgivable”.
“I thought that article against Zoe McKenzie the other day was disgraceful,” Mr Wolohan told Q+A.
“They are not our enemies, they are our opponents. It is a contest of ideas.
“The most important thing to do in a vote is the concession speech to acknowledge the legitimacy of the vote and Zoe did that with class and grace and she should be commended for it.”
Of those who spoke with anonymity, Mr Wolahan said: “They didn’t have the courage to put their names to it.
“Zoe had the courage to put her congratulations to Jodie.”