Liberal Party on track to run lowest number of female candidates this century
The Liberal Party is on track to take the smallest number of female candidates to a general election this century as it struggles to preselect women in seats it holds and ones it needs to win to stay in power.
As some of the few female members of the Liberal Party deny suggestions the organisation has a "woman problem", a breakdown of its candidate list shows 21 Liberal women will vie for the lower house in the election, expected in May. One hundred and two confirmed candidates are male.
With a few seats yet to have Liberal candidates, the party is all but guaranteed of falling short of the previous low this century when 27 women stood for election at the 2001 poll.
Opinion polls taken in recent weeks suggest that without a major turnaround in the Liberal Party's political fortunes it could have just six woman in the House of Representatives after polling day.
The ranks of Liberal women have thinned since the August leadership spill. Ann Sudmalis announced she would quit politics due to the “branch-stacking, undermining and leaks” in her party; Jane Prentice lost preselection in her Ryan electorate and Julia Banks moved to the crossbench before Parliament rose for the summer.
When announcing she would become an independent, Ms Banks - who originally found support for her claims of bullying within the party - told Parliament that gender parity was urgent.
The pre-Christmas revelations around National Party MP Andrew Broad and the sharp rebuff to the Liberal Party by Victorian voters at the state election in late November only highlighted concerns within parts of the Coalition that its support among women was cratering.
In recent days, the few women in the government's ranks have pushed back that the Liberal Party is failing female members.
Corangamite MP Sarah Henderson defended her party’s record regarding women on Wednesday, saying Labor could not match what the Liberals had delivered.
“When you look at our economic security statement, when you look at the incredible investment in women’s safety, when you look at the record workforce participation of women,” she said.
But Ms Henderson, who has been left with no buffer in her seat after a recent redistribution, may not be in the Parliament after the election.
If the government sustains a four point swing against it at the election then Ms Henderson, Boothby’s Nicolle Flint and Robertson’s Lucy Wicks will likely have lost their seats.
If Ms Wicks loses Robertson just one of New South Wales’ 49 lower house seats will be represented by a female Liberal Party member: Sussan Ley, who holds Farrer on a 20.5 point margin.
In a worst case scenario, frontbencher Kelly O’Dwyer - who manages the women, jobs and industrial relations portfolios - could also suffer a loss in Higgins. A recent ReachTel poll had Ms O’Dwyer losing 53-47 to Labor on the back of a lift in Green preferences.
She currently holds the seat on a 10.1 point margin.
After the poor showing in the Victorian election, Ms O’Dwyer told a room of Victorian federal MPs that the party was viewed as “homophobic, anti-women, climate change deniers”.
The Liberal Party may yet boost its possible female representation with candidates yet to be decided for 10 electorates: Macquarie, Dobell, Isaacs, Jagajaga, Bendigo, Hotham, McEwen, Cooper, Lyons and Moreton.
All are Labor-held seats with none carrying a margin of more than 6 per cent.
It is better news for the party’s chances in the Senate, where the number of Liberal female senators will likely increase from eight to nine at the election.
Hollie Hughes (NSW) and Claire Chandler (Tasmania) are considered strong chances of entering the upper house. However, Lucy Gichuhi’s return is unlikely after she was dropped to the fourth spot on the Coalition’s ticket.
In the lower house, there are a large number of female MPs for the Labor Party at risk if Scott Morrison wins the coming election.
Labor's five most marginal seats are all held by women, led by Cathy O'Toole who took the far north Queensland seat of Herbert by 37 votes at the 2016 election.
Ms O'Toole faces the LNP's Philip Thompson.
Of the five most vulnerable Labor seats, the Liberal Party has yet to preselect a candidate in Cooper while a woman has been put forward in one other: the seat of Lindsay in Sydney's western suburbs where Melissa McIntosh will take on the ALP's Diane Beamer.
The Liberal Party's best chance to bring a woman into the House could be in the Melbourne seat of Macnamara where long-time Labor MP Michael Danby is retiring.
Labor has preselected Josh Burns in the seat and he will stand against the Liberal's Kate Ashmor while the Greens' Steph Hodgins-May - who narrowly lost at the 2016 election - is a good chance of victory over the major party candidates.
Labor's Libby Coker, Nadine Clancy and Anne Charlton stand to claim Corangamite, Boothby and Robertson based on current opinion polls. It has also chosen women to run in seven seats against men including Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and Melbourne MP Michael Sukkar.
Hannah Beazley, the daughter of former Labor leader Kim Beazley, is considered a strong chance to claim the WA seat of Swan from the Liberal Party's Steve Irons.