On Merit

Paula Matthewson, MUP $14.99

When Julie Bishop wore red shoes to the press conference to announce she was stepping down, after having lost her bid for Liberal Party leadership, she, says Matthewson, 'initiated the red rebellion'. The fact that she didn't become leader highlighted just one of the deep problems in the party – the paucity of Liberal women in parliament (not to mention the bullying). This is a passionate, even angry essay by a former Liberal Party media advisor, frustrated by the lack of progress in the party in terms of fixing its gender imbalance. Labor adopted quotas for women candidates in 1994, and it has gone a long way to correcting its gender imbalance. The Liberal Party has long opposed quotas, seeing them as anti-liberal and insisting on the merit system – which Mathewson calls a myth. But many women in the party are now calling for quotas, and not just to achieve equality of representation but also because the party runs the real risk of losing women voters. The red shoes are coming!