On Monday Charles Richardson commented in Crikey on the Victorian Liberals’ surprising decision to grant ex-National Julian McGuaran third spot on the Senate ticket. Charles noted, “That’s a significant lurch to the right for the Victorian division.”
What he didn’t point out is that it amounts to replacing a woman with a man.
This means that when Troeth finishes her term there will probably only be one Liberal woman, Senator Helen Kroger, federally representing the whole of metropolitan Melbourne unless you count the small urban section of McEwen. The fact that the decision was made two days before International Women’s Day adds an extra little twist.
The shortage of Liberal women in parliament is one of the great unnoted stories following the last election. In 1996 the Liberals made much fuss of how they had elected more women than the ALP (even proportionally) and had done it without affirmative action rules. Since then, the trend has been all the other way.
Currently 10 of the 37 Coalition Senators are women, so with no other changes Troeth’s retirement will take it below 25%. The House is similar at 13 from 54. However, the remarkable thing is the geographical distribution. The majority of Coalition seats are in the capital cities, but only four of these are represented by women, along with the borderline case of Pearce (Judy Moylan). In rural and regional areas women make up about a third of Coalition MPs and almost half the Liberals.
There’s probably a thesis in why women can get preselected for the Liberals in safe rural seats, but not in the cities. However, for the last quarter century the senior positions in the Liberals have been overwhelming held by those representing urban seats.
This probably explains why no one wanted to roll Julie Bishop as Deputy Leader after her disastrous stint as shadow treasurer. Aside from Bishop the only women in the shadow cabinet are Helen Coonan and Sharman Stone.
Granted there are only four women in cabinet, but with 27 women in the House, 14 in the Senate the Labor team comes across as a whole lot more inclusive. If Bishop left the deputy position the male domination on the opposition benches would become too obvious. It’s hard to tell whether this would be a significant electoral drag, but in their current state the Opposition don’t need another thing to worry about.
Parties don’t reserve specific seats by gender, so sometimes it will happen that a woman is replaced by a man. What is much more of a worry for the Liberals is that it doesn’t look like women are in the running for Kooyong, Bradfield or Higgins (should Costello not contest) or, well, anywhere really.
I think it was Matt Price who observed that, under Howard, the liberal wets had all drowned.
May I suggest that people read Ann Summers book, “The End of Equality” which among other things points to the backward steps for women under the Howard Government, and it would probably explain the present ‘drought’ of Liberal women in Federal Parliament. The 1950’s attitude to women and girls was rife during Howard/Costello years! Shameful!
It could also be, that the smart women aren’t interested in joining this ‘boys club’ of essentially misogynist males in Parliament. They might be seeking more productive roles in the community, or joining the Greens or ???
As a rule, women in the Liberal Party have to be well connected to be recognisable. Then, obviously, merit does not take priority.
The men, generally, are better in any conspiracy (pardon, lobbying, making deals)
I remember a meeting of Young Liberals. . Most of the time young, concerned Libs were talking about abortion and gay rights. State Councils, and public gatherings with Costello, Minchin, Alexander Downer I personally attended were extremely boring. Leadership syndrome, no time for questions, and ordinary members are treated as utterly unimportant. There is a principle that ‘you do not talk to the people that have no network and influence’. Big bosses will always pretend that ‘they do not know you’ if you do not come from the Establishment’. NAmes, names – are very important. And if you, by any chance are a migrant woman, – you will be better off to forgo the membership. Although, I understand, that every organisation consists of ‘them and us’, the Liberals definitely have mastered the principle. Many nice women working very hard for the Party, helping with elections, fund rising, preparing Council meetings, speeches, will always be Dalits. And suddenly, the only women elected to the Council were those… totally unknown to the rest of their female co-members. Shocking!! Everybody is handed a card with the list of names to vote for.
On the top of everything, Liberals somehow, have very poor PR. Probably, because they have nothing to offer to their own low-caste members and the general public.
Women who are particularly enthusiastic and eager to contribute to the Party are very quickly discouraged from even believing that there is a Party program. There are no issues related to women, either:
no maternity leave, no equal pay for women, no affordable child care, other than for the MPs during the parliamentary sessions, no uni scholarships for students who can’t afford studying. No ‘community care’ issues. So, why bother?
It’s disappointing to think of Judith Troeth being replaced by Julian McGauran and Petro Georgiou possibly being replaced with someone much more right-wing as well. It’s an ongoing battle to get a good balance of economic responsibility and socially progressive policies.
As Judith Troeth supported women’s right to access safe legal abortions and RU486, replacing Troeth with McGauran is not only a lurch to the right, it’s a loss of women’s representation in Parliament, in fact its replacing a woman with a known misogynist. Wasn’t it Julian McGauran who identified a woman who had a late term abortion and forced the Royal Women’s Hospital to conduct an expensive inquiry that found the only wrong doing had been done by McGauran. Those funds would have been better spent on women’s health.