WA Liberal Party pushing for increased female representation

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The state Liberal Party President says the party has done everything it could to increase female representation at the recent state and federal elections. But the push for quotas by Liberal Leader Basil Zempilas received a lukewarm response from a former Premier and would require changing the Liberal constitution.

Transcript

00:00Libby Lyons twice unsuccessfully stood for Liberal pre-selection at state and federal level.

00:08I think the fact that I was a woman, I think the fact that I speak my mind,

00:13I think the fact that there were factions involved, power brokers involved.

00:17She later served as Director of the Federal Workplace Gender Equality Agency

00:21and while she's not against quotas, she believes enforceable and flexible targets are better.

00:27I think targets are a better way to go if they're implemented correctly

00:32and the reason targets are a better way to go is that they drive the cultural change that's needed

00:38to actually entice more women and younger people.

00:42Former Premier Colin Barnett is also reluctant on quotas.

00:45I would prefer to see that not only the Liberal Party seeking more women candidates,

00:51going out and finding them good candidates,

00:54well in advance and I'm talking about two or three years before an election

00:58and giving them winnable or safe seats.

01:01The Liberal Party would need to change its constitution to introduce quotas

01:05through a 75% majority vote at its state conference.

01:08It's a high bar and the opposition of one or two influential figures could sink the idea.

01:13Deputy Liberal Leader Libby Metham remains open to both quotas and targets.

01:18We need to see more Liberal women in Parliament and we need to see,

01:25while we had a number of women in key seats at the last election,

01:30there is certainly more that we can do.

01:32WA Liberal Party President Caroline de Russo defended the party's performance,

01:37saying it did its best to increase female representation.

01:40Mr Russo says the party had more than 44% female candidates in key seats at the March state election.

01:48Overall, the Liberals chose women candidates in about one third of all state seats.

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