Who'd have guessed the LNP has a "women" problem? - Women's Agenda

Who’d have guessed the LNP has a “women” problem?

Who would have thought that Queensland’s Liberal National Party had a “women” problem? The same political party that hosted its International Women’s Day event in a men’s-only club. In 2015. A feat for which the Prime Minister declared the party to be evidently “smashing the glass ceiling” “yet again”. 

And yet notwithstanding these efforts a formal review of the LNP’s 2015 state election campaign and performance of the LNP government released ths week indicates that it does have a women problem. A problem that the Borbidge Sheldon report says the party needs to address.

In section 11 the report acknowledges that now is the time for:
– the CHQ to nurture the grassroots and the grassroots to shape the character of the party following the election defeat;
– for the membership base to be widened;
– for party units to be empowered;
– for the gender balance in executive roles improved; and
– for the desire to reinstate the party in government reignited by regaining the confidence and trust of the people so that they can accept the party’s goals and policies as being good and right for them. 

It goes so far as to recommend that “the gender balance of the state executive be a consideration of members when electing persons to roles on this body”. 

Did someone finally sit down and listen to the stirring exit speech Sue Boyce delivered upon retiring from the Senate last year? The speech where she identified the lack of women not just in politics but in the LNP? 

“There is only, as we know, one woman in the Abbott government: the wonderful Minister Julie Bishop. There are only four LNP women in the House of Representatives, and two of them are over here today —thank you for being here. Once I leave on 30 June there will be no LNP women in the Senate. So I figure I have failed. But so, I think, has our party at both the state and the federal level. It is obvious that if we want more women in cabinet we need more women in parliament. The current 22 per cent figure is just not good enough. Improving this pathetic figure must be the job of every party member and every party employee.”

Regardless of the political position a party adopts, if the party’s composition doesn’t represent the population it’s there to represent, it’s going to have a problem reaching the population it doesn’t represent. It’s instructive to remember that women comprise half the population so it’s a rather brave “niche” to disregard.   

Props to the LNP for noticing this. If they’re looking for a quick win may I humbly suggest seeking out an alternative venue for any International Women’s Day events. It’s a small start but it’s pretty symbolic.  

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