48th Australian parliament to include record-breaking number of women following 2025 election
A record number of women will represent Australians in the next term of government, with female MPs set to soar between 66 and 74 out of a total 150 seats.
The figure is a considerable uptick from the then record-breaking 58 women who were elected to the 47th parliament, while just 40 women were elected under the Morrison-led 46th parliament in 2019.
In the House of Representative, Labor has increased its female representation to 47 MPs out of a confirmed 87, meaning the number of female MPs outnumbers male MPs (40).
New faces set to enter parliament this year include Barton's Ash Ambihaipahar, who retained the seat of former Indigenous minister Linda Burney for Labor, Claire Clutterham, who flipped the Adelaide seat of Sturt, and Ali France, who defeated Liberal leader Peter Dutton in Dickson.
Meanwhile, the Coalition has seven female MPs out 39, a decrease from its 2022 result of nine.
The drop in numbers is largely due to the election losses of former Hughes MP Jenny Ware and Bass MP Bridget Archer, and the retirements of McPherson MP Karen Andrews and Forrest MP Nola Marino.
While the safe Liberal seats of McPherson and Forrest were retained by the Coalition, candidates preselected for the seats were both male.
Seven of the 10 confirmed independents set to enter parliament this term are also women, including Fowler MP Dai Le, Mackellar MP Sophie Scamps, Warringah MP Zali Steggall, Wentworth MP Allegra Spender, Mayo MP Rebekha Spender, Indi MP Helen Haines and Curtin MP Kate Chaney.
While the current count for confirmed female MPs is 62, four of the nailbiting races for the 14 seats still in doubt are being contested between two women, meaning the 48th parliament will have at least 66 female MPs.
However, that number could increase to near parity at 74, depending on the final results in Bean, Bendigo, Longman, Melbourne, Goldstein, Monash, Bullwinkel, and Fremantle.
Speaking to the ABC, retired Liberal senator Linda Reynolds said a lack of gender diversity – a long-running issue in the party – was one of the reasons for the Liberals' crushing loss.
'You can see through successive reviews in federal and state in terms of where we have taken the wrong turn, but we haven't comprehensively understood those lessons and we certainly haven't implemented the reforms that are needed,' she said.
'Ten years ago I was part of a review into gender … and we recommended targets and how to get there without quotas. That's been the Liberal Party policy for 10 years, but it's just sat on a shelf.
'We do have to have the hard conversations now about how we become more gender-balanced but also a broader diversity.'
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