‘F**king afterthought': Major failure in this year's federal election

News.com.au

10-05-2025

It's been a week since the historic federal election in which the Liberal Party took a thumping against Labor, who secured a sweeping win with at least 89 seats across the country.
This year, there was a primary focus on the ongoing cost-of-living and housing crises, the environment and fuel prices, but as the politicians made stops at schools, hospitals and petrol stations, another crisis continued bubbling in the background.
As election experts and analysts conduct a post-mortem of the election campaigns and the path that led to the Liberal Party's failure, there was one demographic that went largely ignored – women.
It wasn't until four weeks into the five-week campaign that the Labor and Liberal parties flagged their 'commitment to women' – a move Femicide Watch founder Sherele Moody said was abysmal.
'Women are not a f**king afterthought,' she told NewsWire.
'We make up 51 per cent of the population. We keep this country going. We are literally running households, working jobs, raising children, looking after the elderly.'
Between 2021 and 2022, about one in four women experienced violence by an intimate partner or family member from the age of 15.
So far this year, 24 women were allegedly murdered or died due to violence, totalling 124 in the span of 16 months.
And that figure is on the rise.
Slamming both major parties in the election, Ms Moody said Anthony Albanese won because 'Peter Dutton was so much f**king worse'.
'(Mr Albanese) speaks nicely and he doesn't say misogynistic things, but his actions show that he actually doesn't care,' she told NewsWire.
'(Women are) more likely to experience violence than anyone else, we're more likely to be killed. You know, we just we just want safety, peace, happiness and a government that f**king cares.
'How hard is that to get?'
On Friday May 1, the She Matters mural – which was created in Hosier Lane in Melbourne on International Women's Day by Femicide Watch and bears the names of more than 120 women who were allegedly murdered or died due to violence since January 1, 2024 – was vandalised with the words 'war on men'.
A day after the attack, Ms Moody told NewsWire the defaced mural was a 'real punch in the heart'.
Volunteers worked to restore the mural and a vigil will be held on Mother's Day Eve to remember the mothers who have died due to violence.
A week after the election and the mural was defaced, the Victorian Minister for Women Natalie Hutchins shared an image of herself standing in front of the restored mural 'alongside many other leaders' in honour of National Domestic Violence Remembrance Day.
However, Ms Moody accused Ms Hutchins of failing to address the issue, instead accusing her of staging a photo-op and 'smiling like it's a game'.
'It's not a game, these are women's lives, these are families' lives and communities' lives,' Ms Moody said, adding it was time for politicians to take the issues seriously rather than 'taking a selfie for political points and to look good'.
Ms Hutchins told NewsWire the 'harmful, appalling vandalism' on Hosier Lan was 'unacceptable and reflects attitudes that allow violence against women to flourish'.
'Every woman deserves to be safe at home, in her workplace, community, in relationships and online - and yet these women who were simply going about their lives were killed by men's violence,' she said.
'When women are still dying at the hands of men, we must do more - that's why we are changing laws, changing culture and delivering more support for victim-survivors of family violence.'
Ms Moody urged politicians to stop attending rallies, murals and marches supporting women unless they act on their messages.
'(Politicians) will march, they will get their photo taken, and then they will f**k off,' she said.
'They won't speak to the people, they won't address the rally. They will just be there for the media moment. And this is just what we get every time, and it doesn't change.
'It doesn't help anyone.
'Them smiling for the camera doesn't save women's lives,' she said.
It wasn't just a lack of discussion about violence against women but also a lack of leadership roles in the Liberal Party.
There was a 50-50 split of female and male candidates running for Labor, but only 34 per cent of Liberal candidates were women.
Outgoing West Australian senator Linda Reynolds also hit out at the Liberals and suggested they needed to 'understand why women have turned away from our party and change'.
'Until 2001, the majority of Australian women voted for the Liberal Party, and that seems almost inconceivable now,' she told ABC Radio Perth.
Sage Advice founding coach Raffy Sgroi said it was 'time for a culture shift in this country'.
'One that's more than just tokenistic talk,' she told NewsWire.
'Women are undoubtedly still treated with age-old stereotypes when it comes to positions of leadership.'
This year will mark a record-breaking number of women in the Australian parliament, but Ms Sgroi – a self-described 'staunch yet currently very dismayed' Liberal voter – said the election should be a wake-up call for the politicians leading the country who failed to address 'half the population who feel like an afterthought'.
'The election result sends a chilling message to the millions of women in Australia who are calling for change,' she said.
'We feel unseen, unheard and unprotected.'
Now the 'dust has settled' on the election, Ms Sgroi said the country had 'fallen behind' and needed to start playing catch-up with the rest of the world.
'We need more women in leadership, more women preselected, more women elected, and more women empowered to lead without compromise. And not just in token roles but in positions of real influence and decision-making,' she said.
'We cannot achieve a truly representative democracy when half the population is still being treated as an afterthought.
'The lack of gender balance in government is not just symbolic – it shapes decisions, priorities and outcomes. When women are not at the table, our voices are missing from the decisions that impact our safety, our health, our careers and our futures.'
As the Liberal Party is tipped to pick Sussan Ley as its leader, it would mark the first woman to take charge of the party.
However, her leadership has already been likened to the glass cliff – where a woman is given a leadership position during challenging circumstances when there is a high risk of failure.
Speaking to Sunrise on Friday, Ms Ley said taking the top job would 'send a strong signal to the women of Australia'.