Liberal Party leaders hit back at Alan Stockdale's comments on assertive women
Senior Liberal Party figures have moved to distance themselves from comments by the interim head of the NSW division suggesting women were "sufficiently assertive" and the party may have to "protect men's involvement".
Former Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale, who was brought in as an external administrator to run the troubled NSW division, made the remarks during a discussion about female representation and gender quotas at a meeting of the NSW Liberal Women's Council on Tuesday.
"I think women are sufficiently assertive now that we should be giving some thought to whether we need to protect men's involvement," Mr Stockdale told the meeting.
Federal Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, the first female leader of the federal parliamentary party, rejected the comments.
"There is nothing wrong with being an assertive woman, in fact I encourage assertive women to join the Liberal Party," she said in a statement.
NSW Upper House MP and former president of the NSW Liberal Women's Council, Jacqui Munro, said the comments were deeply unhelpful as the party reflects on the federal election loss.
"It's pretty disappointing and not very funny, if he was trying to make a joke," she said.
"This idea that it's a joke or in poor taste is just unbelievable at a time like this, we need leaders in the party that are focused on actually delivering for the people we want to support and that is, particularly, women.
"That's what we've got to be focused on, not making poor taste jokes about how women are too assertive — it's just bizarre."
The Liberal Party suffered one of its worst defeats in history at the May 3 election, winning just six federal seats in NSW.
NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman also distanced himself from the comments.
"I want more assertive women, not fewer assertive women in the Liberal party," he told 702 ABC Radio Sydney on Thursday.
"Here in NSW, 45 per cent of our Liberal frontbench are female, 45 per cent of our party room are female, and we have to be a party that reflects the demographic range in NSW, particularly on gender.
"We've made great gains in the last few years in making sure we've got adequate female representation, strong female representation."
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