Latest news with #NSWLiberalWomen'sCouncil
Sydney Morning Herald
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
What ‘morons' mentioned the Q word? They'd be the smart Libs trying to save their party
There is no single word more certain to create a deep schism within the Liberals than quotas. And there is nothing more likely to aggravate many in the party than a petition calling for quotas. So it follows that some party members, such as former federal vice-president and Sky After Dark regular Teena McQueen, had conniptions when such a petition was launched. According to three Liberal women, it was McQueen who once joked that she 'would kill to be sexually harassed' as the party reckoned with its treatment of women. Last week, McQueen posed this question in relation to the quotas petition: 'What absolute moron is behind this?' Those 'morons' – plural – would be NSW Liberal Women's Council president Berenice Walker, vice president Adelaide Cuneo, former NSW minister Rob Stokes and his wife, Sophie, and Charlotte Mortlock, executive director of Hilma's Network, which was established to boost female representation in the Liberals. To date, some 500-plus people have signed the petition, which pleads: 'If we do all want more women in parliament, then we must stop the preoccupation with theory, rhetoric and excuses, and accelerate this historic change.' Notably, one of the signatories is Manly MP James Griffin. He is the only senior NSW frontbencher to publicly put his name to the quotas push. It was a bold move for Griffin. Only a fortnight earlier, NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman made his position clear. 'I don't think we need quotas at the moment in the Liberal Party,' he told the Herald in an interview before his budget reply speech. Speakman noted that his state parliamentary party was close to reaching gender parity. Loading That is worth celebrating, sure. And it's a damn sight better than the federal Liberal position: just six of the 43 Liberal MPs to sit in the House of Representatives will be women. It must be noted, however, that the improved representation of women in the NSW parliament was achieved because former premier Dominic Perrottet intervened ahead of the last state election to stop the party running an all-male upper house ticket. Perrottet prevailed, and three male MPs were sacrificed to guarantee equal gender representation on the ticket. (Perrottet did not, however, manage to win the fight over the northern beaches seat of Pittwater. He wanted a woman to run, but the party insisted on Rory Amon. Amon is now facing child sexual assault charges, which he denies, and the seat is in teal hands, won by Jacqui Scruby in a byelection.) The decision of Griffin, widely viewed as the most likely leadership rival to Speakman, to sign the petition creates an obvious divide between him and his leader. Griffin's take is: 'Quotas are not a compromise on merit; they're a practical response to a system that needs improvement.'
The Age
09-07-2025
- Politics
- The Age
What ‘morons' mentioned the Q word? They'd be the smart Libs trying to save their party
There is no single word more certain to create a deep schism within the Liberals than quotas. And there is nothing more likely to aggravate many in the party than a petition calling for quotas. So it follows that some party members, such as former federal vice-president and Sky After Dark regular Teena McQueen, had conniptions when such a petition was launched. According to three Liberal women, it was McQueen who once joked that she 'would kill to be sexually harassed' as the party reckoned with its treatment of women. Last week, McQueen posed this question in relation to the quotas petition: 'What absolute moron is behind this?' Those 'morons' – plural – would be NSW Liberal Women's Council president Berenice Walker, vice president Adelaide Cuneo, former NSW minister Rob Stokes and his wife, Sophie, and Charlotte Mortlock, executive director of Hilma's Network, which was established to boost female representation in the Liberals. To date, some 500-plus people have signed the petition, which pleads: 'If we do all want more women in parliament, then we must stop the preoccupation with theory, rhetoric and excuses, and accelerate this historic change.' Notably, one of the signatories is Manly MP James Griffin. He is the only senior NSW frontbencher to publicly put his name to the quotas push. It was a bold move for Griffin. Only a fortnight earlier, NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman made his position clear. 'I don't think we need quotas at the moment in the Liberal Party,' he told the Herald in an interview before his budget reply speech. Speakman noted that his state parliamentary party was close to reaching gender parity. Loading That is worth celebrating, sure. And it's a damn sight better than the federal Liberal position: just six of the 43 Liberal MPs to sit in the House of Representatives will be women. It must be noted, however, that the improved representation of women in the NSW parliament was achieved because former premier Dominic Perrottet intervened ahead of the last state election to stop the party running an all-male upper house ticket. Perrottet prevailed, and three male MPs were sacrificed to guarantee equal gender representation on the ticket. (Perrottet did not, however, manage to win the fight over the northern beaches seat of Pittwater. He wanted a woman to run, but the party insisted on Rory Amon. Amon is now facing child sexual assault charges, which he denies, and the seat is in teal hands, won by Jacqui Scruby in a byelection.) The decision of Griffin, widely viewed as the most likely leadership rival to Speakman, to sign the petition creates an obvious divide between him and his leader. Griffin's take is: 'Quotas are not a compromise on merit; they're a practical response to a system that needs improvement.'
The Age
20-06-2025
- Politics
- The Age
The Liberals need to be sufficiently assertive to fix their gender problem. Allow me to woman-splain
When former Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale, acting as the interim head of the NSW Liberal party, suggested that women in the party were 'sufficiently assertive' and that in fact the Liberals may need to 'protect men's involvement', he said it was a joke. The gag – made to a virtual meeting of the NSW Liberal Women's Council, during a discussion about female representation – didn't land with the crowd. But surely I was not the only one tickled when reading reports of the comments a few days after they were made. It was the use of the adverb 'sufficiently' which most amused me – the idea that female assertiveness has an allocation, and that the allocation had been filled, as decreed by Stockdale. It helped that the news report was illustrated with a photograph of Stockdale (80) and his co-chair, former Howard government minister Richard Alston (84), seated in front of a portrait of Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies – an earnest trio of white-haired gerontocrats. Stockdale's right hand was poised in the air, as though caught mid-mansplain. Last year former Liberal leader Peter Dutton appointed Stockdale, Alston, and former NSW MP Peta Seaton as administrators to run the NSW division. The NSW branch was deemed incapable of managing itself after its failure to nominate 144 candidates for local government elections in September (they had one job, etc). But after Stockdale's comments were widely leaked, the male party veterans had to go. Ironically, their ouster (official reason given: they were too Victorian to help in NSW) only helped to prove the truth of Stockdale's remarks. It seemed very much like they were forced to quit their posts because, well, they came across a lot like out-of-touch old white guys. In lamenting his own victimhood, Stockdale ended up proving his own point.
Sydney Morning Herald
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
The Liberals need to be sufficiently assertive to fix their gender problem. Allow me to woman-splain
When former Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale, acting as the interim head of the NSW Liberal party, suggested that women in the party were 'sufficiently assertive' and that in fact the Liberals may need to 'protect men's involvement', he said it was a joke. The gag – made to a virtual meeting of the NSW Liberal Women's Council, during a discussion about female representation – didn't land with the crowd. But surely I was not the only one tickled when reading reports of the comments a few days after they were made. It was the use of the adverb 'sufficiently' which most amused me – the idea that female assertiveness has an allocation, and that the allocation had been filled, as decreed by Stockdale. It helped that the news report was illustrated with a photograph of Stockdale (80) and his co-chair, former Howard government minister Richard Alston (84), seated in front of a portrait of Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies – an earnest trio of white-haired gerontocrats. Stockdale's right hand was poised in the air, as though caught mid-mansplain. Last year former Liberal leader Peter Dutton appointed Stockdale, Alston, and former NSW MP Peta Seaton as administrators to run the NSW division. The NSW branch was deemed incapable of managing itself after its failure to nominate 144 candidates for local government elections in September (they had one job, etc). But after Stockdale's comments were widely leaked, the male party veterans had to go. Ironically, their ouster (official reason given: they were too Victorian to help in NSW) only helped to prove the truth of Stockdale's remarks. It seemed very much like they were forced to quit their posts because, well, they came across a lot like out-of-touch old white guys. In lamenting his own victimhood, Stockdale ended up proving his own point.
The Advertiser
05-06-2025
- Politics
- The Advertiser
Liberal men want a leg up? How about a boot back to the 18th century where they belong
Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. This is the language I reserve for polite company. And that polite phrase is probably being muttered in the homes of many a Liberal this week as news of the latest party faux pas filters through. Worse than nuclear. Worse than work-from-home. These, at least, were policies devised after deliberation (I think) and collaboration (I hope). That's how it's supposed to happen in modern, successful political parties. But on Tuesday night, something totally unscripted blew up. There was yet another virtual meeting, this time with the NSW Liberal Women's Council, to figure out how to save the NSW branch of the Liberal Party, in trouble because it failed to nominate folks for local council elections in 2024. Any folks at all. Anyhow, it was Peter Dutton's idea to mount a federal takeover in order to review the NSW branch (seriously, he should have looked a little closer to home). Doing most of the talking was ex-Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale. He and his co-conspirator former Victorian senator Richard Alston sat themselves in front of a portrait of the Liberal Party's founding father. Guess they thought Robert Menzies would give them gravitas. The hilariously unkind SMH journalist Alex Smith who broke the story described them as having a combined age of 164. Anyhow, Stockdale said something along the lines of ... women are now "sufficiently assertive" in the Liberal Party that it is probably time to start giving blokes a leg up. Hahahahahaha. Also, aargghh. But these blokes, accompanied by their silent partner, Peta Seaton, want an extension of the term of their review. If I were Sussan Ley, I'd send them back to where they came from. The 18th century. Now it's clear to even the most casual reader of my columns that my politics in no way align with the Liberal Party. But I have written many a column supporting women in the Liberal Party because in every instance, women deserve the same opportunities as those offered to men. And for some unfathomable reason, the Liberal Party doesn't treat women in the same way as it treats men. Which, in some ways, is good for the rest of us. Unless it starts to accept women as equal participants, it is unlikely it will ever again get much traction in a country where women hold up (more than) half the sky. Among women, this comment by Stockdale further trashes the Liberal brand. As one woman, a longtime member of the Liberal Party, told me on Wednesday night after news of the "leg up" incident had broken: "It is both aggravating and tiresome at the same time. I want to scream, and also just walk away as so many have before me." She says: "I'm not the least bit surprised by what's described in the article. These blokes are dinosaurs. And while the offensive comments were by Stockdale, not Alston, they could just have easily been Alston." Misogynist men in the Liberal Party are apparently interchangeable. And it is baked in. Let me tell you the story of a woman who'd been chief of staff in a Liberal member's office. After the birth of her kid, her former boss suggested she work as an electoral officer, on about one-third of her previous salary. He said, to her face: "But it's a second income." Jesus fellas. This is not how it works anymore. When women work, they need the money as much as they need the work. It's not disposable. It's indispensable. Another Liberal woman tells me she offered to help with the review of the Liberal Party after the election loss in 2022. Hilariously, she tells me that when she called to throw herself into the mix for membership of the review, she explained she had insight into why the teals were stealing Liberal seats. "Let's face it, most of my friends are teal voters and I'm somewhat partial to them myself," she laughs. But the bloke she talked to basically dismissed her. He said to her: "If you have any feedback, send an email to the Vic state director." "I couldn't even reply, I was so pissed off at being dismissed and yet again not seriously considered." Let me take you back to 2021. It was already clear then, a year out from the 2022 federal election, that the Coalition was on the nose with women. Three separate polling organisations revealed a sharp shift of women away from the government: Essential, Resolve Monitor, NewsPoll. And why? For once, all women could agree. The way that former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, allegedly raped in Parliament House, was treated by those in the then Coalition government was appalling. If this was how the government treated one of its own, how would it treat others? As former Liberal MP Julia Banks, in her tell-some memoir Power Play: Breaking Through Bias, Barriers and Boys' Clubs, put it, "The painful experience for this woman was compounded by the Morrison government's incompetence, mismanagement and lack of accountability and humanity." Higgins, miraculously, has survived that mayhem and has now landed a gig with the lovely Hannah Moreno at Third Hemisphere. But not everyone survives. Higgins barely did. But the Liberals did not survive their rejection by women, not in 2022 and not in 2025. And they won't recover if they don't change. READ MORE: Which, sure, I am chill about. Who wants a party which says we can't work from home? Who wants a party which says nuclear power is the way forward? Hey babes, by the time you get back into power, in say, 2040, the renewables war will have been won. Please put your reactors back in your pants. My advice to you is this. You can't wait for the Stockdales and the Alstons to die. Blokes with plenty of money can afford the kind of healthcare which will keep them alive and kicking for years ahead. But the problem is they are not capable of changing. In the meantime, the Liberal Party itself may die. Want it to change? Sign yourselves up to Hilma's Network. Its founder, Charlotte Mortlock, launched a petition calling on the party to establish gender quotas. And push for them. That's what helped the Labor Party change. If the Liberals ever want to be in power again, they need to change too. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. This is the language I reserve for polite company. And that polite phrase is probably being muttered in the homes of many a Liberal this week as news of the latest party faux pas filters through. Worse than nuclear. Worse than work-from-home. These, at least, were policies devised after deliberation (I think) and collaboration (I hope). That's how it's supposed to happen in modern, successful political parties. But on Tuesday night, something totally unscripted blew up. There was yet another virtual meeting, this time with the NSW Liberal Women's Council, to figure out how to save the NSW branch of the Liberal Party, in trouble because it failed to nominate folks for local council elections in 2024. Any folks at all. Anyhow, it was Peter Dutton's idea to mount a federal takeover in order to review the NSW branch (seriously, he should have looked a little closer to home). Doing most of the talking was ex-Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale. He and his co-conspirator former Victorian senator Richard Alston sat themselves in front of a portrait of the Liberal Party's founding father. Guess they thought Robert Menzies would give them gravitas. The hilariously unkind SMH journalist Alex Smith who broke the story described them as having a combined age of 164. Anyhow, Stockdale said something along the lines of ... women are now "sufficiently assertive" in the Liberal Party that it is probably time to start giving blokes a leg up. Hahahahahaha. Also, aargghh. But these blokes, accompanied by their silent partner, Peta Seaton, want an extension of the term of their review. If I were Sussan Ley, I'd send them back to where they came from. The 18th century. Now it's clear to even the most casual reader of my columns that my politics in no way align with the Liberal Party. But I have written many a column supporting women in the Liberal Party because in every instance, women deserve the same opportunities as those offered to men. And for some unfathomable reason, the Liberal Party doesn't treat women in the same way as it treats men. Which, in some ways, is good for the rest of us. Unless it starts to accept women as equal participants, it is unlikely it will ever again get much traction in a country where women hold up (more than) half the sky. Among women, this comment by Stockdale further trashes the Liberal brand. As one woman, a longtime member of the Liberal Party, told me on Wednesday night after news of the "leg up" incident had broken: "It is both aggravating and tiresome at the same time. I want to scream, and also just walk away as so many have before me." She says: "I'm not the least bit surprised by what's described in the article. These blokes are dinosaurs. And while the offensive comments were by Stockdale, not Alston, they could just have easily been Alston." Misogynist men in the Liberal Party are apparently interchangeable. And it is baked in. Let me tell you the story of a woman who'd been chief of staff in a Liberal member's office. After the birth of her kid, her former boss suggested she work as an electoral officer, on about one-third of her previous salary. He said, to her face: "But it's a second income." Jesus fellas. This is not how it works anymore. When women work, they need the money as much as they need the work. It's not disposable. It's indispensable. Another Liberal woman tells me she offered to help with the review of the Liberal Party after the election loss in 2022. Hilariously, she tells me that when she called to throw herself into the mix for membership of the review, she explained she had insight into why the teals were stealing Liberal seats. "Let's face it, most of my friends are teal voters and I'm somewhat partial to them myself," she laughs. But the bloke she talked to basically dismissed her. He said to her: "If you have any feedback, send an email to the Vic state director." "I couldn't even reply, I was so pissed off at being dismissed and yet again not seriously considered." Let me take you back to 2021. It was already clear then, a year out from the 2022 federal election, that the Coalition was on the nose with women. Three separate polling organisations revealed a sharp shift of women away from the government: Essential, Resolve Monitor, NewsPoll. And why? For once, all women could agree. The way that former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, allegedly raped in Parliament House, was treated by those in the then Coalition government was appalling. If this was how the government treated one of its own, how would it treat others? As former Liberal MP Julia Banks, in her tell-some memoir Power Play: Breaking Through Bias, Barriers and Boys' Clubs, put it, "The painful experience for this woman was compounded by the Morrison government's incompetence, mismanagement and lack of accountability and humanity." Higgins, miraculously, has survived that mayhem and has now landed a gig with the lovely Hannah Moreno at Third Hemisphere. But not everyone survives. Higgins barely did. But the Liberals did not survive their rejection by women, not in 2022 and not in 2025. And they won't recover if they don't change. READ MORE: Which, sure, I am chill about. Who wants a party which says we can't work from home? Who wants a party which says nuclear power is the way forward? Hey babes, by the time you get back into power, in say, 2040, the renewables war will have been won. Please put your reactors back in your pants. My advice to you is this. You can't wait for the Stockdales and the Alstons to die. Blokes with plenty of money can afford the kind of healthcare which will keep them alive and kicking for years ahead. But the problem is they are not capable of changing. In the meantime, the Liberal Party itself may die. Want it to change? Sign yourselves up to Hilma's Network. Its founder, Charlotte Mortlock, launched a petition calling on the party to establish gender quotas. And push for them. That's what helped the Labor Party change. If the Liberals ever want to be in power again, they need to change too. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. This is the language I reserve for polite company. And that polite phrase is probably being muttered in the homes of many a Liberal this week as news of the latest party faux pas filters through. Worse than nuclear. Worse than work-from-home. These, at least, were policies devised after deliberation (I think) and collaboration (I hope). That's how it's supposed to happen in modern, successful political parties. But on Tuesday night, something totally unscripted blew up. There was yet another virtual meeting, this time with the NSW Liberal Women's Council, to figure out how to save the NSW branch of the Liberal Party, in trouble because it failed to nominate folks for local council elections in 2024. Any folks at all. Anyhow, it was Peter Dutton's idea to mount a federal takeover in order to review the NSW branch (seriously, he should have looked a little closer to home). Doing most of the talking was ex-Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale. He and his co-conspirator former Victorian senator Richard Alston sat themselves in front of a portrait of the Liberal Party's founding father. Guess they thought Robert Menzies would give them gravitas. The hilariously unkind SMH journalist Alex Smith who broke the story described them as having a combined age of 164. Anyhow, Stockdale said something along the lines of ... women are now "sufficiently assertive" in the Liberal Party that it is probably time to start giving blokes a leg up. Hahahahahaha. Also, aargghh. But these blokes, accompanied by their silent partner, Peta Seaton, want an extension of the term of their review. If I were Sussan Ley, I'd send them back to where they came from. The 18th century. Now it's clear to even the most casual reader of my columns that my politics in no way align with the Liberal Party. But I have written many a column supporting women in the Liberal Party because in every instance, women deserve the same opportunities as those offered to men. And for some unfathomable reason, the Liberal Party doesn't treat women in the same way as it treats men. Which, in some ways, is good for the rest of us. Unless it starts to accept women as equal participants, it is unlikely it will ever again get much traction in a country where women hold up (more than) half the sky. Among women, this comment by Stockdale further trashes the Liberal brand. As one woman, a longtime member of the Liberal Party, told me on Wednesday night after news of the "leg up" incident had broken: "It is both aggravating and tiresome at the same time. I want to scream, and also just walk away as so many have before me." She says: "I'm not the least bit surprised by what's described in the article. These blokes are dinosaurs. And while the offensive comments were by Stockdale, not Alston, they could just have easily been Alston." Misogynist men in the Liberal Party are apparently interchangeable. And it is baked in. Let me tell you the story of a woman who'd been chief of staff in a Liberal member's office. After the birth of her kid, her former boss suggested she work as an electoral officer, on about one-third of her previous salary. He said, to her face: "But it's a second income." Jesus fellas. This is not how it works anymore. When women work, they need the money as much as they need the work. It's not disposable. It's indispensable. Another Liberal woman tells me she offered to help with the review of the Liberal Party after the election loss in 2022. Hilariously, she tells me that when she called to throw herself into the mix for membership of the review, she explained she had insight into why the teals were stealing Liberal seats. "Let's face it, most of my friends are teal voters and I'm somewhat partial to them myself," she laughs. But the bloke she talked to basically dismissed her. He said to her: "If you have any feedback, send an email to the Vic state director." "I couldn't even reply, I was so pissed off at being dismissed and yet again not seriously considered." Let me take you back to 2021. It was already clear then, a year out from the 2022 federal election, that the Coalition was on the nose with women. Three separate polling organisations revealed a sharp shift of women away from the government: Essential, Resolve Monitor, NewsPoll. And why? For once, all women could agree. The way that former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, allegedly raped in Parliament House, was treated by those in the then Coalition government was appalling. If this was how the government treated one of its own, how would it treat others? As former Liberal MP Julia Banks, in her tell-some memoir Power Play: Breaking Through Bias, Barriers and Boys' Clubs, put it, "The painful experience for this woman was compounded by the Morrison government's incompetence, mismanagement and lack of accountability and humanity." Higgins, miraculously, has survived that mayhem and has now landed a gig with the lovely Hannah Moreno at Third Hemisphere. But not everyone survives. Higgins barely did. But the Liberals did not survive their rejection by women, not in 2022 and not in 2025. And they won't recover if they don't change. READ MORE: Which, sure, I am chill about. Who wants a party which says we can't work from home? Who wants a party which says nuclear power is the way forward? Hey babes, by the time you get back into power, in say, 2040, the renewables war will have been won. Please put your reactors back in your pants. My advice to you is this. You can't wait for the Stockdales and the Alstons to die. Blokes with plenty of money can afford the kind of healthcare which will keep them alive and kicking for years ahead. But the problem is they are not capable of changing. In the meantime, the Liberal Party itself may die. Want it to change? Sign yourselves up to Hilma's Network. Its founder, Charlotte Mortlock, launched a petition calling on the party to establish gender quotas. And push for them. That's what helped the Labor Party change. If the Liberals ever want to be in power again, they need to change too. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. This is the language I reserve for polite company. And that polite phrase is probably being muttered in the homes of many a Liberal this week as news of the latest party faux pas filters through. Worse than nuclear. Worse than work-from-home. These, at least, were policies devised after deliberation (I think) and collaboration (I hope). That's how it's supposed to happen in modern, successful political parties. But on Tuesday night, something totally unscripted blew up. There was yet another virtual meeting, this time with the NSW Liberal Women's Council, to figure out how to save the NSW branch of the Liberal Party, in trouble because it failed to nominate folks for local council elections in 2024. Any folks at all. Anyhow, it was Peter Dutton's idea to mount a federal takeover in order to review the NSW branch (seriously, he should have looked a little closer to home). Doing most of the talking was ex-Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale. He and his co-conspirator former Victorian senator Richard Alston sat themselves in front of a portrait of the Liberal Party's founding father. Guess they thought Robert Menzies would give them gravitas. The hilariously unkind SMH journalist Alex Smith who broke the story described them as having a combined age of 164. Anyhow, Stockdale said something along the lines of ... women are now "sufficiently assertive" in the Liberal Party that it is probably time to start giving blokes a leg up. Hahahahahaha. Also, aargghh. But these blokes, accompanied by their silent partner, Peta Seaton, want an extension of the term of their review. If I were Sussan Ley, I'd send them back to where they came from. The 18th century. Now it's clear to even the most casual reader of my columns that my politics in no way align with the Liberal Party. But I have written many a column supporting women in the Liberal Party because in every instance, women deserve the same opportunities as those offered to men. And for some unfathomable reason, the Liberal Party doesn't treat women in the same way as it treats men. Which, in some ways, is good for the rest of us. Unless it starts to accept women as equal participants, it is unlikely it will ever again get much traction in a country where women hold up (more than) half the sky. Among women, this comment by Stockdale further trashes the Liberal brand. As one woman, a longtime member of the Liberal Party, told me on Wednesday night after news of the "leg up" incident had broken: "It is both aggravating and tiresome at the same time. I want to scream, and also just walk away as so many have before me." She says: "I'm not the least bit surprised by what's described in the article. These blokes are dinosaurs. And while the offensive comments were by Stockdale, not Alston, they could just have easily been Alston." Misogynist men in the Liberal Party are apparently interchangeable. And it is baked in. Let me tell you the story of a woman who'd been chief of staff in a Liberal member's office. After the birth of her kid, her former boss suggested she work as an electoral officer, on about one-third of her previous salary. He said, to her face: "But it's a second income." Jesus fellas. This is not how it works anymore. When women work, they need the money as much as they need the work. It's not disposable. It's indispensable. Another Liberal woman tells me she offered to help with the review of the Liberal Party after the election loss in 2022. Hilariously, she tells me that when she called to throw herself into the mix for membership of the review, she explained she had insight into why the teals were stealing Liberal seats. "Let's face it, most of my friends are teal voters and I'm somewhat partial to them myself," she laughs. But the bloke she talked to basically dismissed her. He said to her: "If you have any feedback, send an email to the Vic state director." "I couldn't even reply, I was so pissed off at being dismissed and yet again not seriously considered." Let me take you back to 2021. It was already clear then, a year out from the 2022 federal election, that the Coalition was on the nose with women. Three separate polling organisations revealed a sharp shift of women away from the government: Essential, Resolve Monitor, NewsPoll. And why? For once, all women could agree. The way that former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, allegedly raped in Parliament House, was treated by those in the then Coalition government was appalling. If this was how the government treated one of its own, how would it treat others? As former Liberal MP Julia Banks, in her tell-some memoir Power Play: Breaking Through Bias, Barriers and Boys' Clubs, put it, "The painful experience for this woman was compounded by the Morrison government's incompetence, mismanagement and lack of accountability and humanity." Higgins, miraculously, has survived that mayhem and has now landed a gig with the lovely Hannah Moreno at Third Hemisphere. But not everyone survives. Higgins barely did. But the Liberals did not survive their rejection by women, not in 2022 and not in 2025. And they won't recover if they don't change. READ MORE: Which, sure, I am chill about. Who wants a party which says we can't work from home? Who wants a party which says nuclear power is the way forward? Hey babes, by the time you get back into power, in say, 2040, the renewables war will have been won. Please put your reactors back in your pants. My advice to you is this. You can't wait for the Stockdales and the Alstons to die. Blokes with plenty of money can afford the kind of healthcare which will keep them alive and kicking for years ahead. But the problem is they are not capable of changing. In the meantime, the Liberal Party itself may die. Want it to change? Sign yourselves up to Hilma's Network. Its founder, Charlotte Mortlock, launched a petition calling on the party to establish gender quotas. And push for them. That's what helped the Labor Party change. If the Liberals ever want to be in power again, they need to change too.
