Latest news with #NicoletteBoele
ABC News
8 hours ago
- General
- ABC News
Liberals hose down Alan Stockdale's women comment while parliament achieves parity
Welcome back to your weekly federal politics update, where Brett Worthington gets you up to speed on the happenings from Parliament House. Senior blokes in the Liberal Party have long had an issue reading the room. Just look to the last two federal elections to see the extent of the damage wreaked on the party. Enter Alan Stockdale, whose biggest party sin until recently was that he's a Victorian. A former state government treasurer, he was brought in as an external administrator to run the far from thriving NSW division of the Liberal Party despite coming from south of the Murray River. You'll remember just how high performing the NSW division is. It's the one that failed to nominate candidates for council elections (talk about literally only having one job to do). Addressing the NSW Liberal Women's Council on Tuesday he said that women were "sufficiently assertive" and the party might need to "protect men's involvement". Even if he thought it was a hilarious joke, no one was laughing. The comments were made during a discussion about female representation and gender quotas. It's worth remembering that the once mighty Liberal Party managed to just get just six MPs elected to NSW's 46 federal seats last month. NSW voters also elected six crossbenchers, five of whom are women, including the newly victorious independent Nicolette Boele who joins Sophie Scamps, Allegra Spender and Zali Stegall in once-safe Liberal seats in Sydney. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald just days after the Liberals were repudiated at the ballot box, Charlotte Mortlock (a former adviser and founder of a group tasked with bolstering female representation in the party) wrote that without reform the party would remain "beholden to a smaller and smaller cohort of angry men, blinded by their own ideology, so detached from reality that we will never be in power again". She argued that the Liberal Party had its highest calibre of female candidates at the last election but the issue was they were "forced to sell a shit sandwich". In a sign that at least some leaders in the Liberal Party are reading the room, federal Opposition Leader Sussan Ley (one of just two Liberal women elected in NSW) was quick to condemn Stockdale's comments, arguing she wanted more assertive women in her ranks. State Opposition Leader Mark Speakman offered a similar sentiment on ABC Radio Sydney on Thursday morning. "Honestly, Alan, read the room," Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie told the Today Show. "It was a shocking comment. I think it's time for Alan to head back to the Melbourne Club, have a stiff whiskey and chat with the old boys about what went wrong." Just when Liberals thought things couldn't get much worse, their only glimmer of hope from the May 3 election was snuffed out. Liberal Gisele Kapterian initially won Bradfield by eight votes after the full distribution of preferences. But given it was under 100 votes, a full recount was required. More than a month on from polling day, the recount ended with Boele winning by 26 votes. It's certainly not without precedent that the victor would change after a recount. In 2007, Labor candidate Rob McEwen beat incumbent Liberal Fran Bailey by a handful of votes in the Victorian seat of McEwen. After a recount, Bailey was ahead by 12. Labor and McEwen took the case to the Court of Disputed Returns, challenging the validity of some of the 643 invalid votes. Sadly, the judgement from the case, in which all 643 votes were re-scrutinised, is far less dramatic than the scenes that played out in Selina Meyer's recount in HBO's Veep. In the end, Bailey's lead grew and she won the seat by 31 votes (Mitchell would comfortably win the seat three years later when Bailey retired). In 2016, the LNP considered challenging Labor's 37 vote victory in the Queensland seat of Herbert, but the party ultimately decided against it. Kapterian and the Liberals say they're considering a challenge in Bradfield but it's too early to know what their decision will be. There are no shortage of people who see Kapterian as the future of the party. She's modern, the daughter of migrants and has worked at senior levels of politics and tech. It's for the same reason that Ley rewarded Kapterian with a junior portfolio in the outer frontbench, a move the leader said was to reward once safe Liberal seats for sticking with the party. Like Mitchell before her, if she is to be the future of the party, she'll likely have to wait three more years to have another crack. There's always an old quote that comes back to haunt politicians. A week ago, then Greens senator Dorinda Cox insisted Labor's contentious extension of the north west shelf gas project was a climate bomb that "must not go ahead". A week later, the now Labor Senator Cox insisted "it wouldn't be suitable for me to have public commentary during that stage". When Fatima Payman quit Labor, no shortage of party leaders insisted she should quit parliament (which of course they would because they would pick her replacement). There were no such calls coming from Labor when its ranks were bolstered by Cox's defection. Beyond all the noise that has surrounded the defection (not to mention no shortage of internal matter bubbling over publicly), it highlights the growing pains the Greens have experienced in recent years. After the 2022 election, the party reached a high-water mark of four MPs and 12 senators. Today, it has just one MP and 10 senators. The Cox defection also brings with it risks for Labor, even if the PM insists all internal matters in the senator's office have been dealt with. Any issues now will be for him and Labor to explain. But in not going to the crossbench, Cox's move keeps the Senate maths simple. Labor only needs the Coalition or the Greens to pass legislation. If Cox had become and independent, Albanese would have needed the Greens and one crossbencher to pass legislation. Cox's defection takes the Labor caucus to 123 politicians, comfortably more than double the Liberal partyroom of 51. Add in the 19 Nats and the official opposition will have 70 members. The new-look parliament will have 40 new politicians and will have gender parity for the first time, with 113 women and 113 men across the House of Representatives and Senate. It will also be the most culturally diverse parliament. Queensland is the only state where the Coalition has more MPs than Labor — 16 to 12. Labor will hold four of the six seats where the winner had a two-candidate preferred margin above 70 per cent. Of the six seats with a winner on 69 per cent, Labor holds four of them. At the other end of the spectrum, seven seats have a winner on a margin between 50 and 50.7 per cent. Teal independents hold three of them, Labor holds three and the LNP one. Go out a little further and Labor holds six of the seven seats with a winner on 51 per cent. Within the parties, Labor is 57 per cent female, the Liberals 33 per cent, the Nationals 26 per cent and the Greens 63 per cent. Both Coalition parties fare better with gender parity in the Senate (a chamber that is almost 57 per cent women) with the Nationals 50 per cent women and the Liberals at 48 per cent. Labor's ranks are almost two-thirds women in the Senate and the Greens on 60 per cent. The prime minister has taken to taunting the Liberal Party over female representation, noting he has more women with a name starting with A in the House of Representatives (10) than the Coalition does women MPs (9). And yet for all the talented women in Labor, the party can't find any to promote to its House of Representatives leadership. Talk about blokes being unable to read the room.
News.com.au
14 hours ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
No Liberal concession call after Bradfield turns teal
Gisele Kapterian has still not picked up the phone to concede Bradfield after Nicolette Boele broke the Liberals' iron grip on the key Sydney seat, the independent has revealed. The Australian Electoral Commission on Wednesday declared Ms Boele the winner in Bradfield after one of the longest, messiest races of the federal election. A recount found the Climate 200-backed candidate won the seat, which has been in Liberal hands since its creation, by 26 votes. Ms Boele said on Thursday her win was 'certainly' by a slim margin. 'It's one of those times when you realise that every single vote counts,' she told the ABC. Asked if she had heard from Ms Kapterian, Ms Boele said: 'Um, I haven't, no. 'It's been a very busy, whirlwind sort of last few hours since we got the decision from the electoral commission after 4.5 weeks of counting and recounting. 'So, no, I have really just been talking to people, having a small celebration, and I'm looking forward to, I suppose, getting on with the job.' Ms Boele was initially declared victorious in Bradfield but an administrative error was uncovered and dramatically cut her lead. Ms Kapterian then led by eight votes, triggering a total recount late last month. The tight count did not stop her being welcomed into the Liberal party room and even partaking in the leadership vote that elected Sussan Ley party leader. Reacting to the result on Wednesday, Ms Kapterian thanked the AEC and her scrutineers, saying the recount process was 'testament to the adage 'if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together''. 'This recount has created a different result – while I was ahead at the conclusion of the original count, Ms Boele is now ahead after this recount,' she said in a statement. 'I will now carefully review the two counts.' Losing the seat has further slimmed the Liberals' numbers and dealt a major blow to the party's standing in North Sydney. In her Thursday morning remarks, Ms Boele said the result showed the 'electorate's definitely changing'. 'Modern Bradfield is much more diverse,' she said. 'We're definitely conservative in terms of loving business and economics, but we're very outward looking. 'We love the environment. We care about people. And those kind of care values were just not being addressed by this brand of the Liberal-National coalition.' She added that voters 'were looking for better representation' and an 'independent like me, born and bred here, someone of the community, working for the community and not for party politics' fit the bill.
ABC News
16 hours ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Liberal Party weighing up legal challenge to Gisele Kapterian's narrow loss in Sydney seat of Bradfield
The Liberal Party is considering whether to challenge the result in the Sydney seat of Bradfield after the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) announced a recount found independent candidate Nicolette Boele won by just 26 votes. Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian released a statement on Wednesday afternoon leaving the door open to a potential legal challenge of the count's results, saying she would "carefully review the two counts". The AEC said in finalising the result the ballot paper formality determinations during the initial distribution of preferences led to a margin of eight in favour of Ms Kapterian ahead of the recount. "Further rulings on ballot paper formality during the recount process has seen this change, which historically is not uncommon in a recount," the AEC said. Ms Kapterian is seen by many as a potential rising star in the Liberal Party and Opposition Leader Sussan Ley appointed her to an assistant role in the communications portfolio and comes amid a push to improve the involvement of women in the party. The Liberal Party can contest the result in the Court of Disputed Returns and has 40 days following the return of the writs to petition the court. The result for Bradfield will be formally declared soon, the AEC said. Ms Boele emerged as the provisional winner after the initial count with a lead of 40 votes after the unofficial distribution of preferences. The calling of the traditionally blue-ribbon seat for Ms Boele, a Climate 200-backed independent, was the final to be resolved after the 2025 federal election. It means Labor will hold 94 seats in the House of Representatives and the Coalition will have 43. There will be 13 members of the crossbench. Ms Boele said she had "every confidence" in the electoral commission process. "I'm in the business of getting on with making sure that the people of Bradfield have their interests and their voices heard."
The Guardian
17 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Australia news live: Matt Kean tells politicians to ‘get out of the way' of climate action; Nicolette Boele savours Bradfield win
Update: Date: 2025-06-04T21:21:36.000Z Title: Good morning Content: , and welcome to Thursday. Nick Visser here to take you through today's breaking news. Here's what's on deck: Matt Kean, chair of the Climate Change Authority, told politicians who are providing cover for action on fossil fuels to 'get out of the way.' Kean spoke in Sydney last night, saying MPs standing against climate action were 'holding our country back' and 'holding your political parties back'. Independent Nicolette Boele is relishing her win in the seat of Bradfield after a long, seesawing recount. Boele spoke to the ABC last night, calling the moment she was declared victorious 'one of the biggest honours that I've ever had in my life.' Liberal Gisele Kapterian has not yet conceded the race. Stick with us as we dig into the political crisis in Tasmania later today with the debate on a no-confidence motion against the state's premier set to continue. Jim Chalmers will also speak about Australia's less-than-robust GDP numbers later this morning. Onwards.
ABC News
a day ago
- General
- ABC News
Independent Nicolette Boele wins Bradfield on a paper-thin margin
Nicolette Boele speaks to 7.30's Sarah Ferguson after winning the Sydney electorate of Bradfield, after a full recount in the seat.
