Australia: MP Sharman Stone says party needs mandatory female quotas

Submitted by Mastodon on Sun, 2014-03-09 22:29

Article here. Excerpt:

'Victorian Liberal backbencher Sharman Stone has suggested her colleagues should look to Labor for ideas about how to get more women into politics.

"I'm beginning to think very seriously that really, the Liberal Party, we have to do more," Dr Stone told AM.

The Labor Party has long had a quota system in place, although it is yet to achieve its target of getting women into 40 per cent of its seats.

The Liberal Party is opposed to the Labor model of quotas, arguing candidates should be preselected on merit rather than gender.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been criticised for the make-up of his cabinet because it includes only one woman, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

Dr Stone, speaking ahead of today's International Women's Day celebrations, said she was very disappointed to see her Liberal colleagues recently dump Mary Wooldridge from the safe Victorian state seat of Kew.

She said the Liberal Party needed to do more to ensure women are preselected in winnable seats.'

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