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The Liberal party is canvassing views on gender quotas among possible interventions to increase the number of women in its parliamentary ranks, which it says is critical to the long-term survival of the movement.
The idea has re-emerged in a new discussion paper from the Liberal Party Commission, an internal group established under former leader Sussan Ley to review the party after consecutive thumping federal election defeats.
The discussion paper, circulated to supporters on Wednesday, canvasses options to renew the party’s ageing membership base, select “competitive candidates”, better engage with multicultural communities and young people, and improve its internal structures and campaigning.
“We hold few seats in urban areas, core demographics continue to turn away from us without looking back, our membership is ageing, and campaign resources are stretched,” the chair of the commission, Queensland senator James McGrath, wrote in a preview to the report.
“Our core question is: how do we make the Liberal Party a fit-for-purpose political machine in the ۲۱st century?”
The discussion paper admitted the parliamentary team was not representative of the average Australian, which it defined as a ۳۸-year-old woman who was not engaged in politics but felt the Liberals “don’t look like her or speak for her aspirations”.
Just ۳۳% of Liberal and (Queensland LNP) parliamentarians across the country are women, the paper noted, with men outnumbering women four-to-one in the lower house in Canberra.
“If the Liberal Party is to survive in the long term, this must change urgently,” the paper said.
The party’s problem with female representation have been well-documented for years but attempts to address it – including through gender quotas – have failed due to staunch internal resistance.
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, is opposed to gender quotas, publicly rejecting the idea after the potential intervention was debated after the ۲۰۲۵ election.
But the discussion paper warned new measures would be required if “serious progress” was to be made.
“None of them would be easy or without complication or resistance from some,” it said. “However, if we want a different outcome, we need to be prepared to do things differently.”
The paper floats six options, making a “for” and “against” argument for each without offering any recommendation.
The options are:
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Gender quotas that require a proportion of winnable seats to be filled with female candidates.
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US-style “open primaries” that allow all voters in a particular seat – not just Liberal members – a say over preselection.
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A local version of the UK Conservative’s “A-list”, which identified ۱۰۰ potential candidates.
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Giving “bonus weighting” to female candidates to give them a better chance of winning preselection.
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Mandating a minimum number of women to contest preselection ballots.
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Requiring state divisions to set female candidate targets in winnable seats.
The argument in favour of gender quotas was that existing models – including Labor’s – have improved the gender balance of that party over time.
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The argument against was that quotas override merit-based selection, which the paper said was “contrary to Liberal values”.
Several of the options, including open primaries, have been raised in the past but never adopted.
The discussion paper also considers the need to win back multicultural communities and young voters, two of the major groups that abandoned the party at the ۲۰۲۲ and ۲۰۲۵ ballots.
The paper said last year’s election defeat suggested the negative perceptions of the Liberal party within multicultural communities were “deep-rooted”, adding that some of its federal policies were “misappropriated by opponents as hostile or racist”.
“As well as increased engagement, the party must instill message discipline to ensure such positions are not being exploited by opponents,” the report said.
Many young Australians viewed the Liberal party as “less credible” on issues important to them, including climate action.
“These brand perceptions among youth are now structural. They cannot be dismissed by saying voters will ‘age into’ voting for the party,” it said.
The paper canvassed options to renew the party’s ageing membership base, including $۱۰ annual memberships targeted at time-poor professionals and parents.
More than ۵۵% of the Liberal membership is over ۶۰, according to internal figures published in the report.
“A narrower and less representative membership base risks a growing disconnect between internal party culture and the voter coalition needed to win elections. It puts campaign mobilisation at risk and may weaken the Party’s candidate pipeline over time,” the report said.
