Gender & Politics 2020: The path towards real diversity 2020 Update Nick Cater and Nicolle Flint Gender & Politics 2020: The path towards real diversity A Menzies Research Centre Policy Brief Authors: Nick Cater & Nicolle Flint Additonal Research: Holly McDonald Introduction: Nick Cater with Scott Morrison Published by: The Menzies Research Centre Limited RG Menzies House Cnr Blackall and Macquarie Streets BARTON ACT 2600 PO Box 6091 KINGSTON ACT 2604 Executive Director: Nick Cater Phone: 02 6273 5608 Email: [email protected] Designed by: Branded Graphics The Menzies Research Centre Limited is a company limited by guarantee © 2020 THE MENZIES RESEARCH CENTRE DONATIONS TO THE MENZIES RESEARCH CENTRE FUNDS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE To donate go to menziesrc.org/donate ‘There is no reason why a qualified woman should not sit in Parliament or on the Bench or in a professorial Chair or preach from the pulpit, or if you like, command an army in the field.’ Robert Menzies, 19431 1 R G Menzies, ‘Women for Canberra’, Radio Broadcast, 29 January 1943. This paper updates the report first released in 2015 and revised in 2017. It attempts to provide empirical evidence of the extent and nature of the gender imbalance in politics, particularly within the Liberal Party, discuss its consequences and construct an intellectual and philosophical framework to address the disparity based on Liberal principles. The 2015 paper drew from the Menzies Research Centre’s Gender and Politics Forum held in Melbourne on 26 June 2015. It was presented to the federal Women’s Committee Conference in Adelaide on 15-16 August 2015, convened to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the establishment of the Committee. The authors Nicolle Flint Was elected in 2016 as the Federal Member for Boothby. She is the first female to hold the seat since it was established in 1903. Nicolle previously worked as a columnist with News Corp and Fairfax, and as a policy adviser to Liberal leaders and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She has held senior voluntary leadership roles in the Liberal Party of Australia (SA Division), and is Government Whip in the Morrison Government. Nick Cater Became Executive Director of the Menzies Research Centre in 2014. He is a former editor of The Weekend Australian and writes a weekly column for The Australian. He is author of The Lucky Culture (Harper Collins 2013). He edited The Howard Factor (MUP 2006) and A Better Class of Sunset: The collected works of Christopher Pearson (Connor Court 2014). Gender & Politics 2020: The path towards real diversity i PRIME MINISTER MESSAGE FROM THE PRIME MINISTER MENZIES RESEARCH CENTRE – GENDER & POLITICS I thank the Menzies Research Centre for this third incarnation of its Gender & Politics Report and note the progress made since the first paper in 2015. Back in February, at the UN Women Australia International Women’s Day breakfast, I spoke about the story of Australia as being, as much as anything, a story of strong women. Courageous, trailblazing women. Women committed to their rightful equal place in society, and who were prepared to stand up for that. Women who lead. The simple fact is that when both women and men are on an equal footing as decision-makers, not just the individuals but whole communities benefit. Societies are more cohesive, respectful, cooperative and peaceful. Economies are more productive, diverse and enlightened. Prosperity is lifted. We achieve not only a truer reflection of the depth and breadth of the Australian people, but are aligned with our principles and destiny as Liberals. That’s why we must continue to increase the involvement of women in the organisation and leadership of the Liberal Party. My cabinet has six women – Marise Payne, Michaelia Cash, Linda Reynolds, Karen Andrews, Sussan Ley and Anne Ruston – part of a ministry that has been working many nights keeping us healthy, saving jobs, leaving nobody behind as we confront the once-in-a-century COVID- 19 crisis. We’ve got a target of 50 per cent Liberal women members in Australian parliaments by 2025 and we’re making headway. Seven of the 14 new Liberal members elected at the 2019 federal election were women. The Senate overall has equal numbers of men and women for the first time. ii Gender & Politics 2020: The path towards real diversity While these signs are encouraging, the report highlights there remains much to be done. We’ve made progress – but we need to accelerate this. I want more women in our Liberal Party branches, as candidates, and as members and senators. Along with our Federal Director Andrew Hirst, I am determined to make our party an even bigger and better embodiment of the quiet Australians we represent. The Hon Scott Morrison MP Prime Minister of Australia September 2020 Gender & Politics 2020: The path towards real diversity iii Contents Introduction 4 Women in the Liberal Party 7 The electoral imperative for change 10 Lessons from the corporate sector 14 A Liberal approach to women in politics 19 From the grassroots up 25 Targeted intervention 33 Findings and recommendations 39 iv Gender & Politics 2020: The path towards real diversity Revisions for updated edition We have revised and expanded this edition to take account of developments since our original report was released in 2015 and subsequent report in 2017. Where possible, graphs and tables have been revised to include the results of the 2019 Federal Election and changes in state and territory parliaments between 2017 and 2020. Gender & Politics 2020: The path towards real diversity 1 Preface In the first edition of Gender & Politics we argued that the imbalance between the number of Liberal men and women in Australian parliaments should be addressed in a manner true to our principles. We rejected the undemocratic path of quotas employed by parties on the left, arguing that genuine diversity is better achieved through merit and reward for effort than ticking boxes. Five years later, we are able to report progress. Of the 14 new Liberal members elected to the House of Representatives in May 2019, seven were men and seven were women. The result was achieved without a single quota. The 14 new members came from a diverse range of backgrounds and were elected on their merit. Encouragingly, the overall number of female candidates for the House of Representatives rose again, up six more than the first report in 2015. In the Senate, a third of Liberal representatives are now women, and at the 2019 election, 41 per cent of Liberal Senate candidates were women, again without quotas. A record number of women have been appointed to Cabinet including in the senior portfolios of Defence and Foreign Affairs. Across state and territory divisions there have been mixed results. The proportion of Liberal women in parliament has increased in Tasmania, the ACT and New South Wales but not elsewhere. Much work still remains to be done. Despite the broad acceptance of our recommendations by state and territory Divisions that the party should learn from the corporate sector by adopting reportable targets that serve as benchmarks, progress remains slow. Discouragingly, there has been little change in the number of female members and leaders at the grassroots level. It is of particular concern that numbers remain static at the Young Liberal level. Previous work to increase female participation done by former federal Young Liberal President, now Senator Claire Chandler, will be a focus of federal Young Liberal President, Jocelyn Sutcliffe, who is only the fourth-ever woman elected to the position. Similarly, the work setting targets and increasing reporting commenced under then-President Richard Alston by the federal Executive continues, but needs to be replicated by the Divisions. Without a critical mass of female Liberal Party members and leaders at the grassroots party level, the Party will continue to struggle to nominate a sufficient number of women, especially in safe seats. This paper explores this problem using the corporate concept of the ‘broken rung’. Corporations have realised that the biggest obstacle women face in career progression to leadership roles is the first step up from entry level to manager. They are correcting the lack of women in senior positions by ensuring there are enough women moving from entry level to junior management, so that they secure the requisite experience along the way and so that the company has a large pool of both men and women to choose from. Until the grassroots imbalance is addressed, the Liberal Party is unlikely to make anything more than incremental steps towards parliamentary gender balance. More female candidates and more female MPs broadens the diversity of our offering to voters. 2 Gender & Politics 2020: The path towards real diversity The increase in diversity applies not just to gender, but to backgrounds, professions, age and outlook. The new male and female Liberal MPs elected in 2019 include defence force veterans, health professionals, farmers, and a university vice chancellor. Overall the Coalition has seven representatives with trade certificates compared to Labor’s two. The diversity of these people is the reason why the Liberal Party, and the Nationals, who together form the Coalition Government, are better able to connect with the Australian people as election results since 2013 have shown. Elected representatives from diverse backgrounds reach and connect with the most voters possible and ensure Coalition policy settings are in tune with the Australian people. The Liberal Party achieved historic and notable levels of female representation at the 2019 federal election. The challenge now is to cement these results federally, and replicate them at the state and territory level. Change cannot be achieved by adopting the sterile formulae of identity politics that is stultifying the thinking of our opponents.