SECRETARY of the NSW Liberal Women’s Council Natarsha Terreio has described quotas as “tokenism”, while arguing that there is no gender discrimination in Party preselections.
“The problem isn’t that women aren’t winning preselection,” Ms Terreio said. “It’s that far fewer women than men are putting themselves forward. The data is clear.”
- More than 200 NSW Liberal State delegates have publicly rejected gender quotas.
- Almost half of all concerns have come from female Party members.
- Assistant Minister says bar shouldn’t be lowered for women – but raised for everyone.
Ms Terreio, who serves as Women’s Council membership secretary, is among hundreds of Liberal State Council delegates who have publicly rejected moves by Liberal Party extremists to introduce ALP-style gender quotas.
More than 200 State delegates have so far raised their concerns according to “Liberals for Merit”, a newly-formed Party pressure group.
Organiser Alex Dore said almost half of those opposed to quotas were women – and numbers were growing.
PRESELECTION
Ms Terreio said more women needed to step forward if they wanted a career in politics.
“We don’t need a quota for women to win more preselections,” she said. “We need to empower more women to nominate in the first place.
“Women are more likely to underestimate their own abilities … and tend to sit back rather than step forward.”
The outcry follows musings by Prime Minister Scott Morrison to introduce quotas to counter recent allegations of sexual misbehaviour by political staffers.
These include a rape allegation by former Department of Defence Industry employee Brittany Higgins and images of a male staffer masturbating over the desk of a female MP who had opposed legalising homosexual marriage.
The chief of staff to former PM Tony Abbott, Ms Peta Credlin, said too many people in the Liberal Party didn’t understand the spirit of the Party.
NOT SPECIAL
“I’ve never wanted the odds tipped in my favour just because I’m a woman,” Ms Credlin said. “It’s about fair treatment, not special treatment.
“We should aspire to choose the best candidate – not the best bloke, not the best women, not the best branch-stacker, not the best migrant, not the best factional pick – purely and simply, the best Liberal candidate.”
Federal Assistant Minister for Women Amanda Stoker agreed.
“What we should really be asking, is how we raise the standard across the board?” Ms Stoker said.
“That’s far better for our nation than a debate about how we lower the bar for women on the basis of their sex alone.
“To paraphrase Sir Robert Menzies, it’s madness to deny a woman an opportunity on the basis of her sex. It is equally absurd to offer her an opportunity solely on the basis of it.”
Political commentator Janet Albrechtsen said enforcement of quotas would result in mediocrity.
“It is no answer to the swarms of mediocre men in parliament that there should be an equal number of mediocre women,” Ms Albrechtsen said. PC
Morrison has good intentions but we women are more than capable of achieving in any field using our own well-honed intellects and skills. YES, MERIT IS THE ONLY YARDSTICK TO BE CONSIDERED.
To install ‘QUOTAS’ as Labor has is just a terrible insult to all women.
There will ALWAYS be some numerical inequality in female uptake of employment, hours worked and actual wages. Happily, there are a great number of women who still want to devote more of their time to their children, their families.
“Morrison has good intentions […]”.
That very same thing with which the road to hell is paved.
Remember when the “Liberals” were looking to preselect a candidate for Wentworth? Morrison first stated “I’d like to see a woman get selected”, and then, not long afterwards, “I’d like to see the best person get selected”. These two aims are likely to be mutually exclusive, statistically speaking, so Scotty is either:
(a) An idiot,
(b) A dissembler, or
(c) Both of the above.
I tend to think it’s “c”, and I would say that the fact that the “Liberal” party is now stepping back somewhat from pursuing a leftist agenda (or at least trying to give that impression) is because they have belatedly realised to what extent they have been alienating their supposed core constituency. I have it on good authority that they are very concerned with the rising support for One Nation; no doubt this has sharpened their focus and concentrated their minds as they work to shore up their position.
[…] musings by Prime Minister Scott Morrison to introduce quotas […]
More proof that Morrison is really a closet lefty who, like lefties everywhere, has not the slightest clue about anything important. This is what happens when you put a marketer in charge of a country.
How long will conservatives put up with this? How long will it take for rusted-on “Liberal” voters to realise that they have been duped, and that they are being played for fools?
A Meritocracy will favour talented people, which is what our system should be based on.
The alternative of a Corporate Values driven system, will quickly turn us into a “mice utopia science experiment”.
And the people in charge are never friendly.