April 23, 2025 • 14 mins
When Scott Morrison lost his job as prime minister, it was women who sacked him.
A review commissioned by the Liberal Party after the 2022 election found that a decline in support among women was a decisive factor in their loss.
The report outlined ways the party might win women back. But three years on, that hasn’t happened.
Today, contributor to The Saturday Paper Bri Lee, on what women want – and why they’re not getting it from the Liberal Party.
If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.
Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram
Guest: Contributor to The Saturday Paper, Bri Lee.
Photo: Supplied.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
From Schwartz Media. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven Am.
When Scott Morrison lost his job as Prime Minister, it
was women who sacked him. A review commissioned by the
Liberal Party after the twenty twenty two election found that
a decline in support among women was a decisive factor
(00:22):
in their loss. The report outlined ways that the party
might win women back, but three years on that has
not happened. Today. Contributor to the Saturday Paper, Breeley on
what women want and why they're not getting it from
the Liberal Party. It's Thursday, April twenty four so, Brie,
(00:49):
thank you for joining me on seven am. Again, thank
you for having me back. It's good to be back.
So I wanted to start in twenty eighteen with the
leadership spill that saw Scott Morrison Oltimle assume the top
job within the party. So tell me a bit about
how it unfolded and what it tells you about the
Liberal Party's attitude towards women at the time.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
So three people went for the leadership position. That was
Julie Bishop, Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton. Obviously, in every
political party you've got sort of factions. In the Liberal
Party at that point in time. Obviously there was the
sort of moderate faction and the hardline faction. Julie Bishop
and Scott Morrison were both in the moderate faction. Peter
(01:30):
Dutt was in the hardline faction. And at this point
in time. The other thing you need to know is
that Julie Bishop was one of the most popular politicians
in Australia with the general public. She'd been working in
the Foreign Affairs Department. There was a perception that she
was a professional and moderate conservative, kind of reliable, bankable
(01:50):
politician as far as politicians go. But the moderates in
the party were not confident that there would be enough
votes for Julie Bishop versus Peter Dutton, and they took
a position of anyone but Dutton, and then the result
was that they kind of got Scott Morrison by default.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Where there was a ballot producted in the party room
for the leadership of the Liberal.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Party, the successful candidate was Scott Morrison.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Julie Bishop has subsequently said that she would not have
put her thrown her hat in the ring unless she
had been assured that she would have enough votes, but
the people in the party just could would not vote
for a woman to be the leader. And I think
with hindsight, in my opinion, that's become a bit of
a sliding doors moment for the party because shortly thereafter
(02:41):
me too hit Parliament House.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Scott Morrison is presiding over this toxic culture, not just
in his own party, but clearly in ministerial offices and
in the Parliament itself. Over half, that is, fifty one
percent of all people currently in Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces have
experienced at least one incident of blean sexual harassment or
(03:03):
actual or attempted sexual assault.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
Like anyone who works in this building, I find the
statistics that are presented there, of course appalling and disturbing.
I wish I found them more surprising, but I find
them just as appalling.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
And in twenty twenty one, a bunch of National MPs
in particular referred to the funding of early childhood education
and care as outsourcing of parental responsibility, worried that it
would act as a disincentive for mothers who should otherwise
be caring for their kids at home. And that's around
about this time where you're then getting also all of
(03:44):
the me too stuff hitting Parliament House. There was just
what felt like wave after wave of roiling sort of
gender specific issues and the party's problems with women just
got worse and worse and worse.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And what about if you were to look at it
over time, I suppose before Scott Morrison when it comes
to the Liberal Party and the way that they've approached
representation and also just policy issues.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
So what's really interesting for this article? I interviewed Rebecca Huntley.
She's a demographer. She's been doing research and strategy for
a couple of decades now, and she said that until
about the eighties, the Labor Party was considered to be
men's preference and women would vote for the Liberals because
the Labor Party was concerned with rights at work trade
(04:34):
unions and there were not that many women in the workplace,
and the Labor Party responded to that over the decades
by instigating goals and quotas for how many of their
MPs would be women.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Well, Prime Minister Anthony Albanizi has made history this morning
swearing in a record number of female MPs into his
front bench.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Now, certainly on average, women in Australia think that the
Labor Party the one that's more in tune to their
needs and understands what is important to them. The Liberal Party,
by contrast, have just consistently taken this sort of hardline
against quotas and the result is that they are almost
(05:16):
eighty percent men. And what has happened as well since
the last federal election where the Teal Independence won a
lot of the seats from the more moderate members of
the Liberal Party.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
The moderate wing of the Liberal Party has been decimated
by that Teal tidal wave. In Sydney and Melbourne seats,
at least five climate two hundred back challengers have turfed
out high profile Liberals and electorates once considered the safest
of seats.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Kate Cheney and allegris Bender come from proud Liberal families
and those are very talented, very effective politicians. Those were
assets that the Liberal Party just lost. It means that
the only people sort of left in the Liberal Party
(06:02):
are from the hardline faction, and there's just been this
snowball over the last decade. In particular, that means they
are currently at the worst possible levels of representation in
terms of just numbers of MPs in Parliament and they
are now, without a doubt they have fallen behind average
Australian's sort of values and where we think we're at
(06:25):
in time, and that is something that the party itself
is aware of and seems to be kind of unable
or unwilling to shift.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Coming up after the break, how the Liberal Party is
trying to win back women.
Speaker 7 (06:48):
Hi, I'm Daniel James. Seven Am tells stories that need
to be told, how journalism is founded on trust and independence,
and now we're increasing our coverage. Every Saturday until election,
we'll bring you an extra episode to break down the
biggest political moments of the week. If you enjoy seven Am,
the best way you can support us is by making
a contribution at seven am podcast dot com dot au
(07:12):
slash support. Thanks for listening and supporting our work.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
So Bree, we've talked a little about the tier independents
who I suppose could have been Liberals if you know,
perhaps the party had worked harder to recruit talented conservative
women for people like Alec Respender and Kate Cheney. And
that story, the story of till women taking Blue ribbon
seats in the last election. You know, it's well known,
(07:39):
but I'd like to talk a bit about what happened
after the election. After the coalition lost office. What did
the Liberal Party do about what had happened? How did
they try and course correct?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Well, first of all, they commissioned a report that was
co offered by two of their own people, one of
whom was Senator Jane Hume, and that came out in
twenty twenty two. It was a sort of you know,
looking through the ashes for any possible learnings. And the
report had forty nine I think recommendations. It was four
(08:13):
of those recommendations were explicitly about women or.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
The Liberal Party have a women problem. It's most obvious
when you look at the House of Representatives chamber. The
forty seventh Parliament has a record number of women, but
in the Liberal Party just nine of the forty two
seats are held by women.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
In that twenty twenty two report that the Liberal Party commissioned,
they found that a majority of women preferred labor in
all age segments. And the report noted, and I quote
here verbatim, liberal defectors in teal seats were highly likely
to agree with the statement that the treatment or attitude
toward women within the Liberal Party had a strong influence
(08:53):
on my vote. One of the things they recommended was
a regular kind of internal party reporting on the talent
was being identified, you know, talented women were being put
up for pre selection. One of the recommendations was the
establishment of a kind of you know, networking experience, knowledge
sharing groups specifically for women that was called the Margaret
(09:15):
Gilfoil Network. But I approached Senator Jane Hume, and I
approached the Deputy Liberal Leader Susan Lee, who is also
the Shadow Minister for Women. I asked them whether the
Margaret Gilfoyle Network had run any internships, mentorships, exchanges, etc.
I asked whether the Liberal Party had been doing those
(09:36):
internal reports about identifying women talent or putting them up
for pre selection. I asked basically if they had any
comments to make about the gendered components of this twenty
twenty two report. And there was certainly no specific response
about the Margaret Gilfoil Network, no response about those internal
reporting mechanisms, And the one reply I did get from
(10:00):
Minister Lee's office responded with a statement that was about
three paragraphs long that barely mentioned women at all, and
the first sentence was this election is a choice about
who can better manage the economy and help Australians get ahead.
It sort of mentions that women bear the brunt of
economic distress and then continues to just talk about cost
(10:23):
of living, tax offsets, and home ownership. So yeah, I
felt like the message was very clear in that response.
And the impression I'm given when I sit down and
do this research now is that this report was commissioned
by the Liberal Party in twenty twenty two. It made
a lot of recommendations, none of those have been meaningfully
(10:46):
acted upon, and we are now at yet another election
cycle where none of these problems have been addressed.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
And what about Peter Dutton specifically, can you talk to
me about his record on speaking on issues that affect women.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Well, what's in interesting is that pretty much the only
angle he's tried for to sort of appeal to women
is that he's tough on crime. It would be tempting
to think that that never works, but what we know
is that for a lot of people, the tough on
crime angle is compelling. What it just doesn't work for
are the people who already don't like him or that party. Because,
(11:21):
on average, the research shows that if you are a woman,
and if you are a woman with a university education,
you are not going to want to vote for the
Liberal Party. Those are the sort of generalized gendered stats
that Huntley's research, for example, shows for sure. But apart
from that sort of tough on crime cop angle, which
in my opinion still comes through as incredibly patronizing, he's
(11:43):
still making that sort of fundamental mistake that Morrison kept
making where women are to be protected.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Okay, so it sounds like something much bigger would be
needed for the Liberal Party to shift its appeal and
turn around, and it's fortunes with women.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, I mean, my opinion on the situation is that
they're not going to get anywhere while they keep thinking
of women as a problem to be solved instead of
an asset to be tapped. Every time people like Peter
Dutton come out and say that, you know, they would
like to see more women in the party, but they're
not going to do it at the risk of compromising
people be deserving to be there on merit. They just still,
(12:24):
i think don't understand or appreciate how profoundly offensive that
is to suggest that if you act on meaningful goals
or quoters, to suggest that doing so means you will
automatically get subpar lacking in quality candidates. Is it just
shows a yeah, I think a fundamental lack of understanding.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Free Thank you so much for your time, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
For having me.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Also in the news today, Elon Musk will start pulling
back from his role at the Trump Administration's Department of
Government Efficiency to focus on Tesla. In an investor call,
Musk acknowledged there have been rocky moments at the electric
car manufacturer. This year, Tesla reported a seventy one percent
drop in first quarter profits compared to the same time
(13:29):
last year. The massive dip is widely seen to be
a backlash against Musk's political activity, and a record number
of votes were cast on the first day of early
voting on Tuesday, with more than half a million people
heading to the polls. The turnout smashed the previous record
set in twenty twenty two of about three hundred and
fifteen thousand votes. The Australian Electoral Commission has asked voters
(13:52):
to be patient, as the strong first day showing led
to some voters waiting in long queues at polling centers.
I'm Ruby Jones is a thanks for listening
From Schwartz Media. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven Am.
When Scott Morrison lost his job as Prime Minister, it
was women who sacked him. A review commissioned by the
Liberal Party after the twenty twenty two election found that
a decline in support among women was a decisive factor
(00:22):
in their loss. The report outlined ways that the party
might win women back, but three years on that has
not happened. Today. Contributor to the Saturday Paper, Breeley on
what women want and why they're not getting it from
the Liberal Party. It's Thursday, April twenty four so, Brie,
(00:49):
thank you for joining me on seven am. Again, thank
you for having me back. It's good to be back.
So I wanted to start in twenty eighteen with the
leadership spill that saw Scott Morrison Oltimle assume the top
job within the party. So tell me a bit about
how it unfolded and what it tells you about the
Liberal Party's attitude towards women at the time.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
So three people went for the leadership position. That was
Julie Bishop, Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton. Obviously, in every
political party you've got sort of factions. In the Liberal
Party at that point in time. Obviously there was the
sort of moderate faction and the hardline faction. Julie Bishop
and Scott Morrison were both in the moderate faction. Peter
(01:30):
Dutt was in the hardline faction. And at this point
in time. The other thing you need to know is
that Julie Bishop was one of the most popular politicians
in Australia with the general public. She'd been working in
the Foreign Affairs Department. There was a perception that she
was a professional and moderate conservative, kind of reliable, bankable
(01:50):
politician as far as politicians go. But the moderates in
the party were not confident that there would be enough
votes for Julie Bishop versus Peter Dutton, and they took
a position of anyone but Dutton, and then the result
was that they kind of got Scott Morrison by default.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Where there was a ballot producted in the party room
for the leadership of the Liberal.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Party, the successful candidate was Scott Morrison.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Julie Bishop has subsequently said that she would not have
put her thrown her hat in the ring unless she
had been assured that she would have enough votes, but
the people in the party just could would not vote
for a woman to be the leader. And I think
with hindsight, in my opinion, that's become a bit of
a sliding doors moment for the party because shortly thereafter
(02:41):
me too hit Parliament House.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Scott Morrison is presiding over this toxic culture, not just
in his own party, but clearly in ministerial offices and
in the Parliament itself. Over half, that is, fifty one
percent of all people currently in Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces have
experienced at least one incident of blean sexual harassment or
(03:03):
actual or attempted sexual assault.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
Like anyone who works in this building, I find the
statistics that are presented there, of course appalling and disturbing.
I wish I found them more surprising, but I find
them just as appalling.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
And in twenty twenty one, a bunch of National MPs
in particular referred to the funding of early childhood education
and care as outsourcing of parental responsibility, worried that it
would act as a disincentive for mothers who should otherwise
be caring for their kids at home. And that's around
about this time where you're then getting also all of
(03:44):
the me too stuff hitting Parliament House. There was just
what felt like wave after wave of roiling sort of
gender specific issues and the party's problems with women just
got worse and worse and worse.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And what about if you were to look at it
over time, I suppose before Scott Morrison when it comes
to the Liberal Party and the way that they've approached
representation and also just policy issues.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
So what's really interesting for this article? I interviewed Rebecca Huntley.
She's a demographer. She's been doing research and strategy for
a couple of decades now, and she said that until
about the eighties, the Labor Party was considered to be
men's preference and women would vote for the Liberals because
the Labor Party was concerned with rights at work trade
(04:34):
unions and there were not that many women in the workplace,
and the Labor Party responded to that over the decades
by instigating goals and quotas for how many of their
MPs would be women.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Well, Prime Minister Anthony Albanizi has made history this morning
swearing in a record number of female MPs into his
front bench.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Now, certainly on average, women in Australia think that the
Labor Party the one that's more in tune to their
needs and understands what is important to them. The Liberal Party,
by contrast, have just consistently taken this sort of hardline
against quotas and the result is that they are almost
(05:16):
eighty percent men. And what has happened as well since
the last federal election where the Teal Independence won a
lot of the seats from the more moderate members of
the Liberal Party.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
The moderate wing of the Liberal Party has been decimated
by that Teal tidal wave. In Sydney and Melbourne seats,
at least five climate two hundred back challengers have turfed
out high profile Liberals and electorates once considered the safest
of seats.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Kate Cheney and allegris Bender come from proud Liberal families
and those are very talented, very effective politicians. Those were
assets that the Liberal Party just lost. It means that
the only people sort of left in the Liberal Party
(06:02):
are from the hardline faction, and there's just been this
snowball over the last decade. In particular, that means they
are currently at the worst possible levels of representation in
terms of just numbers of MPs in Parliament and they
are now, without a doubt they have fallen behind average
Australian's sort of values and where we think we're at
(06:25):
in time, and that is something that the party itself
is aware of and seems to be kind of unable
or unwilling to shift.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Coming up after the break, how the Liberal Party is
trying to win back women.
Speaker 7 (06:48):
Hi, I'm Daniel James. Seven Am tells stories that need
to be told, how journalism is founded on trust and independence,
and now we're increasing our coverage. Every Saturday until election,
we'll bring you an extra episode to break down the
biggest political moments of the week. If you enjoy seven Am,
the best way you can support us is by making
a contribution at seven am podcast dot com dot au
(07:12):
slash support. Thanks for listening and supporting our work.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
So Bree, we've talked a little about the tier independents
who I suppose could have been Liberals if you know,
perhaps the party had worked harder to recruit talented conservative
women for people like Alec Respender and Kate Cheney. And
that story, the story of till women taking Blue ribbon
seats in the last election. You know, it's well known,
(07:39):
but I'd like to talk a bit about what happened
after the election. After the coalition lost office. What did
the Liberal Party do about what had happened? How did
they try and course correct?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Well, first of all, they commissioned a report that was
co offered by two of their own people, one of
whom was Senator Jane Hume, and that came out in
twenty twenty two. It was a sort of you know,
looking through the ashes for any possible learnings. And the
report had forty nine I think recommendations. It was four
(08:13):
of those recommendations were explicitly about women or.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
The Liberal Party have a women problem. It's most obvious
when you look at the House of Representatives chamber. The
forty seventh Parliament has a record number of women, but
in the Liberal Party just nine of the forty two
seats are held by women.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
In that twenty twenty two report that the Liberal Party commissioned,
they found that a majority of women preferred labor in
all age segments. And the report noted, and I quote
here verbatim, liberal defectors in teal seats were highly likely
to agree with the statement that the treatment or attitude
toward women within the Liberal Party had a strong influence
(08:53):
on my vote. One of the things they recommended was
a regular kind of internal party reporting on the talent
was being identified, you know, talented women were being put
up for pre selection. One of the recommendations was the
establishment of a kind of you know, networking experience, knowledge
sharing groups specifically for women that was called the Margaret
(09:15):
Gilfoil Network. But I approached Senator Jane Hume, and I
approached the Deputy Liberal Leader Susan Lee, who is also
the Shadow Minister for Women. I asked them whether the
Margaret Gilfoyle Network had run any internships, mentorships, exchanges, etc.
I asked whether the Liberal Party had been doing those
(09:36):
internal reports about identifying women talent or putting them up
for pre selection. I asked basically if they had any
comments to make about the gendered components of this twenty
twenty two report. And there was certainly no specific response
about the Margaret Gilfoil Network, no response about those internal
reporting mechanisms, And the one reply I did get from
(10:00):
Minister Lee's office responded with a statement that was about
three paragraphs long that barely mentioned women at all, and
the first sentence was this election is a choice about
who can better manage the economy and help Australians get ahead.
It sort of mentions that women bear the brunt of
economic distress and then continues to just talk about cost
(10:23):
of living, tax offsets, and home ownership. So yeah, I
felt like the message was very clear in that response.
And the impression I'm given when I sit down and
do this research now is that this report was commissioned
by the Liberal Party in twenty twenty two. It made
a lot of recommendations, none of those have been meaningfully
(10:46):
acted upon, and we are now at yet another election
cycle where none of these problems have been addressed.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
And what about Peter Dutton specifically, can you talk to
me about his record on speaking on issues that affect women.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Well, what's in interesting is that pretty much the only
angle he's tried for to sort of appeal to women
is that he's tough on crime. It would be tempting
to think that that never works, but what we know
is that for a lot of people, the tough on
crime angle is compelling. What it just doesn't work for
are the people who already don't like him or that party. Because,
(11:21):
on average, the research shows that if you are a woman,
and if you are a woman with a university education,
you are not going to want to vote for the
Liberal Party. Those are the sort of generalized gendered stats
that Huntley's research, for example, shows for sure. But apart
from that sort of tough on crime cop angle, which
in my opinion still comes through as incredibly patronizing, he's
(11:43):
still making that sort of fundamental mistake that Morrison kept
making where women are to be protected.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Okay, so it sounds like something much bigger would be
needed for the Liberal Party to shift its appeal and
turn around, and it's fortunes with women.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, I mean, my opinion on the situation is that
they're not going to get anywhere while they keep thinking
of women as a problem to be solved instead of
an asset to be tapped. Every time people like Peter
Dutton come out and say that, you know, they would
like to see more women in the party, but they're
not going to do it at the risk of compromising
people be deserving to be there on merit. They just still,
(12:24):
i think don't understand or appreciate how profoundly offensive that
is to suggest that if you act on meaningful goals
or quoters, to suggest that doing so means you will
automatically get subpar lacking in quality candidates. Is it just
shows a yeah, I think a fundamental lack of understanding.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Free Thank you so much for your time, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
For having me.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Also in the news today, Elon Musk will start pulling
back from his role at the Trump Administration's Department of
Government Efficiency to focus on Tesla. In an investor call,
Musk acknowledged there have been rocky moments at the electric
car manufacturer. This year, Tesla reported a seventy one percent
drop in first quarter profits compared to the same time
(13:29):
last year. The massive dip is widely seen to be
a backlash against Musk's political activity, and a record number
of votes were cast on the first day of early
voting on Tuesday, with more than half a million people
heading to the polls. The turnout smashed the previous record
set in twenty twenty two of about three hundred and
fifteen thousand votes. The Australian Electoral Commission has asked voters
(13:52):
to be patient, as the strong first day showing led
to some voters waiting in long queues at polling centers.
I'm Ruby Jones is a thanks for listening
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