A May election defeat is looming and some MP's are jumping ship early.

Former foreign minister Julie Bishop has revealed how her male colleagues treated her during cabinet discussions, in a talk today at the Sydney Opera House.

Ms Bishop joined former Liberal MP and now independent Julia Banks, Labor MP Linda Burney, and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, for the Leading While Female panel discussion as part of All About Women.

When asked about cabinet discussions and what it was like being one of the few — and sometimes the only woman — in a room full of men, Ms Bishop described what she called “gender deafness”.

In 2013 Ms Bishop was the only woman in cabinet, alongside 18 men and struggled to have her views heard.

“People would be talking and then I would intervene to say something and there would be silence, and then they’d just keep on talking,” she said.

“(Then) somebody would say precisely what I’d said and all the guys would say ‘gee that’s a great idea, why don’t we do that?’. And I’d think, didn’t I say that?

“It was as if they hadn’t heard me.”

Ms Bishop said it wasn’t until other women joined the cabinet that the men started to listen and acknowledge their contributions. She said Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O’Dwyer, who has announced she will not contest the next election, came up with the idea for the women to back each other up.

“(O’Dwyer) would deliberately say ‘no, Julie just said that’,” she said.

“That’s why it is so important to have a diversity of views around the decision making forums,” she said.

“This is a global issue and Australia could lead the way.”

Meanwhile, as Ms Bishop was taking to the stage in Sydney, Liberal members pre-selected former University of Notre Dame vice-chancellor Celia Hammond to replace her in the seat of Curtin.

Ms Bishop has announced she will retire from politics at the next election. She gave veiled support to foreign affairs specialist Erin Watson-Lynn to take over her seat, saying preselectors should nominate a moderate, according to The Australian. However, Ms Watson-Lynn got just one vote in the contest.

Instead Ms Hammond, 50, who was endorsed by former prime minister John Howard, won the preselection with 51 votes. She defeated four other candidates including Ms Watson-Lynn, resources executive Anna Dartnell, and local councillors Karen Caddy and Andres Timmermanis. Runner up, Ms Dartnell got 28 votes and the remaining candidates scored one vote each.

While acknowledging the challenges for women during her appearance at the Opera House, Ms Bishop reiterated that she preferred to increase their numbers in parliament through targets, and not mandatory quotas.

When asked if it was a lonely experience to be the only woman in cabinet, Ms Bishop said: “in a way, yes” but said it was not just about being female, it was “politics more generally”.

“Parliament House is not a place for making deep friendships,” she said.

“You keep very much to yourself as a woman.

“You don’t go out drinking with the boys — you can — but it’s just not the same camaraderie.”

Ms Bishop said when she was deputy leader of the Liberal Party she would organise drinks for the women to get together.

“We just almost needed to connect with each other informally because it can be a rather isolating experience,” she said.

“Parliament House is not a family friendly place, it’s not a place for making deep connections generally. That’s in my experience.”

There were also shocked gasps from the audience when former Liberal colleague Julia Banks told a story about one of her first appearances as the newly preselected Liberal candidate for Chisholm.

“My first experience after I was pre-selected was, there was an event going on in my electorate, and the Liberal party person who was organising it, said: ‘well, I’m going to be speaking, and (former Liberal state president in Victoria) Michael Kroger will be speaking, and blah blah will be speaking … I said but ‘wait a minute I’m the preselected candidate, don’t I get a gig here?’ and he said: ‘don’t you worry about that darling, I’ll give you the raffle’.”

Ms Banks went on to win the seat of Chisholm for the Liberal party in what was the only seat it picked up at the 2016 election, something she credited to the help of Ms Bishop and Ms O’Dwyer.

‘I DID MY JOB’

Ms Bishop was also asked whether she had changed her view of Tony Abbott after she demanded Julia Gillard apologise to the women in his life after her infamous misogynist speech.

Ms Bishop said Ms Gillard had indulged in “pretty cynical politics” by deflecting criticism of her support for then-speaker Peter Slipper by attacking Mr Abbott.

“I as deputy, of course, had a role to play, to defend the leader, which I did. I did my job,” she said.

In a follow-up question she was asked whether she thought Mr Abbott was a good minister for women. Ms Bishop would only say “yes, he was the minister for women, he appointed himself”.

Pressed on whether she thought he was a good minister for women, she said: “My personal view was that it would have been preferable for a female member of cabinet” to hold the position.

Ms Bishop also avoided criticising Prime Minister Scott Morrison about his comments, which have gone worldwide, that men should not make way for women’s empowerment.

“It would be very churlish of me to complain about my treatment in the Liberal Party,” she said.

“I was the first woman to be elected to the seat of Curtin, which is a very strong Liberal seat in Western Australia.

“It would be churlish of me not to acknowledge that I was elected by my colleagues as the deputy leader of the party year-after-year in opposition and in government, and I had 11 years as the deputy of the Liberal Party.”

She also acknowledged that she then got what was the most challenging, rewarding and fulfilling career opportunity any parliamentarian could have, to be Australia’s foreign minister.

“I was so proud of the fact that I was the first female foreign minister in our country’s history,” she said.

Ms Bishop said when she attended meetings with other countries in her role as foreign minister and with then-defence minister Marise Payne, it caused “an enormous amount of comment”.

“People would say ‘we thought Australia had a blokey culture, this is extraordinary, seeing two women in these roles’.

“Symbolism and numbers do matter. It changed people’s perception of us so I believe that it’s about changing attitudes.

“If we really believe in equality of opportunity, and ensuring that we can embrace more women in all roles then Australia will be better for it.

“No nation will reach its potential unless and until, it fully engages with the skills and ideas and energy and talents of the 50 per cent of its population that is female.”

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