“Blokes face just as many preselection challenges as females,” federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham told ABC radio when he came out on Thursday to defend the Coalition government’s pretty terrible record on getting women representatives into Parliament.

The reason he had to defend it? Just one week after sitting member Jane Prentice lost her preselection to a bloke, another sitting Liberal was facing a preselection challenge from a bloke, this time Ann Sudmalis in the NSW seat of Gilmore.

The obvious point that even a mathematically challenged Education Minister should be able to see is that it is mostly blokes doing the challenging in his party at the moment, and when one bloke challenges another bloke for preselection, the gender mix doesn’t change, statistically speaking.

When we see large numbers of Liberal blokes being challenged by women, Birmingham will have a point. But let’s not hold our collective breath for that.