The Liberal party is once again being forced to defend its record on women, after one MP swore in frustration when asked about gender diversity and another referred to breastfeeding in parliament as “a bit over the top”.

The comments came just a day after the former prime minister Tony Abbott tweeted a photo of an “invigorating Q&A session with the Newtown Young Liberals on the merits of western civilisation”, which featured an overwhelmingly male audience, most of them white.

The Queensland LNP MP Luke Howarth, considered a rising star within the party, was heard to say what sounded like “oh, this is fucked” when the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, was questioned about the number of male MPs in the sunshine state.

The under-the-breath comment, made during a Brisbane press conference, was picked up by a microphone and broadcast by Sky.

Howarth immediately apologised for the obscenity but said his frustration stemmed from what he believed to be good progress the LNP had made on the issue.

“The fact is, I love working with women and we have some good women coming up in our electorate,” he told Sky News.

“I think you’ll see quite a few women, if there is a swing towards the Liberal-National party at the next election, win seats. And, at the federal level, I made the point that two of the women in Queensland are assistant ministers. We did lose some good women at the last election … People like myself just try to encourage good people, both men and women, and we have a lot of good women, to run for seats. I am all for having women run.”

Just eight out of the LNP’s 41 state MPs are women, while women make up 13 of the 45 preselected candidates. Federally, three of the 21 LNP MPs are women and the Coalition as a whole counts 13 women among its 76 lower-house members.

After laughing at his colleague’s plight, Craig Kelly said while “obviously, you would like to have a greater mix across society represented in parliament, the reality is federal parliament is a very female unfriendly place”.

“We have done a lot of things, we have seen some of the members breastfeeding actually in the chamber, which I thought was a bit over the top, but they were making a statement that we are trying to encourage women, I didn’t want to particularly criticise that,” he told Sky.

“But, overall, travelling and living away from home for half the year … I think the bond that a mother has with her kids, when you have a mother with very young kids, that are not at home to tuck their kids in at night, I think that is a lot, lot harder, than it is for fathers.

“Call me old-fashioned but I think that is the way that is a reality of society and a reality of life.”

The former Greens senator Larissa Waters made international headlines when she breastfed her daughter in the Senate chamber, while Kelly O’Dwyer, who in 2015 was told to express more milk to avoid breastfeeding interfering with her parliamentary duties, recently became the first woman to breastfeed during a cabinet meeting.

The federal Labor MP Terri Buter described Kelly’s view on breastfeeding in the chamber as “completely out of touch” and said there was a simple solution to the gender imbalance.

“The Liberals need to stop making excuses and muttering under their breaths and start preselecting more women,” she said.

The Liberal party wants 50% of its MPs to be women by 2025 but the recent shot of the Newtown Young Liberals meeting prompted some to comment on how far the organisation has to go.

The ladies sat outside, of course. All that man-talk might overheat their brains. pic.twitter.com/ukPi8o55e7 — Kaptain Kobold (@KaptainKobold) September 19, 2017

Would ya look at that RATIOOOOOOO — BM (@macleanbrendan) September 20, 2017

Is the woman there to tidy up after? — Judy Farrell (@westsmagpie) September 20, 2017

It is not the first time the Queensland branch of the LNP has come under fire for its attitude towards women, having hosted an International Women’s Day event at a men’s only club in 2015.

Earlier this year, the LNP shadow minister Tim Mander questioned how a government board could be considered “diverse” given it had more women than men, a line of questioning he subsequently apologised for.

“I am asking about gender diversity,” he said during a July estimates hearing. “Sixty-eight per cent of these appointees are female and 32% are male and you are claiming that this is a diverse board. It is obviously not reflective.”

Meanwhile, a ACT Liberal MP said his comments on Wednesday regarding the lack of inclusion for “heterosexual, employed, white [men] over the age of 30” were taken out of context.