This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Liberal party’s gender war has entered the new year, with two of its women MPs defending its record on female representation, despite women holding just 20% of the Coalition government’s seats.

Women hold 20 of the Liberal party’s 68 seats across both houses of parliament, a number which could drop to six at the next election, given how many of those seats in the lower house are marginal.

The Liberal party and its Coalition partner, the Nationals, which counts just two women MPs in its ranks, have struggled in recent months to deal with what MPs have termed “the women problem”, following a series of sex scandals, allegations of harassment and women losing preselection to men.

But Sarah Henderson, backed by Linda Reynolds in an editorial, have both told the Australian the Liberal party can be proud of its record on women, claiming it has done more than the Labor party to advance gender parity.

That claim was ridiculed by Labor’s deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, who pointed out Labor had twice as many women in parliament as the Liberals.

Henderson, a Victorian MP who holds the Coalition’s most marginal seat, Corangamite, by just 0.03%, said she did not experience any bullying or intimidation during the August leadership spill, despite several of her colleagues having reported harassment, and the party establishing an independent complaints process in the wake of the reports.

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“In my view, being lobbied for votes does not constitute bullying,” Henderson said.

“I can’t walk in anyone else’s shoes, I can only speak about my experience. But I can certainly say that being lobbied for votes is an integral part of a political process and it does not constitute bullying.”

Henderson’s comments came just days after her former Liberal colleague Julia Banks gave an interview to the Australian Women’s Weekly, where she once again spoke of the bullying and intimidation she said MPs were subjected to during the leadership spill.

In her editorial, Reynolds repeated the argument she made several times last year; that a quota system, like the one Labor instigated, which has led to almost 50% women representation, did not help create cultural change.

Reynolds said without the quota, she believed the number of women in Labor ranks would revert to what they once were, as nothing had been done to encourage a natural cultural shift within the party’s core.

“Quotas in and of themselves are a quick fix, but they do not change the structural and cultural barriers in an organisation. In the absence of other organisational transformations, when quotas are ­removed the changes do not stick,” she wrote.

Julia Banks MP (@juliabanksmp) Great to see an article about women based on fact and real evidence in today’s press. Wise Women definitely have a better life and Independence is key. Well done @ShivaniGopal1 👏#FinancialIndependence4Women @FutureWomen @honourawoman @DailyLifeAu @WomensWeeklyMag #AusPol https://t.co/Ie8UlD3we8

Plibersek said those justifications were laughable.

“Labor has more than double the number of women the Liberals have in the parliament and about the twice the number of women on our front bench,” she said. “That speaks for itself.

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“Over the last five years, all Scott Morrison and the Liberals have done is deliver policies that disadvantage women. The Liberals tried five times to slash paid parental leave, and called working mums ‘rorters’ and ‘double dippers’.

“The Liberals argued against increases to the minimum wage that substantially benefit women … and they also tried to cut around $35m from Community Legal Centres that provide crucial legal services to family violence victims.”

In September, several Liberal women MPs wore red on the same day, in a sartorial protest against the treatment of women, inspired by the red shoes Julie Bishop wore as she announced her resignation from the front bench, following Scott Morrison’s ascent to the prime minister’s suite.

Henderson pointed to the women’s economic statement, reinstated as part of the budget by Kelly O’Dwyer, who, in a meeting with Morrison and Victorian MPs following the November state election, reportedly said the Liberal party was viewed as “homophobic, anti-women, climate change deniers”.

O’Dwyer has not disputed the reports, but, pressed in question time that same month, said she believed the Coalition to be “the natural government for Australian women”.

Privately, O’Dwyer had lobbied for an independent complaints review process to be established within the Liberal party’s federal and state executives to deal with the issue, which Morrison, attempting to stem the damaging ongoing flow of allegations, agreed to in September, the same day as the red sartorial protest.