Addressing gender imbalance in the Liberal Party

Premier Will Hodgman today moved to address the issue of gender imbalance in the Liberal Party, by announcing a target of 50 percent representation of women in State Parliament by 2022.

Premier Hodgman said:

For us to be a modern Liberal Party, and to properly reflect our community, we must get serious about the gender imbalance that exists within our party.

While there has been some recent improvement we are still falling short, so we need a new approach to increasing the involvement, participation and leadership of women in the Liberal Party.

The Liberal Party was founded on the principles of individual choice, opportunity, and the recognition of merit and democratic representation.

And the Liberal Party does have a proud history of political ‘firsts’ for women. Enid Lyons was the first woman to sit in the Federal Parliament in 1943, and the first woman to become a Federal Cabinet Minister. Sue Napier was the first woman to be appointed as a Tasmanian Cabinet Minister in 1995, the first female Deputy Premier in 1996, and the first woman to lead a major political party in Tasmania in 1999. Elise Archer is Tasmania’s first female Speaker of the House of Assembly.

But with a consistent underrepresentation of women in our parliamentary ranks, we need to take action to be a modern Liberal Party, with a more proactive and positive approach to engage women, to increase participation, and to provide genuine equality of opportunity.

To do so, we must set a target, and actively pursue it.

We must aim for fifty per cent representation by 2022, in two elections time, which is a practical, and achievable goal.

It is important to set a target to aim at, to measure progress against, and to keep us accountable for achieving.

My Government’s own new strategy to increase the representation of women on government boards to 50 per cent is already working, with an increase from 33 per cent to nearly 40 per cent in just one year.

The Liberal Party needs to adopt the same strategy, and immediately start implementing practical, positive measures to achieve this target. I propose that a roundtable be convened in the coming weeks to determine what the barriers are, and what we must do to better engage with women and increase their participation in all levels of the Liberal Party.
Will Hodgman, Premier