As I queued to vote at the 2022 federal election, democracy sausage in hand, I wrestled with the problem vexing many women that day. Particularly women who’d previously voted Liberal for most – if not all – their adult lives.
How could I vote for a party that had consciously decoupled from our half of the population and shown no respect for us or the things that mattered to us? How could I play any part in returning a prime minister who badgered a female chief executive out of a government job, had to check with his wife before expressing sympathy for the ordeal suffered by Brittany Higgins, and who later suggested how good it was that women marching in support of women’s rights were not met by bullets?
Barnaby Joyce has always denied the allegations but how could I not protest against the influence of a climate change-denying deputy prime minister who had a history of sexual harassment and groping allegations?
The record shows that a good chunk of us abandoned the Liberals and voted instead for smart, capable and credentialled women who better represented us and our aspirations. Twenty seats changed hands at that election, with 14 women taking seats from the Liberals.
That election loss was a sliding doors moment for the Liberals – either reconnect with female voters by increasing female representation and addressing our concerns, or dismiss us as “doctors’ wives” and faux Liberals with a further lurch to the right.
The elevation of Peter Dutton, hard-right faction leader and former home affairs minister, to the Liberal leadership made it very clear which way the defeated party had decided to go. Since then, the Liberals have made no effort to acknowledge or address their “women problem” (really a “man problem”) or to coax us back.
This deficit was thrown into the spotlight on Wednesday when the leader was challenged on the election trail to explain what the Coalition was offering women.
Dutton may have fleetingly recalled with horror that time in 2014 when Tony Abbott fumbled a similar question. After having just doubled the number of women in his inner ministry – to two – the then PM and minister for women claimed his biggest achievement for women was scrapping the “carbon tax”. Because “women are particularly focused on the household budget”.
Dutton strolled into a similar trap, nominating his housing policy as good for homeless women and his super policy for women “who have had a messy relationship breakup”. Intended or not, Dutton’s answer gave a glimpse into the way he apparently views Australian women – predominantly as victims who need protection.
The same message was conveyed at the Liberal launch past weekend when the blokey lineup (sprinkled with vestiges of the Liberal crumb maidens) emphasised Dutton’s former life as a policeman and that their leader was “tough” and “a man”.
Unfortunately for Dutton, Wednesday’s question prompted the leader to look into the policy cupboard for the folder named “women” but, just as Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison did before him, he found it completely bare.
How can this be reversed? By preselecting women in safe Liberal seats so they can survive minor swings at successive elections, gain experience and seniority, and be promoted into policy and decision-making roles.
Yet of the 33 safe and fairly safe Coalition seats being contested this election, only six are held by women and only one woman has been selected to replace a retiring Liberal in a safe seat.
Even if Dutton formed a minority government, he would likely have only the existing 25 Coalition women to choose for ministerial positions – the same women who have survived so far by either keeping quiet, acquiescing to the toxic masculinity that is still the hallmark of the Liberal brand, or by out-bloking the blokes with Trumpish flourishes and thought-bubble policies.
Where does that leave us, the female Liberal diaspora, this election? In no better place than 2022.
When we line up to vote, we’ll remember the Liberals’ antipathy to the benefits of women working from home, Dutton’s flippant suggestion that we could job-share instead, and the constant framing of women as victims – while the actual epidemic of family and domestic violence is inadequately addressed.
We will remember the campaign images of Dutton flanked by furiously nodding male MPs who’ve been accused of intimidation and bullying, and female MPs who have overseen or implemented some of the most egregious and harmful failures of recent Coalition governments.
And we won’t forget that Joyce is still lurking, courting mining interests, pushing nuclear energy and harbouring his latest leadership intentions.
As for me? I’ll likely conclude that Australian women don’t need a protector or a hero. And if we did, it certainly wouldn’t be Peter Dutton.
