Gender quotas are the only way for the Liberals to go: Simon Birmingham
- Written by Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
The Liberals’ former Senate Leader Simon Birmingham has urged the party to adopt quotas for its women in parliament, in an excoriating post-election critique.
Birmingham, a leading moderate who retired from parliament in January, says given the Liberals’ parliamentary representation will be at an all-time low, “such quotas could and should be hard, fast and ambitious”.
“There must be a reshaping of the party to connect it with the modern Australian community. Based on who’s not voting Liberal, it must start with women. Based on where they’re not voting, it must focus on metropolitan Australia.”
In a LinkedIn post, Birmingham admits the concept of quotas might be “somewhat illiberal”.
“But I struggle to think of any alternatives if there is to be a new direction that truly demonstrates change and truly guarantees that the party will better reflect the composition of modern society.”
“Standing in the way of such changes are an increasingly narrow membership base, both in numbers and outlook,” he says
The Liberals have committed to targets for women but without success in reaching them. There has been strong opposition within the party to quotas.
Former Liberal speaker Andrew Wallace told Sky on Tuesday, “I am uncomfortable with quotas because fundamentally I believe that the best person for the job should get the job”.
Birmingham suggests the next Liberal leader should consider the use of citizen assemblies “to re-engage back into candidate selection and policy formulation the very forgotten people who Menzies spoke of. Small business owners. Leaders of sporting, multicultural, service and other community organisations. Skilled professionals, especially professional women.
"The party can no longer expect such people to come to it as members but must find new ways to go to them.”
Birmingham says lessons from previous failures haven’t been learned.
He writes that “nothing can be sacrosanct if the party is to find a pathway to relevance with new generations of voters”.
“The broad church model of a party that successfully melds liberal and conservative thinking is clearly broken. The Liberal party is not seen as remotely liberal and the brand of conservatism projected is clearly perceived as too harsh and out of touch.
"A Liberal Party fit for the future will need to reconnect with and represent liberal ideology, belief and thinking in a new and modern context.”
Birmingham says Australians still seek the freedoms liberalism stands for. “Yet in 2025 the Liberal Party is seen as grudging if not intolerant of the way some exercise those freedoms. It must be a party that respects all individual choices, actions and opinions, in the way John Stuart Mill articulated 200 years ago, limited only when they would cause harm to others.
"Respect, inclusion and freedom can stand together, with support for all families, and enterprises. But not alongside judgemental attitudes that exclude or isolate some.”
Birmingham says the party has to reconcile itself on policy questions “from the size and role of government, through challenges of our time like budget sustainability, climate change and national security”.
