Analysis
Updated
While the Liberal party ties itself in knots over how
to get more women into Parliament, a female rebellion is building
across the country. Women are determining the circumstances in which
they enter and leave the Parliament outside of the traditional
benchmarks that have defined the rules of admission.
The rise of
impressive female independent candidates is the result of several
factors, but the Coalition's failure to adequately deal with its woeful
numbers of women is propelling independent women to step forward in a
perfect political storm.The independent women don't need quotas or to participate in circular arguments about whether they have "merit" to receive a political platform, and they provide a dangerous threat because they shine a blinding light on the lack of women on the Government side.
Rather than wait in line, they have preselected themselves, and threaten to disrupt the big-party system, and by putting their hands up they could force change from the outside because mainstream political parties that don't reflect their voters face an existential threat.
The latest is barrister and former world champion skier Zali Steggall, who launched her campaign against Tony Abbott in the Sydney seat of Warringah on Sunday, hoping to match what Kerryn Phelps achieved in the seat of Wentworth.
The former slalom world champion and 1998 Winter Olympics bronze medallist is a barrister with an incredible list of achievements. While she's widely considered the most likely to make a significant dent in Mr Abbott's vote, she is the third female independent to announce a bid to topple the former prime minister.
Alice Thompson, a former adviser to Malcolm Turnbull, and Indigenous activist Susan Moylan-Coombs are also in the hunt for the prized seat.
Women concerning party hardheads
Former Liberal MP Julia Banks, who shocked the Government when she quit to become a crossbencher, immediately offered her support to Ms Steggall, tweeting: "Australia and Warringah needs strong independent, genuine people like you."
Ms Banks is also considering a run as an independent in Government Minister Greg Hunt's seat — which Liberal sources say is now vulnerable. Her entry will cause the Government yet another problem as it tries to defend seats from independents who once would have been members of its own benches.
Ms Steggall, Ms Phelps and Ms Banks are all centre-right women who you would think a mainstream centre-right party would want in its ranks. They are economically conservative but reflect the mainstream social values of a modern Australia.
Ms Banks was of course in the Liberal tent not so long ago, but was so bruised by the leadership change and the culture inside the Liberal Party that she walked away.
They are compelling candidates, but they are all outsiders, and they've determined they can make more change from outside than within.
It's a determination that is concerning the hardheads in the Liberal Party, who are well aware they have an image problem with women and young people and that this image threatens to turf them from government.
Labor MP Emma Husar is still weighing up her future after being dumped by her party in the seat of Lindsay, but in offering her congratulations for Ms Steggall, she painted a powerful narrative for what women are trying to do by challenging the way things have always been.
"Women flexing, showing what they're capable of away from the old, powerful, male-dominated party structures," Ms Husar tweeted.
"Progressive and sensible policies, not back-scratching and repaying old favours."
It's worth watching the women in 2019
While the political noise of 2019 will be about the drama and the political swing, it's worth watching the women.From the new independents, to the women inside political parties, women are signifying they are not going to play by the rules that have for so long determined how their participation in political life should be choreographed.
Inside the Liberal Party, women are growing increasingly frustrated their party is not systemically addressing the low numbers in its ranks and they say an election that returns fewer women will be the turning point for a new push to change the status quo.
One senior MP said the ad hoc way the party was addressing its gender issue was untenable and only electoral pain would teach them that lesson. Expect the conversation on quotas and women to be turbocharged after May.
From getting elected to the Parliament, to determining how to exit, there's now a rewriting of the script.
O'Dwyer's choice tells a bigger story
When Kelly O'Dwyer, one of the Liberal Party's most senior and moderate female figures, announced she was quitting, the Jobs and Industrial Relations Minister flipped the script.
Ms O'Dwyer said she was partly motivated by her desire, at 41, to have a third child, and "everything would have to go right" for that to occur.
She broke the rules and talked about her miscarriage and said her children would soon reach primary school age and she did not want to "consistently miss out" on important family time.
Ultimately she decided not that she couldn't do it, but that she didn't WANT to do it. It is a crucial difference that tells a bigger story about the participation of women in political life.
One of Ms O'Dwyer's biggest concerns when deciding to make the announcement and outline her deeply personal reasons was that it would send a chilling message to women aspiring to political office.
She was worried it could indicate it was just too hard to balance a young family with being a cabinet minister. She was concerned about that message because it wasn't her reality. Her reality was that it was possible but that participation in political life isn't static and that circumstances change.
Old rules need not apply
People change. Politics doesn't have to be a lifelong vocation to be meaningful. The old rules need not apply.Perhaps a dedicated and shorter period of public service can bring in new people and new ideas.
Spending 10 years in the Parliament, including some as a minister, is significant.
After the 2018 leadership change, the treatment of women became the focus of politics and raised difficult questions about culture and tone.
Australians were appalled. It's hard to imagine they will forget what they've seen.
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