Women in power
The Liberals have long been accused of having a 'women problem'. Josh Frydenberg's non-intervention intervention might have made that worse.
Since their devastating 2022 result, the Liberals have been trying to shake off perceptions they have a “women problem”. But those concerns resurfaced this week after a brutal public discussion over whether the opposition’s candidate for Kooyong, Amelia Hamer, might be replaced by Josh Frydenberg (who lost the seat to “teal” independent Monique Ryan in 2022 with a 9.3% swing).
Questions are floating around Canberra. Where did the talk come from? Why did the ambitious Frydenberg wait so long to put it to bed? And why only after it had saturated morning television and exposed a schism in the party?
Voters, with busy lives outside of politics, tend to be less interested in the gossip and more likely to remember the headlining facts and themes.
This includes that a senior female Liberal MP — Karen Andrews — backed the return of the former treasurer over a talented 31-year-old woman who ticked every box required to take on the challenge. Andrews is well within her rights to support whoever she sees fit. But there were other ways of approaching the issue that didn’t involve airing this thought bubble in the weekend news.
