‘Don’t get bitter, get better’: Zempilas open to any measure to increase the number of women in Liberal party

Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas has declared everything must be on the table to increase the Liberal Party’s representation of women in parliament following two crushing election defeats in a little over two months. Mr Zempilas said the party should learn from the defeats and consider quotas as an option to increase female representation in the party to reconnect with more women and young voters. Mr Zempilas told 6PR his party should be working hard towards a 50/50 split of men and women in the parliament. “I know that we have difficulties in our preselection system with a concept of employing quotas, I know that’s not an easy fit like it might be for some other political organisations, however, we have to do whatever it takes, and everything must be on the table,” he said. “I accept and understand that quotas are not Liberal-like, they have not been the way that the Liberal Party has wanted to go over the years, I understand that. However we are in different times now, we have an issue with female representation in the parliament, both Federal and State.” The comments come after a brutal two months for the Liberal brand after it won back only four seats from a historically low benchmark of three in March’s State election. Just last week the Federal branch failed to win any seats back in Western Australia in a disastrous national result, leaving it with just four confirmed seats, losing the seat of Moore and left in an incredibly tight race for the new seat of Bullwinkel. Only four women were preselected in lower house races by the Liberals. Incumbent Durack MP Melissa Price was the only woman to run in a seat considered winnable for the party. Out of the WA Liberals’ seven lower house MPs, just two are women: Vasse’s Libby Mettam and Cottesloe’s Sandra Brewer. Mr Zempilas said the party had to work its way back to relevance with key demographics. “It’s about relevance and why is it that we are no longer relevant to many younger people, and in many cases, women,” he said. “Why is that? What is it about our message, our policies, our candidates, our communication that is not resonating with that big chunk of people?” When asked what word he’d use to describe the Federal election defeat on Saturday, Mr Zempilas said learning needed to be done. “From my point of view, lessons, that’s what it is,” he said. “From every performance that you go out for, you learn whether you win or you get beaten and we got beaten and got comprehensively beaten. “Immediately it needs to be about what are the learning opportunities, what are we being told about this? “We’re in the fortunate position, if you like, of having two elections within a couple of months of each other and so the learning opportunities here in the west I think are amplified or magnified.” Mr Zempilas was also asked whether Peter Dutton was perceived by voters to be too “Trumpian”. He said while he didn’t think Mr Dutton was, he admitted voters probably did. “Labor are very good at making perceptions stick, their machinery and their ability to communicate those negative messages and yet not appear to be overly negative is one of their great skills,” he said. “I see it often and I admire it but it is something that the Liberal Party needs to work out a way to counter. “Labor have an uncanny ability to throw things, not appear to be losing support for playing that game, and making those things stick. “That doesn’t feel right to me, and is a touch is unfair. However that’s the game we’re in so don’t get bitter, get better.”