One of the first prominent Liberal women to campaign for quotas, the former Victorian senator Judith Troeth, has urged state divisions to take action to improve the party’s culture, and says new sexual assault allegations involving staff are “absolutely deplorable”.
Troeth, who began a public campaign for quotas in the Liberal party in 2010, told Guardian Australia senior women in the Morrison government needed to use their positions to champion change. With a meeting of the Liberal federal executive due on Friday, Troeth said she hoped state officers “would stand up at the federal executive and demand action”.
Friday’s meeting is expected to discuss a report undertaken by party elders Chris McDiven and Brian Loughnane. That report, which is understood to be a couple of weeks shy of being concluded, has been undertaken in response to allegations of bullying that surfaced during last year’s conservative-led move on Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership.
The inquiry has looked at existing internal processes for the resolution of disputes, and speculation points to it recommending a national code of conduct. Because the Liberal party has a federated structure, implementing it nationally may require constitutional change.
Troeth said it was significant that Kathryn Greiner, a respected party elder and spouse of the Liberal party president Nick Greiner, had called for cultural change and had backed the women criticising the party’s handling of their complaints.
She said some people in politics took advantage of “their seniority and power, and sometimes, masculinity” and that inclination was “to be deplored”. Troeth said ensuring more women were preselected and successful in their ambition to enter politics would “normalise the workplace” and provide a structural check on “dinosaurs” who attempted to thwart women in public life.
The former Victorian senator welcomed calls by the frontbencher and Morrison ally Alex Hawke for a “hybrid quota model” to increase representation, and a call from the Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos for the federal executive to expedite action.
The defence minister, Linda Reynolds, said in a statement to Guardian Australia on Thursday there was “no place for any form of bullying, intimidation or sexual harassment in any workplace”.
She said the parliament had strict protocols “to eliminate or minimise the risks of such acts”.
Reynolds said she was committed to ensuring 50% of the Liberal party’s elected representatives were female by 2025 “and will continue to work with the party and other mentors to identify and support capable women to run for preselection”.
“There is always more that can be done to encourage engagement in all levels of the political process, have all voices heard and contributions respected.”
Debate about Liberal party culture resurfaced after Chelsey Potter told the Sydney Morning Herald that during an incident in 2015 a political staffer had pinned her down and ripped off her underpants. She said she raised the incident with a senior colleague and months later the same person asked if she would make a fuss if the man received preselection to run for parliament.
Dhanya Mani, who worked in NSW state politics, told the paper a political staffer had forced himself on her in 2015 and at one point was choking her. The pair have started a support network to help other victims.
