One of the Federal Government's most senior women, Kelly O'Dwyer, has announced she is quitting politics at the next election for "very personal" reasons.
Ms O'Dwyer has been a member of Cabinet since 2015 and currently serves as Minister for Women, Jobs and Industrial Relations.
She has represented the inner-Melbourne electorate of Higgins since 2009 and holds the seat on a margin of about 8 per cent, having fended off a challenge from the Greens at the last election.
"The decisive reasons are very personal," Ms O'Dwyer said at a press conference with Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday.
"My two smart and loving children, Olivia and Edward … will reach primary school age during the next parliament.
"In compiling photo books and in looking at all those special moments over the Christmas period I have seen how many of them I have missed.
"If my husband and I want to give ourselves the opportunity, the best opportunity to have a third child, we need to be very realistic," she said, adding she would soon turn 42.
The MP will remain a minister until the next election and said she was "incredibly confident" her seat would be represented well by a woman who would come forward.
She said making changes to superannuation, legislating domestic violence leave and establishing the Australian Financial Complaints Authority were among her key achievements.
O'Dwyer joins Liberal women leaving party
A Labor source has told the ABC internal polling done last month in Higgins showed the party was ahead of Ms O'Dwyer on a two-party preferred basis.
But Greens candidate for Higgins Jason Ball said the election would "come down to a contest between the Greens and the Liberals".
"It's really disappointing that the Liberal Party have not done more to support Kelly O'Dwyer as a mother to stay in public life," he said in a statement.
"The people of Higgins — a compassionate community that wants to see a transition to a renewable economy to tackle climate change — see that the Liberals don't represent their values anymore."
Ms O'Dwyer joins a string of Liberal women who are departing at this year's election.
Queensland MP Jane Prentice was dumped by preselectors, South Australian Lucy Gichuhi was relegated to an unwinnable spot on the party's Senate ticket, and Ann Sudmalis blamed "branch-stacking, undermining and leaks" for her decision not to recontest the New South Wales seat of Gilmore.
Julia Banks also abandoned the Liberal Party late last year and moved to the crossbench, describing the treatment of women in Parliament as "years behind" the business world.
Less than one quarter of Government MPs are women, while nearly half of all federal ALP MPs are women.
The Liberal Party has a goal for women to make up half of its party room by 2025.
