The Victorian senator Jane Hume says women and people of non-white backgrounds should “work harder” if they want to get into parliament.
Hume, whose No. 1 spot on the Liberal party Senate ticket in Victoria is reportedly under threat by a push from conservative members of the state branch, said she opposed a preselection quota for women and people from diverse backgrounds because she found it patronising.
Her comments come after Turnbull government minister Jane Prentice lost the LNP preselection for Ryan, a seat she had held since 2010, to her male staffer, reigniting a long-running debate about female representation in Coalition ranks.
Liberal frontbencher Kelly O’Dwyer has since committed $50,000 to a fund to increase the number of women in the Liberal party.
.@PeterSinger doesn't think anyone believes pre-selection is based on merit. @SenatorHume says work harder, get better. #QandA pic.twitter.com/p6qSHKssSQ
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) May 21, 2018
“I really dislike being patronised as if I am a minority,” Hume told the ABC’s Q&A on Monday night. “[Women] have to work for what we want. And for women that don’t get there, the trick is work that little bit harder. Don’t get bitter, get better. Work harder.”
Hume said the number of women and people of diverse backgrounds in the Liberal party needed to increase, but that they should work their way into the party on merit.
She said that reported preselection challenges to sitting women in Victoria were “not about gender” but reflected an influx of new conservative members who had joined the party to oppose the safe schools policy.
Hume said she knew herself to be “very capable” and suggested the fact that she achieved preselection, and then election, without a gender quota in place demonstrated that capability to her colleagues.
“I know the reason I got to where I am is not because of my gender, but it’s almost in spite of it,” she said. “Because of that I have the respect of my male colleagues. And that’s really important in Canberra. Very important in Canberra.”
@QandA "Work harder" says Senator Jane Hume. "If you want to achieve anything.. work harder." Working harder has nothing on my 240 solid job applications in 3 years, 3 degrees, extensive community engagement and active networking. Hmm, perhaps I'll just work harder. #QandA
— Shashi Davidson (@shashi_davidson) May 21, 2018
The Labor frontbencher Julie Collins said the persistent underrepresentation of women in positions of public office pointed to a clear structural issue and that the intervention of such a gender quota was necessary to overcome that unconscious bias.
Labor committed to a quota of 50:50 gender representation in leadership positions and in preselections for winnable seats in 2015. The federal Labor caucus is currently 48% women.
.@JulieCollinsMP thinks we have structural entrenched bias against women. @RandaAFattah is in favour of diversity quotas #QandA pic.twitter.com/37KV2Yvu5u
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) May 21, 2018
The academic and writer Randa Abdel-Fattah said that quotas should be used to increase the ethnic diversity of parliament, saying “I’m not really interested in more white women in parliament.”
She also questioned whether a person of colour from a disadvantaged suburb — such as Sarah Ador Loi, a high-school student from Tarneit who raised the issue of funding for public transport and schools in Melbourne’s western suburbs — would have the same chance at getting into parliament as a private school student in Toorak.
Hume did not address the structural issues raised in Abdel-Fattah’s question, but said she would help.
“Sarah, if you’d like to join the Liberal party, I will make sure you are well looked after, well mentored and we’ll get you there in the end,” she said.
“Spoken like a white female politician,” said Abdel-Fattah.
