The Left faction of the NSW Liberal Party has committed to quotas for women ahead of next March’s state election, breaking with the long-time meritocratic tradition of the party of Menzies.
NSW Treasurer and left faction chieftain Matt Kean has stated that the change means at least 50 per cent of candidates selected for spots coming up in the forthcoming poll would be female. Whether he bothered to let his hapless, supposedly “conservative” premier Dominic Perrottet know about the change is an open question.
With a slew of resignations including multiple cabinet ministers all heading for the exits before what promises to be a close result there could be as many as eight seats up for grabs. Mr Kean has declared (presumably while scratching Perrottet behind the ears and feeding him a doggy treat) that he wants to see as many Liberal women as possible running in NSW.
“I want to see more talented females coming into parliament and I’ll be doing everything I can to make sure that happens.”
The Liberal Party has traditionally stuck firm on its principles that quotas for parliamentarians on the basis of race, gender or other inherent characteristics are incompatible with the philosophy of liberalism and with the traditions of their party.
It seems Matt Kean now so controls the NSW wing of the party that he doesn’t even need to make announcements through his hand-puppet premier Dominic anymore. Matt just lets Dom out for walkies once a day and the supposedly “hard right” Catholic conservative premier NSW Liberal voters thought they were getting just sits up and begs.
