“I count 13 women and 12 men elected. The ACT Liberals have five women, including the leader and deputy leader, and four men. Who needs a quota system!” writes columnist BILL STEFANIAK. 

FOLLOWING the shenanigans in parliament, there’s been a lot of talk about the federal Liberal Party introducing gender quotas. 

In my view, Parliament House is a workplace, not a bordello, and I think they need to change the rules so that anyone having intercourse in the building will automatically lose their job or, if a member, be forced to resign. 

The only exception should be where there is an allegation of sexual assault without consent, in which case the matter must be referred immediately to the AFP.

If a sexual assault is proven then obviously the victim would be exempt and the guilty party dealt with in accordance with criminal law. 

While I have, generally, been impressed with Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s handling of COVID-19 and other issues, such as China and the appointments to his new cabinet, I was unimpressed with his knee-jerk reaction to the question of quotas . 

If I ever had a political hero, it was the late Margaret Thatcher. Not so much because of her economic rationalist views (although a lot of that was simply common sense) but more so because I respected and admired her no-nonsense approach. 

She was the last UK prime minister not to cut defence spending and had the strength of character to stand up to bullies of all kinds, be they Soviet, Argentinian or the bullies from the UK Miners Union. 

It was because of her, and her dear friend President Ronald Reagan and the Polish Pope (John-Paul II) that the West was able to stare down the Soviet Union and win the cold war. We sorely need the likes of her and Reagan now. 

She detested quotas. She got to the top by being the best and by outshining all the “Hooray Henrys” and upper-class twits in the British Conservative Party. 

Now Bronwyn Bishop and my wife are hardly Margaret Thatchers – although they are both very strong women and I know they both admire Maggie greatly.

They have both said to me at different times: “I would never want to get a job as a result of a quota system. I would always think I only got it because I was a woman. I would want to get it on my own merit.”

I know this is a view shared by many women including many in politics I know or have known.

Quotas have rarely worked in practice. Reserving a number of places in very good private schools for indigenous kids is one area perhaps similar to a quota that has paid dividends, but the converse is that quotas have often been used to ensure minorities such as Jews in Europe in the 19th and early 20th century, were excluded from institutions such as universities because if the selection had been on merit alone, a lot of non-Jews would have missed out because the Jews were better scholars. 

In the ACT, in terms of party preselection, there may well be quotas in some parties, but it’s a Hare Clark system where voters decide who they vote for in their order of choice. 

Lots of men and women stood for election in October. Voters in Molonglo, Yerrabi, Kurrajong and Brindabella elected three men and two women per electorate and in Ginninderra it was four women and one man. 

I count 13 women and 12 men elected. The ACT Liberals have five women, including the leader and deputy leader, and four men. Who needs a quota system!

In my view the best chief minister in the ACT’s short history of self government was Liberal Kate Carnell closely followed by Jon Stanhope (ALP). So far there have been seven chief ministers, three women and four men.

If I had to pick who was the best state minister I worked with during my time as a minister at ministerial conferences (1990, 1995-2001) it would have to be the late Sue Napier, Deputy Premier of Tasmania. Premier Anna Bligh, from Queensland, was a good operator as well. 

We don’t need quotas for good women to get ahead. In 2021, Australians are now used to seeing women in all the top jobs.

So far as our politicians are concerned we need the best people for the job and what sex, race or colour they are is irrelevant. 

The working environment just needs to be fixed up and bad behaviour discouraged and punished. Quotas will do nothing to help this one way or another. 

Bill Stefaniak is the convenor of the Belco Party, and a former Liberal opposition leader, attorney-general, police minister and minister for children, youth and family services.