Former Liberal MP Calls for Gender Quotas to Revitalize Party
Jenny Ware, a former Liberal MP, has stated that her party must adopt gender quotas for candidates to remain competitive in elections. She warned that the opposition "cannot get back into government" without presenting candidates who better represent the broader Australian community.
Ware, who lost her seat of Hughes in the 2025 election, criticized the Liberal party executive for not releasing its own review of the electoral defeat. She described this omission as "deeply embarrassing." The review highlighted the urgent need for change within the party, according to Ware.
She accused some members of the Liberal partyroom of wasting ten months destabilizing former leader Sussan Ley instead of addressing the review's findings and developing new policies. Ware emphasized the importance of engaging more effectively with women and multicultural Australia.
"The Australian people have told us they don’t like what the Liberal party looks like. They don’t like, overall, the candidates that we’re putting up," Ware told Australia.
"I think it is now time that, federally, that we have quotas. Even if it’s just for the next two elections, even if we say we’re not going to entrench them longer term. But this is now at crisis point, and we, as a political party, have one job, and that is to win elections."
Electoral Defeat and Analysis
Ware was first elected in 2022, winning Hughes with a 57-43 margin, but was unexpectedly defeated in 2025. Her New South Wales seat was not considered a target for either major party. A Labor campaigner described their victorious candidate, David Moncrieff, as an "accidental" winner.
She attributed Liberal losses in metropolitan seats such as Menzies, Sturt, and Banks, as well as failures to win now-Teal seats like Bradfield, Kooyong, and Wentworth, to the federal campaign led by Peter Dutton. Ware specifically mentioned that the campaign "killed me" in Hughes and lamented the absence of policies on aged care and childcare, which she believed could have attracted support from families and working women.
Ware clarified that her comments were not motivated by "sour grapes" but stemmed from a belief that the Liberal party must change its approach.
Current Roles and Observations on Representation
Currently, Ware serves on the board of Crohn’s Colitis Australia and is involved in policy work related to education. She is also preparing to launch her own legal firm. During a recent visit to Parliament House, she observed a stark contrast between the Labor and Liberal benches.
Following Sussan Ley’s resignation, there are only five Liberal women in the House of Representatives out of 28 MPs, whereas Labor’s caucus comprises more than half women.
"I saw contemporary, representative Australia on the Labor side … a group that were diverse in terms of age demographics, multicultural backgrounds, Indigenous Australians, a diversity of religion," Ware said.
"I turned a mirror back on us, on our side and I saw largely middle-aged caucasian men with a sprinkling of middle-aged caucasian women … I saw no real multicultural diversity. I saw not a lot of diversity in age as well, and that is not reflective of modern Australia. We’ve never been less representative of Australians than the Liberal party currently is in the House of Representatives."
Upcoming NSW Liberal State Council Meeting and Future Prospects
The New South Wales Liberal state council is scheduled to meet on Saturday for the first time since the review was made public. During this meeting, the division will elect a new executive. Ware expressed hope that the new executive would be receptive to considering quotas for future elections.
"The way that we have behaved in the past – without selecting female candidates into seats that are winnable, without selecting diverse candidates, without having policies – we have proven that that has not worked. The Labor party, on the other hand, have had quotas for 20 years," she said.
"It’s been proven. They’ve won two successive elections now, and they’ve increased their majority. It is now time, the Liberal Party must do this as well. Otherwise we cannot get back into government."
"Already almost one year has been wasted, tearing down the first female federal Liberal leader instead of uniting and using the time to speak with Australians and develop policies for the 2028 election."
