Liberals call for gender quotas after record-breaking federal election defeat

Liberal Party members have urged colleagues to adopt gender quotas to ensure it appeals to more voters, as the coalition counts its losses from its landslide defeat.

The coalition is on track to record its lowest percentage of the primary vote at a federal election since the formation of the Liberal Party in the 1940s.

The opposition has claimed just 39 electorates in the 150-seat lower house, while counting continues in several marginal seats where Liberal candidates are hoping for a come-from-behind victory.

However, as the party looks to pick up the pieces, NSW Liberal senator Maria Kovacic said the coalition needed to implement gender quotas to ensure more women are elected.

“We need to look at quotas, let’s be frank.

“We don’t have as many women as we have men, and people want us to have more women representing our party in the parliament,” she told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

“We need to move back to the centre. It is very, very clear that the Australian public, the voting public, were not happy with the way that we were conducting ourselves as a potential government.”

Liberal federal vice-president Fiona Scott said the coalition needed to be more representative of a wider range of demographics.

“There’s a fundamental issue within the leadership of the party, I don’t believe it’s just women, “ she told Sky News.

“... the Liberal Party needs to be reflective and diverse of all of Australia.

“That means multicultural Australia, that means young Australia. That means older, that means women as well.”

Following the loss of outgoing opposition leader Peter Dutton’s home electorate of Dickson, attention will turn to who will lead the party out of the political doldrums.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie has ruled himself out of running for the party’s leadership.

The contest is expected to come down to shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, deputy leader Sussan Ley and immigration spokesman Dan Tehan.

A ballot won’t be held until vote counting is finalised across all electorates.

Ms Scott said the party needed to heed the lessons of its collapse in support from voters.

“This is the dark night of the soul, so to speak, where the Liberal Party really does have to take a long, hard look at itself,” she said.

“All of those things have to evolve: how we bring a new generation through, how we evolve our campaign techniques.”