THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR SYDNEY

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
EAST HILLS
FRIDAY, 27 JUNE 2025

SUBJECTS: QUOTAS IN THE LIBERAL PARTY, PAID PARENTAL LEAVE

JOURNALIST: [inaudible] Angus Taylor say that he doesn't support quotas being introduced in the Liberal Party. Also, you know, being quite open to possibly another tilt at leadership. What do you make of those comments?

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Well Angus Taylor is all the proof you need that Liberal Party preselection is not based on merit. It's extremely disappointing to see the Liberal Party still not learning the lessons of their recent defeat.

When the Labor Party introduced affirmative action policies way back in the day, both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party were around 13% female representation. The Labor Party and Federal Parliament now is over half female representation, and the Liberals are still hanging around at around a third female representation, and that's even worse in the House of Representatives.

I also think it's incredible that the blokes in the Liberal Party haven't even given Sussan Ley two months in the leadership without beginning to undermine her. Honestly, this is all the proof you need that the Liberal Party don't understand Australian women and they don't understand gender equality.

Today, we've been talking about Paid Parental Leave, and it's worth remembering that at every opportunity, the Liberals have tried to cut or restrict access to Paid Parental Leave. It was Labor that introduced paid parental leave, it's Labor that's expanded it, it's Labor that's defended it when Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey were calling mothers who took Paid Parental Leave ‘rorters’ and ‘double dippers’.

JOURNALIST: Is there a way to increase female participation without quotas?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, you need affirmative action policies, and what we observed in the Labor Party is that quotas very rarely had to be used in pre-selection. The big point of having affirmative action policies is you say, as an organisation, gender equality is important to us. We're making it a priority. If we're not living up to the commitments we've made, we will be held to account for that. That's the real benefit of affirmative action policies. It's very rare that the rules actually come into play to change the outcome of a preselection. It's the fact that we have set ourselves a target and that we are prepared to be publicly held accountable for that target that makes the real difference.

And what the Liberals are saying right now, what Angus Taylor is saying, is that equality of representation in the parliament doesn't matter to him. Well, that's a real problem, because the more our parliament looks like the Australian public that it represents, the better the decisions we make.

I don't believe that the Liberal Party of Australia could have been out there attacking Paid Parental Leave if they had more women around the Cabinet table when that decision was made.

ENDS