This election, Peter Dutton leaves us, the female Liberal diaspora, in no better place than 2022 | Paula Matthewson

When forced to look into the policy cupboard for the folder named ‘women’, he finds it bare – just as Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison did before himElection 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaignPolls tracker; election guide; full federal election coverageAnywhere but Canberra; interactive electorates guideListen to the latest episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastAs I queued to vote at the 2022 federal election, democracy sausage in hand, I wrestled with the problem vexing many women that day. Particularly women who’d previously voted Liberal for most – if not all – their adult lives.How could I vote for a party that had consciously decoupled from our half of the population and shown no respect for us or the things that mattered to us? How could I play any part in returning a prime minister who badgered a female chief executive out of a government job, had to check with his wife before expressing sympathy for the ordeal suffered by Brittany Higgins, and who later suggested how good it was that women marching in support of women’s rights were not met by bullets?Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter Continue reading...