Australian Minister for Women Kelly O’Dwyer is to retire from politics in what is being called a major blow for the minority government of the Liberal Party of Australia amid accusations that it has a problem with female representation.
O’Dwyer on Saturday said that she would not recontest her lower-house seat in elections due by the middle of May.
Just a few months ago, O’Dwyer was reported by Australian media as warning in a closed meeting that the Liberal Party was widely viewed by voters as “homophobic, anti-women, climate-change deniers.”
O’Dwyer — one of six women in the coalition’s 23-person front bench — said that her decision was made for personal reasons and that she wanted to spend more time with her children.
“There will be some who try and use my announcement today to advance their own agendas and I absolutely do not want that,” she told reporters.
Australian Minister of Veterans’ Affairs Darren Chester, a member of parliament for coalition partner the National Party, denied that O’Dwyer was fleeing a sinking ship, but admitted that his party also needed to choose and keep more female candidates.
“I actually accept the point that we need to attract more women into our party... We need to do more in that regard,” he told national broadcaster ABC Sunday.
O’Dwyer was a supporter of former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who was ousted by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in a party coup in August.
Since then, Morrison’s government lost its one-seat parliamentary majority in October last year after losing Turnbull’s vacated seat in a byelection to an independent.
The coalition’s position was further eroded when one of Turnbull’s supporters, Liberal Party member of parliament Julia Banks, said she was quitting the party to become an independent.
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