Liberal preselection for Evelyn: Bridget Vallence boosts Guy’s gender targets – The Age

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy's bid to tackle his party's gender gap has been a given a much-needed boost, with a woman finally preselected into a safe Liberal seat ahead of next year's state election.

After Liberal preselections in Brighton, Nepean, Narracan and Burwood were all won by men in recent months, 37-year-old Goodyear procurement manager Bridget Vallence bucked the trend when she was chosen on Saturday as the new candidate to replace retiring MP Christine Fyffe in the outer eastern seat of Evelyn.

The well-regarded Liberal nudged out a competitive field including Ms Fyffe's son, Scott before eventually beating key rival Grant Hutchinson (who is aligned with controversial Liberal numbers man Marcus Baastian) in the final round, 39 votes to 31.

"This sends the right message to the party," one senior parliamentarian told The Sunday Age. "Yes, we need more women, but we also need quality women. This is a great result."

Ms Vallence's victory is viewed as an important win for Mr Guy, who warned Liberals last year it was time to "get serious" about narrowing the gender gap and announced an ambitious goal to lift his party's female representation in parliament by a further 10 per cent at every election.

However in the four consecutive preselections that have taken place since, the male candidate has prevailed: Brighton was won by former Napthine government staffer James Newbury; Nepean was won by Russell Joseph, the 56-year-old electorate officer to retiring MP Martin Dixon; Narracan was won by 65-year-old incumbent MP Gary Blackwood; and Burwood was won by sitting MP Graham Watt.

After the convention, Mr Guy said: "Bridget will be a tremendous candidate for the Liberal Party in Evelyn. I'm proud to see the Liberal Party select someone of such calibre and promise as our Evelyn candidate."

The under-representation of women in parliament has long been a problem in Australia, which has low levels of female participation compared with other developed democracies.

In a bid to tackle the issue, the University of Melbourne recently developed a new course, Pathways To Politics, to encourage more women to get involved. Following the success of a pilot last year, the program was launched formally last Tuesday.

Under the program, which is modelled on a similar Harvard initiative, participants are given 12 weeks of intensive training on everything from negotiating the party machine, to speech writing, to knowing when to run. Past guest speakers have included Tony Abbott's former chief of staff Peta Credlin and former governor-general Quentin Bryce, while Ms Vallence is one of its first graduates.

Dr Andrea Carson, the academic coordinator of the program, said the aim was to lift female representation across all levels of politics: local government, state parliament, and federal parliament.

"It's about women thinking that politics is not outside their reach," she said. "It also offers very practical skills about how to negotiate the boys club and let's face it, that boys club does exist, particularly with parties that don't have quotas or targets."

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Liberal preselection for Evelyn: Bridget Vallence boosts Guy's gender targets - The Age