Liberal candidate Simon Kennedy has been named to run for the seat of Cook, which comes at the expense of female nominee Gwen Cherne.
Cherne had the backing of former Prime Minister John Howard, among other Liberals.
Meanwhile Kennedy was named despite his loss in the 2022 Bennelong by-election.
The move has sparked criticism once again that the Liberal party has a problem with preselecting women.
Listen to today’s episode of The Briefing to find out more:
Victorian Liberal MP Keith Wolahan spoke out on ABC’s Q&A programme last night:
“It looks like we’re falling short of the target, it really does – and so we have significant work to do,” Wolahan says.
The Liberal party has the worst female representation of all the parties with 1 in 3 parliamentarians being women, compared to 50 per cent of Labor and 63 per cent of The Greens.
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