That must be one of the saddest attempts I've ever read at defending an indefensible position.

It's clear you just don't get it Peter, you need to explain that if the libs are as merit based as you say they are then why aren't about half of them women.

Labours position is easy they understand that women are still discriminated against that’s why there are still job dominated by the sexes.

welcome to the right's war on a post 1950 world view.

I would doubt if it was all ministers are merit based. Loyalties to the leader would also go a long way

Peter, I want to voice a complaint! There aren't enough female cross-dressers, mixed-genders, transsexuals, bestialists, dwarfs, dominatrixs, etc, in our Parliament, let alone male ones.

This lamentable state of affairs must be addressed immediately. We must have equality of opportunity for all in our democratic system.

Why, even the new American Ambassador brought his husband to our distant shores which shows that the Yanks are already deeply into frumpy-tumpy equality!

David G, just take a look at the senate!

Have nit read the article yet, couldn't leave that comment alone.

Never in my life have I heard so "Much Ado About Nothing" and as a woman I can say that.

I cannot believe this whole thing.

Who cares who gets what position?

It's all about "If the person can handle the position"

I couldn't care less if the person is black, white, yellow or green- well maybe not green, wrong choice of colour.

Tony Abbott said he has his team in place and has done so for 2 years now.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

This whole thing is just beyond ridiculous

Well you don't have to be very bright, with tin ears to prefer conservatism, but I guess it has to help.
The facts are, there are not very many females, who are both bright and attracted to the liberal party, hence the lack of merit selected females in the Cabinet or the outer ministry! [As it is often said, the proof of the pudding is in the eating!]
The tin eared empty vessel windbags do well, given they have to be given a bone, just to shut them up?
Rhrosty.

Well put SF!

Need we say any more.

Don't be so silly Rhrosty, quite obviously all the bright ones voted for the Liberal/Country party coalition, or they would not have got elected. Just a quick look on here should show you that it is the dummies who vote Labor.

Perhaps the bright ones just don't want to spend their nights attending "community" organisation evenings most of their time so don't become MPs.

Labor of course have a problem with all those ex union officials, so they have to turn to their ladies to find members capable of actually reading the paperwork.

Obviously it's experience that matters, that's why Abbott is Minister for Women?

I wonder how the Liberals would have reacted if Gillard had appointed a cabinet with only one male minister?

Like the author, I support the merit principle. I don’t support gender quotas, and I despise Emily’s list. I would be mortified if I ever though I obtained a job because of my gender, not my ability.

But the gender mix in the Cabinet is so outrageously unbalanced that it is constitutes proof that the Liberal Party is NOT acting on the merit principle. It is no answer to say that there are no suitably qualified and experienced women available in Parliament. This begs the question of why there are no suitably qualified women available.

If males and females were equally likely to make it into a cabinet of 19 members, the probability of that cabinet containing just one woman would be one in 524,299

Fact 7: A politician’s work requires a lot of heavy lifting. Men have more physical strength than women.

Fact 8: Rosemary West was a serial killer and she was a woman. Therefore we shouldn’t have too many women in parliament.

Fact 9: Women are lascivious and lustful creatures, which makes them unsuitable for political careers as all MPs must take a vow of celibacy.

Fact 10: We’ve already had one PM and look what a disaster that was. On at least two occasions, she appeared in public with her grey roots showing

Correction: Above post should read 'female PM'.

we have just had 6 years of people promoted on gender or union affliation. Did not the vast majority nsay no more? Its a pity Amanda retired so early. She is one female voice of reason and one of Radio Nationals true assets.

I'm a woman and a card carrying member of the Liberal Party. If the ALP had had an all male Front Bench it would not have bothered me in the slighted. As I said previously I support whoever is chosen as the best for the job

I voted for the Liberal candidate for Corangamite Sarah Henderson because my local MP, Labor's Darren Cheeseman, wasn't up to scratch, in my view. It's that simple.

In other words, then, many voters don't care about how many women or men there are in Canberra, because they're focused on policy issues.

SF: ‘I support whoever is chosen as the best for the job’

Having sat on several selection panels over the years, one thing I learned is that there is no one ‘best’ person for a job.

At least one-third of job applicants for most jobs are a perfect fit in terms of skills and experience. The final selection ends up being merely a hairsplitting exercise and comes down to either eenie-meenie-minee-mo or issues like age, gender, charm, attractiveness, hobbies, fashion sense or someone’s eyes being too close together.

No one ever admits to this, of course. All selection panels go to a lot of trouble to look as if they are diligently scrutinising each and every applicant and that the person chosen is the one and only perfect fit for the job.

The fact that there is only one woman in Abbott’s Cabinet does not mean that there is only one woman in the Abbott government that is suitable for a Cabinet post. It merely means that none of the women suited to a Cabinet post have been chosen.

@ Killarney

I work at Executive level and can tell you that in those positions men are infinity better 90% of the time at least. Women just don't cut it and the same in politics.I have experience there too my father was an elected member of government for 25 years.

As The Roast pointed out, perhaps TA will channel his inner woman and represent them as Tonya B Bott.

The problem with the glass ceiling is that from the men's point of view there is no such thing: it is a glass floor.

SF: 'I work at Executive level and can tell you that in those positions men are infinity better 90% of the time at least.'

Whoah!! Prejudice alert!

I also worked at executive level for many years and I can tell you that, 100% of the time at least, such an observation is rubbish. However, I have come across attitudes like yours among a few too many women I've dealt with professionally.

Methinks you might be, as Jane Austen wrote 200 years ago, ‘one of those … ladies who seek to recommend themselves to the other sex by undervaluing their own, and with many men, I dare say, it succeeds. But, in my opinion, it is a paltry device, a very mean art.’

If you’re so convinced that women are infinitely inferior to men ‘in those positions’, then that’s all you’re ever going to see, whatever women do or however well they do it.

Killarney

Do try reading for heavens sake.!! What a twerp

I am not trying in any way, shape or form to "to recommend myself to the other sex by undervaluing my own"

That mate is how it is. I am more than confident in my own abilities, thank you than to put any one down. Women just don't cut it, aggression is not in the nature of women in general.

SF And Killarney

I spend a lot of time recruiting, and in my experience women and men are equally likely to be suitable for a position. That’s why I conclude that a group of 19 individuals including just one woman cannot have been selected on merit alone.

Killarney
It depends on the type of position, but I find usually the recruitment fields aren’t full of qualified candidates, especially for senior roles – if you are lucky, there are 2 or 3 standout candidates, sometimes not even that.

SF
In what kind of job is "aggression" a recommendation?