Sussan Ley calls on ‘outstanding’ WA women to put hands up for Liberal preselection as party faces rebuild

Sussan Ley says she has met a number of “outstanding” women in Western Australia, as she launches a search for potential candidates to boost the party’s female vote. The Opposition Leader spoke to The West Austrlaian at the midway point of her trip meeting Indigenous groups in the State’s Kimberley, but acknowledged she needs to win back Perth’s inner suburbs after getting “smashed” in this year’s May poll. Ms Ley said more female representation is key to her WA battle plan, after she recently caught up with former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who held the western suburbs seat of Curtin for 20 years. One term after Ms Bishop’s retirement, the blue-ribbon seat was lost to a wave of teal independents. “Any outstanding women I would love to see (run) and I’m not going to tell any individuals what they should be doing with their futures, Julie is making an outstanding contribution right now in Australia,” she said. “What I really want to focus on is women that are thinking at this point in time that their values and their aspirations resonate with our party’s values and aspirations. “I want to encourage them to take that step, to join the party and to think of a future where they might put their hand up and be preselected in a seat in Western Australia. “I have met some outstanding women in this State, which makes me really excited about the opportunities that we do have in front of us to bring more women into the party and to have more women running in seats.” Ms Ley’s Kimberley tour takes place in Durack, one of only three Liberal-held seats in WA. She was joined by local member Melissa Price and shadow Indigenous Australians minister Kerrynne Liddle, flying to Broome to meet with an Indigenous community centre and a cattle farm. On Sunday Ms Ley swapped the 5000 people population of Kununurra to the 5000 cow population of a Broome cattle yard, touring a facility 10 minutes out of town after flying to the popular holiday destination that morning. At the yard Ms Ley met with several workers and viewed the livestock. Ms Ley also met with community centre Broome Circle hearing an impassioned discussion with centre leaders over a range of issues impacting the community. Among the topics discussed was a lack of housing impacting staff hiring, too few spots for early childhood learning, and struggles with a lack affordable GP services. Part of the rebuild for the party is connecting to people where they are, Ms Ley said. She said it was a reason she was touring the regional area. “First and most important thing is to be here, just as I have been 15 times when I was deputy leader and this is my second long visit to the west since becoming leader and I intend to continue that work rate in WA,” she said. “I’ve never seen WA as just a policy, what works in the east doesn’t necessarily work over here. “We need a policy offering that meets modern Australians in Western Australia where they are and that reflects, respects and represents them.” With the Liberals also struggling on the State level, Ms Ley backed Basil Zempilas as the WA Liberal leader and declared he could win the 2029 State election. “I’m not here to give advice to my very competent state leader in Basil, he knows exactly what needs to happen,” she said. “He has set course, the team is small like my team but full of very talented people like my team.”