The Liberal National party MP Terry Young has rubbished a push for gender quotas in the federal opposition, telling parliament that men and women are naturally drawn to different kinds of jobs and that professions such as hairdressing and nursing will always be dominated by women.
The Longman MP said that men were more drawn to jobs involving maths or physical exertion, including construction or trades.
Labor pounced on the comments in question time on Tuesday, with the infrastructure minister, Catherine King, likening them to statements by the former prime minister Tony Abbott.
“A note to the Liberals and Nationals: it’s 2025,” King said. “Your gender never means a job is off-limits.”
Young made the comments in a speech to parliament’s Federation Chamber. Describing himself as speaking on behalf of “the forgotten Australians”, Young said “crazy policies and ideologies” were damaging the country, insisting he would be “filthy” if one of his three daughters did not get a job because of their gender.
“But I would be just as filthy if they got a job because of their gender,” he said.
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“I simply cannot understand why we cannot accept that men and women have vocations that the majority of each gender is drawn to. Men tend to be more drawn to vocations that involve maths, physical exertion like construction and trades.
“Whereas women in the main tend to be drawn to careers that involve women and care and other people. Vocations like hairdressers, nursing, social workers and the like will always be more female-dominated.
“We need to ensure those who aren’t wired this way from the opposite sex have the same opportunities as everyone else. That is only right.
“The days of posters of half-naked women in lunchrooms needs to be put away.”
Young said in his business career, he had promoted and hired exclusively on merit.
“One of the other problems created by this well-meaning but deluded ideology [of quotas] is that many who achieve positions on their own merit have no respect from work colleagues, as many of them say they got the job because they are this gender, or this sexuality, or Indigenous.
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“Quotas say women or Indigenous people or any other cohort that aren’t good enough to get a position on merit … we’ll create a quota for them. This is demeaning and it is insulting to these people and should never be. [Work positions] should always be based on merit.”
Young labelled Labor a “mental” government before canvassing vehicle emissions standards, housing shortages, immigration, criticism of the UN and opposition to large-scale renewables projects.
Young even suggested the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, might be suffering from Munchausen syndrome, a condition where individuals fake illnesses to receive attention or sympathy.
King told question time that Young’s comments ignored the many women of diverse backgrounds already in parliament.
“What an absolute crock,” she said. “People used to think women were not drawn to this place.”
The Liberal party is now debating mechanisms to boost female representation in its parliamentary ranks. The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, said last month she was a “zealot” on recruiting more women but stopped short of endorsing quotas.
