Liberal Party defector Lara Alexander has accused her former party of behaving like an “abusive partner in a failed relationship” as the Premier holds a meeting to discuss the possibility of an early election.
In a fiery statement blasting the party on Tuesday morning, the Liberal-turned-Independent MP claimed the Liberals have internal cultural issues with women, saying it was “telling that four female Liberal MPs had resigned in less than two years”.
“I left the Liberal Party eight months ago,” Alexander said. “Nobody moves to the cross bench to enhance their re-election chances.”
“I didn’t leave the Liberal Party because I found the cross bench more attractive, I left because the Liberal Party was an abusive partner,” she alleged.
“Now, just like that abusive partner, the Liberal Party still believes that if it insists enough, and gets enough of its mates to join in, I’ll give in and meekly sit in the corner like the submissive female, waiting for permission to speak.”
Only three out of 13 elected members of the government are women, with two of them being cabinet members.
“There is something amiss when a modern parliamentary party has 11 lower house MPs, but only one of them (ex-Labor/turned Independent/turned Liberal Madeleine Ogilvie) is a woman,” she said.
