Josh Frydenberg says Liberal Party must do more to lift number of women in parliament

The Liberal Party's parliamentary team has 38 per cent women, and the recent pre-selections to replace retiring members in safe seats have gone to men.

Progress had been made, Mr Frydenberg said, noting that Senator Sarah Henderson was due to be returned to the parliament as the top candidate on the party's Victorian Senate ticket, but "we've got to do more".

Commenting on the review of parliamentary workplaces by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins that found a toxic culture of misconduct in which one in three workers in Parliament House have experienced sexual harassment, Mr Frydenberg said the findings were a wake-up call.

"We'll be taking action on all the recommendations," Mr Frydenberg said, but declined to provide a timeframe for that action.

"The Australian people have a right to expect that we are leaders and that we hold ourselves to the highest of standards.

"This is our chance to draw a line in the sand and say to the Australian people, we will be better than we have been."

The review, commissioned after rising fury over treatment of Britany Higgins and women in politics, highlighted one problem was how party preselectors are more likely to choose women for unwinnable seats, and women parliamentarians were under-represented in senior ministry roles.

In data compiled by the International Parliamentary Union, Australia's House of Representatives has dropped from 25th when ranked against other parliaments in proportion of women in 1998 to 56th place in 2021.

Ms Jenkins recommended a 10-year strategy to improve gender balance of parliamentarians, including setting targets and specific actions to support achieving those targets.

She also recommended specific actions to increase the representation of First Nations people, people from non-English speaking backgrounds, people with disability, and LGBTIQ+ people.

"One factor affecting women's representation in parliament is that women have been more likely than men to be pre-selected for unsafe seats that they are unlikely to win in the House of Representatives," Ms Jenkins wrote.

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Gendered allocation of roles once elected was also a problem, she found.

"Women have been appointed to the cabinet or ministry less frequently than men and remain under-represented in ministerial portfolios that are traditionally considered to have greater power, influence and visibility, such as defence, finance, and treasury," Ms Jenkins wrote.

"When women parliamentarians have been appointed to ministerial office, past practice demonstrates that they were more often allocated to portfolios dealing with policy issues perceived as being 'softer', such as education and social policy."

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