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Pressed on why the Liberal Party had failed to resonate with many female voters, Ley said that women didnt hear much of what we were saying.

Newly elected deputy Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley said she wanted to have honest conversations with women after female voters abandoned the party.Credit:James Brickwood.

They didnt believe, perhaps, that we were focusing enough on them and their lives. But again, many women actually did support us and Ive heard from many of those women and in my regional electorate of Farrer, I had a 7 per cent to party swing towards me.

Labors ranks have swelled by an extra six women, taking their total female-held seats to 35. At the same time, women in the Liberal Party now hold just 9 seats, down from 13 in the last parliament.

The Senate tipped over half female representation during the last term of parliament, but has boosted its ranks further. It will have 57 per cent women once the new senators take their seats in July.

Labor has had quotas for female representation in winnable seats since the mid-1990s with the level ratcheted up over time, while the Liberal Party has had a long-held resistance to quotas.

Asked whether she would advocate for quotas for women, Ley said it was a matter for the partys state divisions as she indicated she was open to discussing quotas with merit.

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Quotas on their own sometimes overlook the issue of merit. You only have to look at the women in our party to know that merit played a very strong role in all of their presence in this building, she said.

Senior Liberal senator Anne Ruston said the partys wide-ranging review into its election loss would examine why voters abandoned the party but said more could be done to support women to run for office.

Affirmative action to make sure that weve got broad diversity in the party is very important as we rebuild because we are the alternative government, she said.

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Record number of women in the 47th parliament, as female voters shun Liberals - Sydney Morning Herald