‘How many hoops do women have to jump through?’ NSW Libs deputy faces challenge

The deputy leader of the NSW Liberals and its second most senior woman, Natalie Ward, is facing a preselection challenge – the only female at risk of being dumped from the party’s ticket.

Ward, a former roads minister and now deputy to Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane, is being challenged by two unnamed party members, a senior Liberal operative has confirmed.

The move will spark further outrage among Liberal women, who are significantly under-represented in the federal party. There are now only three women from NSW in federal parliament since the resignation of dumped former leader Sussan Ley.

A push to consider gender quotas has also been abandoned, prompting Charlotte Mortlock, who founded Hilma’s Network four years ago to boost female representation in the Liberals, to quit the role and her party membership.

The only other NSW Liberal MP facing a challenge ahead of next year’s state election is backbencher Mark Hodges in Castle Hill, who has his preselection on Saturday.

Ward, an upper house MP who is powerful in the moderate faction, is seen as one of the opposition’s most effective members, and proved to be a headache for her then opponent, former transport minister Jo Haylen.

As opposition transport spokeswoman, Ward played a major role in exposing Haylen’s driver scandal, which forced the latter to quit the frontbench and apologise for using a taxpayer-funded chauffeur to ferry her and friends to a boozy lunch in the Hunter.

The senior party source, not authorised to speak on internal matters, said: “Senior women get challenged but if you’re a bloke, and you lose 15 seats at a federal election – the report gets buried.”

That comment was in response to revelations that a contentious review into the Liberal Party’s disastrous federal election will be suppressed after Opposition Leader Angus Taylor met top party figures and agreed to shelve the document.

Party elders Nick Minchin and Pru Goward spent months working on a formal review of the election, which they completed last year. The 2022 review was made public.

The senior party source said Labor did not treat its female MPs with similar contempt.

“How many hoops do women have to jump through to focus on performance and not internal party politics?” the source said.

“Labor aren’t dumb enough to challenge Prue Car, but apparently we are.” Car is deputy Labor leader under Premier Chris Minns.

Ward unsuccessfully ran for preselection for the ultra-safe seat of Davidson in 2022, in a push to bolster the number of women in the lower house.

Former Mike Baird staffer Matt Cross beat Ward and is now the MP for the north shore seat.

At the time, senior NSW Liberals feared that the failure of Ward to win preselection was proof that lessons had not been learnt from the 2022 federal election whitewash. Female representation went even further backwards at the 2025 election.

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