Yet another female federal Liberal is leaving parliament with NSW MP Ann Sudmalis blaming "bullying" branch stackers in her electorate for her departure.
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She will quit at the next election, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Scott Morrison's attempts to get more women into parliament.
Ms Sudmalis holds the southern NSW coastal seat of Gilmore with a margin of just 0.7 per cent and has faced a preselection challenge from local real estate agent Grant Schultz.
AAP understands Ms Sudmalis recently engaged in a shouting match with Liberal branch members in the car park of the Bomaderry Bowling Club in her electorate.
She is understood to have yelled at members who opposed her recontesting the seat.
"It is at the NSW state division level that I have had little or no support during the past six months while waiting for the preselection process," Ms Sudmalis said in a statement on Monday.
"My decision has been made after six-and-a-half years of holding my pledge to be a team player in the face of NSW Liberal party bullying, intimidation, leaking and undermining at a local level."
Her decision comes after Victorian Liberal Julia Banks also announced she will quit at the election, while Queensland Liberal Jane Prentice is going after losing her own preselection.
Ms Sudmalis said the final straw came when her local electorate committee was rolled and replaced with inexperienced people who were hostile to her.
She had originally planned to keep her decision quiet until after the Wentworth by-election on October 20.
"Most people get defeated by their preselectors, or they get defeated by the electorate, so if you get to retire it's not a bad way to go," cabinet minister Christopher Pyne told reporters.
Labor MP Stephen Jones, whose seat of Whitlam borders the Gilmore electorate, said Ms Sudmalis had given in to factional infighting.
The MP's exit comes as the Liberal Party faces a backlash over its lack of commitment to preselecting women.
Mr Morrison backed a female candidate to run in former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's seat of Wentworth, but former diplomat Dave Sharma won instead.
AAP understands only six women have been preselected for safe Liberal seats across the country.
Fighting for her political future earlier this year, Ms Sudmalis said the government was doing a "damn good" job and there was no reason to knock her off.
Australian Associated Press
