Former Prime Minister John Howard says the Liberal Party is unlikely to ever achieve its goal of having equal gender representation in Parliament, because women still play the greater caring role in society.

Only 18 of the 84 Liberal MPs in Parliament are women but the party has set a goal of 50 per cent of its MPs being women by 2025, and has signed off on a long-term plan to achieve that target.

While speaking at the National Press Club, Mr Howard was asked what he thought about the Liberal Party going backwards in getting women into Parliament federally.

“Look, I don’t believe in quotas, as you know, and I mean, you can talk about targets and aspirations and goals,” he said.

“I would like to see a natural process whereby there are more women.”

He went on to say he did not think a 50/50 balance would ever be achieved.

“It is a fact of society that women play a significantly greater part of fulfilling the caring role in our communities, which inevitably places some limits on their capacity.”

“Some people may say, ‘What a terrible thing to say’, and it’s not a terrible thing to say, it just happens to be the truth and occasionally, you’ve just got to recognise that and say it.

“The mainstream should not be too timid to say things occasionally.”

— ABC