Gender Quotas

House of representatives

• Parity (50W; 50M) quota in safe seats;

• Parity quota in fairly safe seats; and

• Parity quota in marginal seats.

* these proposals do not currently include non-binary people; we welcome suggestions of ways to include their lived experiences in this model.

Why is it important?

Women and non-binary people experience the world in different ways to men. This includes, among others, access to and resourcing of healthcare; childcare; education services; and employment conditions. Policy design that adequately considers the differential effects certain decisions may have on people of differing genders requires that people who can access personal experience of these effects are involved at every step of the process, including in parliament.

What does it solve?

Australian women were trailblazers in representative politics at the turn of the 20th century. In 1902 Australia became the first country to grant universal suffrage to all women citizens: the right to vote and to nominate as a candidate for parliament. This achievement was used as inspiration, and an example, for other suffragists across the globe.

Unfortunately, our political system has not retained this reformist attitude: Australia currently ranks equal 48th on the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Classification of Women in Parliaments.

The ALP has achieved success with gender quotas in the Senate; however, women are more likely to be pre-selected to marginal seats in the House where quotas are not evenly applied according to seat type.

The Liberal Party has relied on cultural change to boost the numbers of women in its ranks. While this has seen modest success, it is both an inappropriate application of the concept of meritocracy and a practical failure.

Institutional gender quotas - as temporary special measures - are the only way to ensure the aim of gender parity representation is achieved.

How does it work?

Design

These proposals are the best-fit quota solutions as adapted to the Australian political and electoral system using the framework created by Stina Larserud and Rita Taphorn in Designing for Equality and updated by Professor Drude Dahlerup et al. in the Atlas of Electoral Gender Quotas.

The impact of each of the three types of gender quotas is limited within this electoral system:

• Reserved seats - The structure of the Parliament of Australia is determined by the Australian Constitution. The Constitution can only be changed by a referendum that succeeds by double majority (absolute majority of citizens & absolute majority of states); only 8/44 referendums have been successful in Australian history.

• Legislated candidate quotas - While these quotas do not require constitutional change, passage of legislated quotas will only be possible with support of both major political parties.

• Voluntary party quotas - Voluntary quotas are unenforceable and inconsistently applied.

This proposal supports legislated candidate quotas. The political will required to pass this legislation is considerable, but it is the only method that is both structurally possible and provides adequate transformation to the political system.

The aims of gender equality are not served with a horizontal distribution goal of less than parity representation (50% women, 50% men; +/- 2% tolerance). This should be implemented in both chambers of parliament; however, the vertical distribution rules will differ in each.

House of Representatives: to combat ‘marginal seat syndrome’ there must be parity quotas set for each Australian Electoral Commission seat status: safe, fairly safe and marginal.

Senate: proportional representation allows for list allocation rules such as the zebra/ zipper pattern. This proposal extends this principle to include alternate gender leads at subsequent elections.

Enforcement

The Australian Electoral Commission should be tasked with enforcement of candidate quota rules when accepting nominations for elections. Enforcement mechanisms used globally include:

• Provision of public funding dependent on meeting quota requirements;

• Financial incentives for parties that meet quota requirements; and

• Rejection of party lists for quota non-compliance, including a warning system that allows candidate re-submission.

Gender quotas in Practice

As per the International IDEA Gender Quotas Database:

• 5 of the top 10 countries in the IPU classification have introduced institutional gender quotas (Rwanda, Bolivia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua);

• 2 countries have implemented pipeline quotas in sub-national bodies (Namibia, South Africa); and

• 2 countries have implemented voluntary affirmative action measures (Cuba, Sweden).

“Countries with well-designed gender quotas elected significantly more women to parliament than those without, respectively, 7 points more in single or lower chambers, and 17 points more in upper chambers.”

- IPU 2019