General News Senator proposes gender quota on government boards - Australia

Aussie792 · Jul 15, 2015

ABC said:

The idea of using legislation to ensure more women are appointed to boards looks like it's on track to be a barbecue stopper, with independent Senator Nick Xenophon's recent introduction of a bill for government boards.

While it isn't being called a quota, the Australian Government Boards (Gender Balanced Representation) Bill 2015, introduced late last month, sure sounds a lot like one.

It's essentially about enforcing the existing "aspirational" or non-binding government policy, introduced by the former Gillard government in 2010. This set a target of 40 per cent men, 40 per cent women, and 20 per cent of either for all government boards.

Although steady progress was being made, a recent slide has seen the number of women on boards drop from 41.7 per cent in 2013 to 39.7 per cent in 2014, according to the government's own Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards Report.

The decrease is particularly disappointing because progress on public sector boards has long been held up as a benchmark for better gender balance - and it's a reminder that change cannot be taken for granted.
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Gender quotas on boards? Nick Xenophon is on it - The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

And a discussion about a successful implementation of this quota in Norway:

The Conversation said:

A loud argument against board quotas was a lack of qualified female candidates, as well as the lack of women that wanted these types of positions. To the first argument, as long as the qualification was something as narrow as “past corporate leadership in the same or nearby sector”, the playing field was indeed very narrow, as there simply weren’t (and still aren’t) many past female corporate CEOs to go around. But we know how good necessity is at fostering innovation, and that is exactly what it did.

... Nomination committees and owners were forced to broaden the criteria, and many new and interesting board candidates appeared, including younger female specialists, in technology, finance, law or some other field highly relevant to companies’ strategy. This has even broadened the board recruitment field for men, as more young men with international and entrepreneurial backgrounds appear on boards now. Another important effect of the gender balance law is that it has resulted in diversity beyond gender to include different backgrounds, education and experience...

Anecdotal evidence shows that the new boards are more dynamic, more open and more innovative than the old ones. This is supported by research demonstrating that increased diversity and more women on boards has the potential to increase firm innovation and board effectiveness more broadly.
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https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-norway-in-getting-women-onto-corporate-boards-38338

Do we need quotas to enforce change in a timely manner? Is the alternative of waiting for "organic" change unfair, stagnating and exclusive? If Norway's example can be effectively carried out elsewhere, do gender quotas also help to positively affect men from social and educational backgrounds different from what is standard now?

General News Senator proposes gender quota on government boards - Australia

Are gender quotas on government/corporate boards beneficial

Yes; quotas are generally justified

No; quotas are detrimental to these boards

I have no opinion/other

Aussie792
Full Member

General News Senator proposes gender quota on government boards - Australia

Are gender quotas on government/corporate boards beneficial

Yes; quotas are generally justified

No; quotas are detrimental to these boards

I have no opinion/other

Aussie792 Full Member

Aussie792
Full Member