Talk of female board quotas is 'fearmongering'
Independent senator Nick Xenophon says draft laws designed to increase the number of women on government boards would set hard targets, but not quotas.
"Anyone who suggests that this is a quota is fearmongering; it's a transparency measure," he said.
Senator Xenophon is a co-sponsor of draft legislation that would require government boards be comprised of 40 per cent men, 40 per cent women and the rest of either gender.
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BHP Billiton director Carolyn Hewson agreed the bill was not proposing a quota.
"Certainly, it is a hard target, but in this bill there are no penalties for non-compliance and there is a very broad exception clause – at paragraph 7(2)(e) – that the government appointers can claim," she told a committee examining the bill.
The quotas-versus-targets issue has been hotly debated in the context of women on boards and, according to the Women's Leadership Institute Australia, there is a big difference between the two.
Unmet targets only need explanation
In the context of the proposed legislation, a target of 40 per cent would be imposed. Government boards that did not reach this target would be required to explain why.
If a quota were set, there would be penalties for non-compliance and failing to reach the quota would amount to a breach of the law. As such, talk of setting quotas makes many stakeholders jittery.
The Australian Institute of Company Directors, for example, is urging ASX 200 companies to adopt a voluntary target of 30 per cent women directors by 2018.
The bill is jointly sponsored by Senator Xenophon, independents Jacqui Lambie and Glen Lazarus and Greens Senator Larissa Waters.
The senators will not get to vote on the bill unless it clears the lower house, which is dominated by Coalition MPs, and is unlikely to occur.
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