Frontbencher proposes alternative to quotas as Liberal party agonises over gender imbalance

Melissa McIntosh calls for gender-balanced candidate pools along the lines of system that transformed Britain’s Conservative party

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The Liberal frontbencher Melissa McIntosh has called for the party to consider gender-balanced candidate pools as an alternative to quotas, as close to 100 women took part in a nearly three-hour meeting on Wednesday night on building gender diversity in the opposition.

Party insiders in New South Wales say support for quotas is building, but any major reform to match Labor’s rules first introduced in the mid-1990s is likely to take years.