The Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, David Littleproud has reported a 4 per cent rise in female representation on the boards and committees within his portfolio since last December, but said he would like to see more.
The Minister said the figure of female representation on boards was now 40 per cent.
“I’ve personally always found if you put the right environment in place, you get good and balanced representation,” Mr Littleproud said.
“I certainly found this in the banking world, where I was able to increase female representation in management from negligible to 50 per cent in two years.”
He said it was “just silly” to lock out more than 50 per cent of the nation’s intellect, whether in the corporate world, politics or education.
“I’ll be aiming to get to 50 per cent representation across the boards in my portfolio — that’s a sensible goal,” Mr Littleproud said.
“Since December, more than half of the 30 portfolio board appointments I have made were women.”
He said the 4 percentage point increase during his time as Minister was achieved simply by being aware and asking questions.
“I’ve rejected suggestions for boards where I don’t believe proper efforts to find qualified women have been made,” Mr Littleproud said.
He said staffing levels in the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources were now at 51 per cent women, while 50 per cent of senior executives in the Department were female.
