If more women in Parliaments is a desirable thing then let each party put up two candidates for each position, one woman and one man.
Pool their votes to get an electoral decision and then the one of the pair with the most individual votes goes to the Parliament.

Let the voters decide.

All is not lost, as far as women in Federal Parliament is concerned. The Labor Party has fortunately given us a few current female members who can only be described as outstanding. I refer to Penny Wong (my wife's preferred PM) and Tanya Plibersek (my preferred PM). The Liberal's have not been a complete no show, and I must give praise where praise is due to Julie Bishop, although politically not my cup of tea, Ms Bishop has performed adequately when called upon to do so.

It goes without saying the Greens have always given talented women their fair chance in parliament, two of my personal favorites, among many, are Sarah Hanson-Young and Lee Rhiannon. as I said all is not lost, and we indeed can look forward to a bright future of female representation after the next election when the new Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi will take a seat representing the people of NSW. Some will not be familiar with Mehreen, a shot political outline;
Dr Mehreen Faruqi was born in Lahore, Pakistan. In 2013 Mehreen became the first Muslim woman to be a member of an Australian parliament when she was nominated for a seat in the NSW Legislative Council where she has been an outstanding success ever since. Much will be heard from Mehreen when she enters the bigger sphere of Federal Parliament. Something we call all get excited about.

http://nsw.greens.org.au/person/nsw/dr-mehreen-faruqi

Paul, I know I forget things and am only human, but can someone educate me on the current status of federal politicians in that they have to be Australians. I thought it meant you have to be born in Australia. It's good to see someone finally got their act together and are now allowing non-Aussies to become federal pollies. This Dr Faruqi will be a very lucky person as it seems she will be the first, or at least one of them. Seriously, I have not heard or read about any changes in the rules/laws surrounding a federal pollies eligibility being anything but Australian.
But I am always willing to learn. After all I hate getting it wrong.

Paul must be the only person in the country who thinks the Stick Insect (courtesy of Larry Pickering) has "performed adequately".

In fairness to to female politicians and aspirants, we need to recognise that anyone, male or female, wanting to stoop low enough to get the job is not going to be much chop in the first place. Both genders are likely to be equally grubby and useless.

This is a stupid argument, and if anything just points out how dumb we are.

Issue 1. We don't elect leaders based on their ability to to the job.

What we do is elect leaders on the basis of "Who is the best used car salesman that is tv pretty and tells the most convincing lies".

Then we fall for those lies again and go back to the beginning and repeat the process, eventually lying to ourselves that democracy is working and taking us in the right direction.

At the very least, we elect leaders on the basis of 'the lesser evil' which really is a terrible way to decide who rules over us.

Men V's Women.. who cares it's a diversion we don't elect or even train people on merit to be the best for these jobs in the first place.

AC has a good point generally speaking.

Not sure I would call the lack of women in parliament a diversion though.

Hasbeen has no credibility whatsoever blaming women for the downfall of education. What's wrong Hasbeen, angry at your wife? Did she starch your undies?...lmao - To use a similar tactic you laid on Paul.

Toni Lavis is correct. Any discussion of women on here always brings out the usual misogynists to vent their bigoted views.

What Paul stated is basically correct.

Of course you men who lack a real manliness will always be defeated by a reasonable argument.

Why are you guys so anti-women? Do you hide your comments from your wives you big brave heroes?...lmao

Please pass on my deepest sympathies to all the women in your lives. They got duds!...lmao

Sad and weak men...It's pathetic!