Sociology Essay: Merit, Quotas, Targets in Australian Politics

This essay critically analyzes the concepts of merit, quotas, and targets within the context of Australian and Indian politics and society. It begins by outlining the Australian government's discussions regarding gender equality in parliament, comparing it to the Indian reservation system, which utilizes quotas in education and employment. The essay explores the arguments for and against such systems, examining the underlying assumptions of merit-based systems versus quota-based systems. It discusses how these issues might evolve over time and in different cultural and industry contexts. The essay considers the impact of quotas on women's representation in politics, the role of political parties like the Australian Labour Party, and the perspectives of the Liberal-National Party Coalition. It also highlights the importance of gender balance and the role of quotas in different sectors. Finally, the essay concludes that the government should support gender equality and gender empowerment. It also argues that the government should provide opportunities based on an individual's talent rather than their gender, advocating for equal platforms for both men and women.

Negotiation, Meditation and Community Consultation
STUDENT DETAILS

Sociology 1
Prime Minister, Scott Morrison has stated that the Government of Australia has supporting
the rules and empowerment of Women with their full participation in the parliament. In
January, 2017 women had contributed with 29% participation in the federal parliament in the
House of Representatives. This percentage is increasing by 2% since 2017 (Brown, 2019). 1
out of 4 federal government candidates are women. In this essay there will be discussion
about the electoral quotas and merit specifically assign for women in the Australian
Parliament. Apart from this, comparison will also made with the Indian parliament.
Discussion will also made about the “quotas” and other laws with the conceptual relevance
(Brown, 2019).
From general prospective, Government in countries such as Canada, India and America are
reserving specific electoral rights for the women. As per the research, women occupied 1 in 5
seats in national legislatures worldwide. The Federal government also processing rules and
legislation for providing strong backbone to the women representative in the political
representation. Apart from this, the relevance of gender quotas has been summarised by
various political party in the nation such as labour party and Liberal-National Party coalition
(Doyle, McEachern & MacGregor, 2015).
In Australia, merit, quotas, targets and reservation not only apply for women’s electoral
participation but also apply in the disability ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, religion, etc. In
the country, disability people have the special right for people who are suffering from the
physical or mental disability under The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth). Apart from
this, the Australian Human right commission work in correspondence with the government
sector and private sector to succour an individual to understand about their civil rights and
regulations (Smyth, 2019).

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Quotas are the form of opportunity that are specifically reserve for the participation of
women and minority groups. In Australia, quotas are specifically allotted in the specific
sector such as education, employment and political institutions. In the country, quotas system
works by setting a fixed percentage of reserve seats that can only be occupied by the specific
reserved or minority groups (Smith, 2019).
Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia has addressed the system of quotas is essential
for the democracy process because it helps the women and minority groups to take the
participation equally to other well-qualified and skill people. Federal government makes laws
under the section 51 and 122 of the Constitution. While Australia has gender equality
legislation for 30 years, there has been extremely moderate advancement towards tending to
the gender equity issues tormenting the division (Stilinovic, 2019).
Figures distributed by the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) show 29.7
percent of executives of organizations recorded on Australia's Securities Exchange top 200
were ladies, up from 19.4 percent in 2015. Federal government of the country has decided
different quotas or targets for the population. For example: the Australian pearl refined
industry is profoundly managed using an administration controlled 'shellfish' quantity
framework. Every maker must hold a pearl permit from the significant state government
body. By and by shares are set for both wild and incubation facility reared Pinctada maxima
(Harris Rimmer & Sawer, 2016).
In 2012, the Government of Australia has issued a bill of $320 million to organize a 10-year
activity to enable ladies to advance them with the gender equality. It can be understood that
the functioning about how quotas system according to the federal political. In Australia
national legislation was acquainted which require that government bodies and all

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commissions delegated by the senate to meet an amount of 40% female individuals (Jefferson
& Austen, 2015).
The Australian Labour Party since the long time has involved in the gender equality issues in
parliament (Stilinovic, 2019). The party starting with the Action Rule in 1994 and since 2012,
hosts executed a gathering established amount whereby at least 40% of positions will stayed
occupied by the party’s people individually and rest 60% position can be filled by applicants
of any gender. The effectiveness of the quota system in Australia is influencing women for
their meaningful participation in the politics. Australian Labour Party stated that the
development of gender quotas as an instrument for advancing female political commitment
(Fujimoto, Azmat & Härtel, 2013).
The Australian Liberal National Coalition at present doesn't officially bolster sex ratio on the
premise that they bargain the choice of political up-and-comers dependent on legitimacy. In
spite of the fact that the Liberal party has endeavoured to execute bolster structures to urge
ladies to apply for preselection, reliably low female portrayal hosts provoked analysis from
inside the get-together (Doyle, McEachern & MacGregor, 2015).
Quotas are specific policies design by the government for the minorities in the society or for
women. The government kept specific share percentage for the minority people in the
different sector such as education, politics, employment, etc. Portions for the most part
include setting a specific number or level of spots to be involved by the under-spoke to
gatherings (Todd & Preston, 2012).
In Australia, the importance of quota arises not only in gender equality but in other sectors
also. The idea of gender balance is universally perceived as a principal component of
straightforward and responsible administration, practical improvement and social union. This
standard has been installed in a progression of worldwide shows and affirmations, this idea

Sociology 4
first beginning The Convention of the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW) adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979 (Smyth, 2019). The
Government of Australia, should support the gender equality instead of only setting quotas to
the women’s. Both the gender type requires opportunity fields to showcase their skills. If
government will empower only one specific gender over the other then it will not marked
morally correct to the other gender. By this critical analysis, it is concluded that the
government should support women but they should only set specific quotas for the men also
(Smith, 2019).
Parliaments are essentially proposed to speak to their social orders. Australian parliaments
are those in which residents perceive themselves and discover answers to their inquiries and
goals. In any case, ladies' portrayal in parliaments is expanding gradually and, in pretty much
every parliament around the world, is still far lower than ladies' more extensive portrayal in
their general public (Brown, 2019).
In 2012, constituent shares were utilized in 22 nations holding races. With administered
shares, ladies took 24 percent of seats and with intentional quantities they increased 22
percent. Where no amounts were utilized, ladies took 12 percent of seats (Fujimoto, Azmat &
Härtel, 2013). ‘Soft quotas' are the most well-known sort of share received in liberal majority
rule governments. For example: United States, Australia and New Zealand where ideological
groups will in general grasp the possibility that sexual orientation equality will happen
continuously after some time without the requirement for guidelines (Jefferson & Austen,
2015).
From beginning the Indian Government always mark or reserve the specific quotas for the
women participation. If we look at the historical brief of the country then at the time of
independence the government have reserved only 6% quota for women that they can take the

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active participation in the election and other electoral process (Kumar, 2019). Through this
time, the reservation percentage has increased and now the government reserved around 25%
quota for the women participation.
In India, seats are also reserved in the other sector such as education, political, reservation for
jobs in public sector, etc. In the country, the government even provides many monetary
benefits to their citizens, specially to those who are facing physical or mental disabilities. The
Government has passed a bill through which states that the government will hold 10 percent
of government employments for individuals outside high levels of pay buckets. In India,
reservation percentage is decided as per the economical and living conditions. In Indian state
Haryana the reservation is booked for 20% for the people who belong from schedule caste
category and 16% seats are reserved for the backward class category. This percentage is
reduced in the more developed Indian state, as in Tamil Nadu, only 18% reservation is
booked for the schedule caste and 16% reservation is allocated to the backward class people
(Kumar, 2019).
The specific quotas and reservations are marked for the disability and mentally ill people
also. Furthermore, the government also sets the fixed reservation in the government
examination also. The Government of India, has allocated fixed reserve percentage to the
minority groups, through this reservation the seats in the examination are specifically
reserved for such people. This system encourages the participation of the minority groups in
the government activities (Kumar, 2019).
It has been concluded that the Australian National parties are forming emerging laws for
ensuring the participation of the women in the parliament after following electoral rules and
federal government’s regulation. Apart from this, it has been researched that the Indian
Government has reserved the ratio of 10% in the specific sectors for providing relief to the

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below poverty line. It has been concluded that the Quotas should not be particularly assign to
any gender more then to other gender. In fact, the government should provide jobs and
opportunity as per the quality or talent of an individual instead of their gender. Government
of Australia should provide equal platform to both men or women. They should focus on
gender empowerment rather than on women empowerment. However, Australian society was
male dominating but now they need to focus on women also. From last several years,
government has passed many rights in the favour of women. Now, Australian Government
has to focus on the gender empowerment as both genders need equal field of opportunity.

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References
Brown. G. (2019). Labor to set gender targets for Australia Day honours. [Online] Available
at: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/labor-to-set-gender-targets-for-australia-
day-honours/news-story/4cee22b6d543bde84aa61144a7a151ee [Accessed on: 26th
September, 2019]
Doyle, T., McEachern, D., & MacGregor, S. (2015). Environment and politics. Abingdon:
Routledge.
Fujimoto, Y., Azmat, F. and Härtel, C.E. (2013) Gender perceptions of work-life balance:
Management implications for full-time employees in Australia. Australian Journal of
Management, 38(1), pp.147-170.
Harris Rimmer, S., & Sawer, M. (2016). Neoliberalism and gender equality policy in
Australia. Australian Journal of Political Science, 51(4), 742-758.
Jefferson, T., & Austen, S. (2015). Understanding links between gender and pay. Journal of
Australian Political Economy, The, (75), 115.
Kumar, M. (2019) India sets jobs quota for less well-off, critics see pre-vote play. [Online]
Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-election-caste/india-sets-jobs-quota-
for-less-well-off-critics-see-pre-vote-ploy-idUSKCN1P31C0
Smith, E. (2019) Australia’s performance on gender equality. [Online] Available at:
https://theconversation.com/australias-performance-on-gender-equality-are-we-fair-dinkum-
113657 [Accessed on: 26th September, 2019]

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Smyth, J. (2019) Australian boards reach 30% women target without quotas. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/26a7e8fa-2462-11e9-8ce6-5db4543da632
[Accessed on: 26th September, 2019]
Stilinovic, M. (2019) How far has Australia come in terms of gender equality. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/millystilinovic/2017/03/07/how-far-has-australia-
come-in-terms-of-gender-equality/#1295c6534eaf [Accessed on: 26th September, 2019]
Todd, P. and Preston, A. (2012) Gender pay equity in Australia: Where are we now and
where are we heading? Australian Bulletin of Labour, 38(3), pp.251-255.