Ms Catherine Lane:

We can try to bring forward some of the opportunities the pandemic has presented in terms of remote access and a hybrid, blended model to enable more participation of councillors. The meeting times are difficult and challenging. People come from different backgrounds and have different responsibilities and commitments. If we try to ensure access can be facilitated, it might get around some of those issues. We hope to begin a process and piece of work with local authorities around developing more family-friendly policies, for example, making it no longer acceptable to extend a meeting for a further hour with ten minutes' notice. That compromises people who have caring responsibilities and other obligations that must be planned for in advance. Practical things can be brought into protocols and procedures to facilitate councillors with caring responsibilities.

There are many other measures we need to take on beyond the quotas. The Senator said he was interested in supplementary funding. We could, for example, look at 10% or 15% additional funding if a party runs 40% more women candidates that it did in the previous local election. We could see where parties were at in 2019 and compare their performance in 2024. That may remove an issue for Independents because they could also receive additional funding if women Independents are elected. That is something we could tease out further.