Dr. Fiona Buckley:

I concur with the comments already made. I thank Senator Boyhan. When I did work on women Independents who ran in the 2016 general election, it was interesting to note that there was something like a 74% increase in the number of women running as Independents. I can get the exact figure for the committee; I think it was 74%. In talking about a knock-on impact of gender quotas, obviously, they do not apply to Independents, but the fact that there were gender quotas gave this impression of the feminising of the political system, if you wish, and a space that was more welcoming of women. We saw more women coming forward as a result, given the conversation that was taking place around women in politics and the need for more women in politics. Certainly, we saw a knock-on impact. Whether it was all down to the quota, we have to dig deeper into that, but it was certainly interesting to observe that, in the first election with a gender quota, we also saw a significant increase in the number of women running as Independents. There is something there.