Gender quotas for NZX panned

Constitutional lawyer Mai Chen. Photo / Greg Bowker

The New Zealand Stock Exchange will not follow its Australian counterpart and require companies to meet voluntary quotas for increasing the number of women at the top.

The NZX says it is not considering any amendments to its rules along the lines of those being proposed by the ASX Corporate Governance Council.

The Australians are looking at requiring companies to adopt and publish self-imposed targets for increasing gender diversity on their boards and in their organisations.

Companies would have to disclose in their annual reports how well they are measuring up to their targets.

The proposals go out for public comment next month and if accepted will come into force next year.

But an NZX spokeswoman said while it supported the idea boards should be more representative of the general population, "from our own experience this is not solved by issuing a directive".

When NZX was seeking a new director with technology experience, a position ultimately filled by founder of online accounting company Xero Rod Drury, it "expressly sought" women who would meet the criteria. There were none, the spokeswoman said.

Constitutional lawyer Mai Chen, who chairs the New Zealand Global Women forum, questioned the criteria being used. She said a Global Women meeting last week discussed the ASX proposals and there had been concern about a quota mentality.

Quotas may provide a floor, but they also created a ceiling she said. "People will say, 'We've already got two of these and we're not taking any more'."

However, transparency and accountability forced companies to justify their performance. If NZX was saying it could not find any women candidates for its board position "that information is interesting in itself".

"That might lead other people to say, 'Well, what are your criteria?"'

She did not disagree with NZX's stance on quotas as long as it was doing something to ensure corporate disclosure.

The spokeswoman said it had a number of women in senior positions.