Labor leadership contest: Bill Shorten wants quotas to boost number of gay politicians in Parliament

Updated

Labor leadership candidate Bill Shorten wants to introduce quotas to boost the number of gay and lesbian politicians in Parliament.

Mr Shorten is continuing his pitch to the party membership, sending out a manifesto that calls for the introduction of quotas for politicians representing minority groups.

He says the party should consider quotas for Indigenous Australians and the lesbian, gay, bixsexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community.

Neil Fharaoh, the national convenor of Rainbow Labor, which represents the party's LGBTI members, says it is a step forward.

"The LGBTI community has been underrepresented, particularly in political seats, both at a state and federal level in Australia," he said.

"There's probably only 12 gay and lesbian identifying politicians across the country and probably not too much more in the history and its definitely underrepresentative.

"So we'd welcome any moves to increase the representation in politics."

Mr Shorten also wants to redouble the party's efforts to boost the number of female candiates to 40 per cent.

The leadership contest between Mr Shorten and his rival, Anthony Albanese, will be decided by a Caucus vote as well as a nationwide ballot of party members.

Party members have already been mailed out their ballot papers.

They will cast their vote, then the Caucus will meet for their vote on October 10, three days before the successful candidate is announced.

Topics: alp, political-parties, government-and-politics, federal-government, lgbt, community-and-society, australia

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