The NSW Liberals are set to consider introducing quotas to ensure 40 per cent of those preselected for local, state and federal government are women, backed up by loadings for female candidates if they are not achieved.
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But the issue caused what one source described as "a massive stoush" at the party's state executive on Friday night after NSW Young Liberals president Alex Dore declared the youth wing "does not support quotas".
Sources have confirmed NSW Liberal state president Kent Johns told the meeting he will propose that 40 per cent of all candidates pre-selected for seats at all levels of government must be women.
To achieve this he proposed a 20 per cent loading for female preselection candidates until the quota is achieved.
Mr Johns said he would present a report to state executive outlining the proposal in a month's time.
The state executive will then vote on whether to put it to the party's annual general meeting in December, where 60 per cent support will be required to change the rules.
Mr Johns and Mr Dore, who was attending his final meeting as Young Liberal president, clashed over the issue.
At one point Mr Dore accused country vice-president Hollie Hughes of "having a tendency to bully people".
The issue of binding quotas, which have been adopted by Labor, as opposed to non-binding targets, is controversial within the Liberal party.
In August, federal Liberal president Nick Greiner declared it was time the party took the issue of female representation seriously. However, he did not support quotas.
NSW Liberal state director Chris Stone has said one of his priorities is getting more women into parliament.
Mr Stone told Fairfax Media last year that he doesn't believe in quotas, but that the Liberal Party should have "aspirational goals to get as many women into the Parliament as we can".
In 2015, as Treasurer, Gladys Berejiklian called for all political parties, including the Liberal Party, to aim at making 50 per cent of MPs in Australian parliaments women. She noted that female representation in the NSW Legislative Assembly is just 20.4 per cent.
Mr Johns, Mr Dore and Ms Hughes declined to comment due to party rules. But a NSW Liberal spokesman said the party "strongly believes in selecting candidates on merit and ensuring a representative field of candidates ahead of every state and federal election".
"Our position is clearly established through aspirational targets for female candidates and we're taking a strategic approach to improving our performance and achieving these targets," he said.
