36. Is the provision of direct public funding to political parties tied to gender equality among candidates?

Electoral Act 1997, Section 17 (as amended by Section 42 of the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act 2012. 
(4B) (a) Payments calculated in accordance with this Part shall be reduced by 50 per cent, unless at least 30 per cent of the candidates whose candidatures were authenticated by the qualified party at the preceding general election were women and at least 30 per cent were men. (b) Paragraph (a)—(i) comes into operation on the polling day at the general election held next after section 42 of the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act 2012 comes into operation, and (ii) ceases to have effect on the polling day at the general election held next after the expiration of 7 years from the polling day specified in subparagraph (i). (c) Payments calculated in accordance with this Part shall be reduced by 50 per cent, unless at least 40 per cent of the candidates whose candidatures were authenticated by the qualified party at the preceding general election were women and at least 40 per cent were men. (d) Paragraph (c) comes into operation on the day after the day on which paragraph (a) ceases to have effect.

if parties fail to respect legislative quotas they lose half of the State funding they receive annually. the law foresees an increasing in the legislative quota from 30 per cento to 40 per cent for elections to be held in 2020