The lack of gender diversity continues a trend at both state and federal levels.

Since Kay Hull retired from Federal Parliament in 2010, only six out of the 37 candidates for Riverina have been women and none have run since the 2013 election.

Since 2000, only four out of 33 registered candidates for the state seat of Wagga have been women.

Currently, three of Wagga's nine councillors are women, with the council never electing a female mayor in its history.

As the only woman to represent the Riverina at a federal level, Kay Hull was surprised to hear these recent statistics.

"We've just got to continue to do more to encourage women in leadership roles," she said.

"I am saying to women, I urge you to stand because it is your right to be there.

"It is in the country's best interest for you to be there. And you deserve to be there."

However, Mrs Hull didn't go as far as supporting quotas and was hesitant to directly comment on whether female candidates made themselves available for local pre-selections.

"I can't advocate for women enough, but I think that firstly, women have to put their hand up in order to be selected," she said.

"Selections should be on merit but women have that merit to be pre-selected."

Wagga City Greens councillor and current deputy Mayor Jenny McKinnon strongly supports quotas and rejects the idea that they don't lead to finding the best candidates.

"Actually, you're encouraging women, you're getting them to put their hand up when they might not otherwise do it, even though they are the best person for the job," she said.

"We've got heaps of men in the political realm that you would not necessarily think were the best person for the job."

"We definitely want to see at least 50 per cent of the candidates for elections be women, just as we are in the population."

Cr McKinnon said this election's candidate slate showed more than a lack of gender representation. "It also says something about diversity, generally," she said.

"We are not seeing many people from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, as well as people with disabilities and our Aboriginal community."

Former member of the Wagga Women's Health Centre management committee Jenny Rolfe also said quotas have been proven to work in Australia and abroad.

"The beautiful thing about quotas, is you implement them until you don't need them anymore," she said.

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An organiser of the Women For Wagga City Council Facebook page, Mrs Rolfe described the lack of female candidates for the Riverina as "pretty dire".

"If you look at the political parties that have put forward candidates in our area, you can't tell me that the best people that were available were all overwhelmingly white, middle class men of a certain age.

"It's not just women who are being excluded through the selection process. It's the fact that we have a bias towards particular people to be leaders."

Independent Pennie Scott would have run as the Riverina only female candidate in the election but failed to lodge her candidacy with the AEC by the designated deadline last Thursday.

Women currently make up 31 per cent of the Federal Parliament House of Representatives and 53 per cent of the Senate.

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