The contentious draft proposals for boards of listed companies to disclose personal characteristics such as sexuality, Indigenous heritage, age and disability has split the ASX Corporate Governance Council, which is made up of business, shareholders, investors and superannuation fund groups.

At a meeting on Friday, the council failed to reach a consensus on the draft principles after a year-long stand-off between its members. Louise Davidson, chief executive of the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, has threatened to quit the council if no changes are made. Former ASX chief executive Elmer Funke Kupper says the new diversity rules should be thrown in the bin and the council which oversees them disbanded. And former Commonwealth Bank of Australia boss David Murray told The Australian Financial Review he gave up working as a director because of the weight of regulation and reporting caused by initiatives such as the ASX’s proposed rules.