Labour has withdrawn its proposal for women-only selections after a request from Leader David Shearer.
Mr Shearer said it was distracting from other issues and he did not believe it was what people wanted from Labour.
He said he had asked the Council to withdraw that proposal and it had agreed.
The proposal would have allowed some electorates to seek nominations for selection from women only, with permission from Council.
It was part of an attempt to lift the proportion of women in its caucus to 45 per cent by 2014 and 50 per cent by 2017.
Mr Shearer said the party was not shying away from those "targets."
The issue was how to achieve that and he did not believe preventing males from seeking selection was the right answer.
We applaud David Shearer for standing up to his party's National Council, and for ditching what is and always was an absolutely daft policy, insulting, patronising and demeaning to women. The widespread condemnation from right across the political spectrum left him with no alternative, short of tendering his resignation as leader.
Mr Shearer may have won this battle however, but that does not mean that he has won the war. Given that Labour's rank and file clearly want David Cunliffe to lead the party into the next election, we reckon that the campaign to undermine David Shearer's leadership will intensify.
Sir Robert Muldoon once famously said that your enemies in the House weren't those sitting opposite, but those sitting behind you. David Shearer needs to watch his back.
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