"A common criticism of equity targets is that hiring is no longer based just on merit, but Prof. Campbell said there is no shortage of academic talent across groups."
It isn't a question of having enough bodies - these are supposed to go only to the very best and there is almost by definition a shortage of the very best. If you're picking who the very best 10 are you could have a million candidates and it wouldn't really matter would it? The 10 best would still be the same 10 people as if there were 20 candidates, or 15... 
Now the government is just saying we are decreeing that 31% of the very best are women! 
Wow can we give out undergrad scholarships that way too - with half of them going to males because they are half the population? No? I wonder why not?
Can we give out half the student seats at university to males because they are half the population? No? I wonder why?
Why do gender quotas only apply for the very very best and not for everyone?