The Weld Club: Membership to Perth’s elite club should no longer be male-only privilege, says Simone McGurk

Membership to Perth’s elite The Weld Club should no longer be a male-only privilege, WA’s Women’s Interests Minister Simone McGurk has declared. Ms McGurk said men only institutions such as The Weld and Sydney’s Australian Club had their roots in a time and place when women were “actively and lawfully excluded from positions of power”. “They are likely past their time and no longer reflect the world that we live in today,” Ms McGurk, a senior McGowan Government Minister, said on Sunday. Her criticism comes after The West Australian published the names of all 8420 members of the 150-year-old club, including WA Liberal leader David Honey and prominent businessmen such as John Poynton, Peter Prendiville, Sam Walsh and Adrian Fini. Because of their high-powered memberships and networking opportunities, Ms McGurk said such clubs continued to be centres of significant power and decision-making, across politics, law and business. “When male-only clubs maintain these outdated practices, they elect to retain that power at the exclusion of others,” the Fremantle’s Labor MP said, in remarks that will spark debate about the future of The Weld Club. “More than the consideration of whether women should be allowed to join these clubs, it is the views expressed by their male members as part of conversations about whether women should be allowed to join that are particularly telling. “For example, one Australian Club member recently argued that ‘the women members you’d get would be women you wouldn’t want’, while another said the club ‘provided a place where you could get away from bossy women’.” The Australian Club, which boasts former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and John Howard as members, last week voted to maintain its men-only membership rules. At the weekend, The West Australian reported rumblings among some members of The Weld Club that it risks losing relevance if it does not open membership to women and the time was right to have the discussion. Ms McGurk said no one had any objections to Men’s Sheds having times in their schedule when men can get together to work and socialise. “What many, including myself, object to is exclusive organisations such as The Weld Club actively excluding women from the opportunity to network and discuss business,” she said. “We cannot ignore that exclusivity and access to power is the raison d’être of the club, which was established at a time when women didn’t have the vote. “Times have changed, and therefore I think it’s time for exclusive men’s clubs like The Weld to change too.” Mark McGowan yesterday joked that as someone from Rockingham, “I doubt they’d have me” and even if he were invited to join, he’d knock back the offer. Asked what it said about the WA Liberals that their leader was a member of an exclusive all-male club, the Premier replied: “One of the reasons I joined Labor was I always thought the Liberals were superior and thought they were better than everyone else. I haven’t changed that opinion over time.” He said it’s an individual’s decision to join a club and his Government would not legislate to prevent single-sex clubs. Mr Honey, the MP for Cottesloe, told The Sunday Times he would not quit The Weld Club and any decision to allow women to join was up to the membership.