Monique Ryan slams Camberwell Golf Club after women dumped from its committee

Federal MP Monique Ryan has described the decision to remove all four women from the governing committee of a Melbourne golf club as “a very bad look” and called on the local council to seek assurances over the club’s treatment of women.

The women say they are preparing a formal complaint against Camberwell Golf Club’s president, Craig Atkins, and in an email sent to members of the club challenged his explanation for removing all four women from its general committee on Tuesday night, claiming it was Atkins, himself, who created their positions just five months earlier.

The club is embroiled in a dispute that erupted after Camberwell’s historically separate men’s and women’s golf clubs came together, and centres on whether the new club’s female members should have an equal voice in how it is run.

Ryan, the independent member for Kooyong, described the decision to remove the women as “a very bad look” and questioned the governance of the club, which operates on council-owned land.

“Women putting their hands up to help run community sporting facilities should be given the chance to do so,” Ryan told The Age.

“A men’s sport club might have an all-male governing committee, but it’s a very bad look for the Camberwell Golf Club to exclude women from its board as it has this week.”

Ryan also pointed to the Australian Sports Commission’s governance principles and the Victorian government’s Balance the Board policy, which encourage inclusiveness and gender equity.

“Given that the Camberwell Golf Club is on council land, I’m sure the council will seek assurances that the club will address this inequity and review its appointment processes,” she said.

Ryan’s comments follow an email sent to Camberwell members in the aftermath of Tuesday night’s fiery meeting, in which the four women said they were preparing a formal complaint to the club’s regulatory body[s] against Atkins and warned the club is heading down a “dangerous path”.

The email was signed by Sue Thek, Jo Cohen, Julia Trafford and Michelle Trewin, the four members of the club’s women’s subcommittee who were removed from the general committee.

Atkins told this masthead on Wednesday that the four women had been “appointed inappropriately through an error in the constitution” and their removal was necessary to correct the mistake.

Atkins was contacted for further comment on Thursday but had not responded before deadline.

He previously described the controversy as a “storm in a teacup” and said the women had been invited to return to the committee through a legally valid process.

But in their email, the women claim it was Atkins, himself, who, at a general committee meeting on April 14, created the four temporary committee positions that he subsequently declared were improperly constituted.

“The irony is that it was President Atkins himself, who at the General Committee meeting of 14 April, created the four temporary Committee positions for the newly merged Camberwell Ladies Golf Club,” the email says.

The women also dispute that removing them from the committee was necessary to resolve the constitutional problem.

They claim there were at least three alternatives available: having the general committee formally ratify the appointments, seeking ratification at the club’s November annual general meeting or calling a special meeting of members.

“But none of those options were presented by President Atkins,” the email says.

“His solution was to have the four women ‘dismissed’ from the General Committee.”

The women also allege they were given no briefing paper, written legal advice or advance warning that their positions would be challenged at Tuesday night’s meeting.

They claim Atkins instead suggested they could return to meetings as “mere ‘observers’”.

Atkins said this week that the women were “disgruntled and stormed out of the meeting and didn’t stay to hear the rest of the outcomes”.

Julia Trafford, secretary of the women’s subcommittee, has disputed that characterisation, describing the meeting as an “ambush” and a “stitch-up”.

The four women walked out together after their removal and went to a nearby pub.

The dispute has become particularly uncomfortable for Camberwell given what occurred immediately before the women were removed.

David Greenhill, Golf Australia’s head of governance and risk, had spent about an hour addressing the committee on modern governance, including the importance of gender equality.

Minutes after his presentation concluded, the club’s governing committee contained no women.

Camberwell Golf Club operates at Freeway Golf Course in Balwyn North, which is owned by the City of Boroondara.

On Thursday, Boroondara Mayor Wes Gault said the council expected that community sport be “welcoming, inclusive and accessible to everyone.

“That’s the standard we expect of all organisations operating on council-owned land,” he said.

“We strongly oppose any move that would deny women the opportunity to serve on a club board or hold membership on equal terms.”

Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.