Alexander Downer nominates Steven Marshall for exclusive Adelaide Club
Only a select few are invited to walk through the green door at 165 North Tce. Will former premier Steven Marshall be one of them?
SA News
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It is South Australia’s most exclusive men’s club, famed for its secrecy where the state’s wealthy and elite can rub shoulders in private.
And now the 159 year-old The Adelaide Club is set to welcome a new member – former Premier Steven Marshall.
Mr Marshall, 54, who lost office after just one term at the March state election to Labor leader Peter Malinauskas, 42, has applied to join one of Australia’s oldest gentlemen clubs with help from two influential member backers.
Internal papers reveal the former Liberal leader, whose Dunstan electorate is now a marginal seat, has given members an “advance notice of candidature” for an October ballot.
Leading businessman Geoff Rohrsheim, 54, of North Adelaide, has proposed him to the more than 1000 Establishment members while former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, 70, of Leabrook, has seconded it.
Rules state that a month out from elections, another three “sponsors” are revealed to a who’s who of business, legal, political, medical and judicial elite.
Sources suggested Norwood-based Mr Marshall, a father of two who entered politics in 2010, will be accepted during a secret ballot although the club “detests” public attention.
Details of the application, and its timing, has raised eyebrows among political sources, who believe it is further evidence Mr Marshall may quit his eastern suburbs seat before the next election.
“It indicates where his mind is,” one said.
Mr Marshall has fiercely denied Labor claims he is absent from parliament and has stressed that he is diligently applying himself to his duties.
A candidate is banned from directly lobbying club members, which is left up to his backers to “drum up the required support”.
The official rules state: “A person should be invited to stand for election.
“The proposer and seconder should have known the candidate for some years and must vouch for (their) fitness for membership and that he would be supported in a ballot by the general membership.”
It is said that former Liberal Premiers Dean Brown and John Olsen joined after they left politics. Most Liberal premiers become members.
Former Labor Premier John Bannon applied but withdrew an application. Former Federal Defence Minister Christopher Pyne is also member.
Other Liberal MP members include Upper House President Terry Stephens, former Health Minister Stephen Wade and Senate colleague Andrew McLachlan.
The North Terrace-based club, founded in 1863, fiercely protects its membership, which does not allow for females.
Its sister Queen Adelaide Club is located a few doors east.
It allows some areas for female guests including a ground floor bar and accommodation.
Similar interstate all-men’s clubs have faced sexism claims.
Former Prime Minister Paul Keating once attacked the club’s selection for excluding “a good half of the population”.
The club, which prides itself on its English heritage, has strong links to the Masonic Lodge and is said to have once had a veto power over Supreme Court appointees.
It was forced to deny it was racist after a scandal over a rejected application from jeweller Albert Bensimon more than 15 years ago.
It tried to block the adjacent rooftop bar 2KW from opening in 2014.
Neither Mr Marshall, his two supporters nor the club’s general manager, Ben Conrades, responded to inquiries.
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