Top businessman Geoff Cousins quits Australian Club after members vote against letting women join

Geoff Cousins denounces ‘guffaws and giggling’ among club members before they voted against allowing women to join.

Geoff Cousins says: ‘For members in the club to be putting one of the great social justice issues of our times into the same category as the decor of the club, for goodness sake.’ Picture: John Feder

High-profile businessman Geoff Cousins has quit the Australian Club and has urged others to do the same after members of the prestigious Sydney institution voted against allowing women to join, describing his horror at the “guffaws and giggling” in the room ahead of the ballot.

Mr Cousins, a long-time Telstra director and a former prime ministerial adviser to John Howard, said a continued prohibition on women becoming members of the 183-year old organisation meant “the soul of the club would fragment down the road and be washed down Macquarie Street”.

Mr Cousins resigned after decades of membership following the Tuesday morning vote on whether to allow women to join the club – which was rejected by 62 per cent of the 700-odd attendees.

Former prime minister John Howard leaving The Australian Club. Picture: Jane Dempster

The exclusive club, with its secretive membership list that extends from Mr Howard and Malcolm Turnbull to other political, corporate and judicial figures, has been deeply divided over whether to allow women to join.

Both Mr Howard and Mr Turnbull attended the Tuesday vote.

“Most of the people who spoke in favour of it were dealing with the principles of natural justice, whereas most of those who spoke against it were talking about petty things – like if we were having a dinner we would have to behave differently,” Mr Cousins said.

“We would have to change the taps in the club. You just would not believe it.

“For members in the club to be putting one of the great social justice issues of our times into the same category as the decor of the club, for goodness sake.”

The Australian has previously reported that the vote was being brought on by 15 members opposed to allowing women to join, a group dubbed by detractors as the St Paul’s mafia after the University of Sydney college they attended.

Those men include retired Federal Court judge Peter Graham, former merchant banker Philip Wood and CCZ Statton Equities chairman Geoff Travers.

Mr Graham, in a letter to members in May, wrote that a lengthy discussion about allowing women to join – as desired by those behind the proposal – would harm the club “by the publicity of the club’s affairs in gossip columns”.

Those who were pushing for women to be allowed to join as members – they can only attend as a guest of a male member – include Mr Cousins, retired Supreme Court judge Michael Pembroke, ex-investment banker David Kent and former Macquarie chairman Kevin McCann.

Neither Mr Howard nor Mr Turnbull confirmed their position ahead of the ballot, although the former Wentworth MP said he was a “lifelong feminist”. “I think you’ll be able to work (my vote) out,” Mr Turnbull added.

Former Liberal MP Bruce Baird said he was “strongly in favour” of allowing women to join the club. “My daughter … should have every privilege to join as my sons do,” he said.

The Australian Club is one of several men-only social institutions in the country, alongside Melbourne’s Savage Club, where prominent barrister Julian Burnside was a member until the 2019 federal election in which he ran as a Greens candidate and quit the club, describing it as a “relic”.

The Australian Club building in Sydney. Picture: Monique Harmer.

There are also women-only social clubs, including the Queen’s Club in Sydney.

Mr Cousins, who had not spoken to The Australian before the vote and who declined to discuss the details of the ballot, said the decision would have a significant effect on the club’s membership.

“How could they possibly sign off on gender equality statements in their annual reports and all this kind of thing and then still be a member of this club,” he said.

“The really disturbing thing is there are obviously people in that club who still sit in courts and make decisions involving women or disputes between women and men or whatever it might be, supposedly impartial in those matters, and yet holding these views.

“The club has always prided itself on having a lot of leaders in Australian society in various fields … and I said today we can’t have any of them because those positions are held by women.

“So women are roaming wild and free across the land, which obviously frightens some of our members,” Mr Cousins said.

“I handed in my resignation, and hopefully some other people will do the same.”

An Australian Club spokesman said there had been a “record turnout” of members. “The meeting determined that the 75 per cent threshold to pass the resolution was not met,” he said.

The proposal – known as The Desirability or Otherwise of Women Being Entitled to Membership of the Club – had largely been expected to be voted down.

Not all members were pleased to have been hauled to Sydney to cast their ballot.

“Why would I bloody want to come down here for this,” one member, from Gunnedah, said.

The Australian Club’s All Day Dining Club.