Newcastle District Tennis Association president Ellen Gordon has condemned the male-only membership of one of its affiliated clubs.
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The Newcastle Herald reported on Tuesday that Newcastle council had threatened to kick Adamstown Rosebud Tennis Club off its council-owned courts unless it let women join.
Leading Newcastle female player and coach Emma Pollock, who lives near the courts, had complained to the association and the council that she was not allowed to be a club member because of her gender.
Ms Gordon said on Tuesday the club's stance "in this day and age is quite sexist".
"I'm hearing some of the comments that were made to Emma were, you know, 'We don't have frilly skirts here,' and all this sort of stuff.
"If they want a male-only members club, then they should do it on a private court. They should not be doing it on a public facility that belongs to the community."
The council sent a letter to the club on Friday giving its executive 14 days to agree to "take a proposal to an EGM to amend the club's constitution" to allow women to join.
The tennis club's secretary, Phil Baker, told the Herald on Tuesday that the club was "working through" the issue with the council.
"We're not going to make any comment until we resolve those issues with council and our internal membership," he said.
"Our next step is we've asked council for a meeting.
"At the end of the day this isn't a new issue. We've met with council on previous occasions about this.
"Bit of a shame it's been brought into the media now while we're still talking to council, but ultimately we want to meet with council before we discern what our formal response will be."
The club was offering discounted court hire fees to members but is now charging all players the same rate after pressure from the council.
Tennis Australia has condemned the club's membership rules as an "unacceptable" breach of its policies on discrimination.
Ms Gordon said the Newcastle association's board had discussed the situation early this year.
"Emma Pollock did send us an email," she said. "We did discuss it, and we referred it to Tennis NSW as well, and that's when Emma also went to council, because it's more in council's jurisdiction.
"Newcastle association is an equal opportunities tennis venue, and that's why we go with Tennis Australia policy with our tournaments. We pay equal prizemoney.
"We'll leave it to council at this stage, but certainly there would be support to hope that Adamstown Rosebud will amend their constitution, because they have a long history as an affiliated club with the association.
"There's been a lot of good players come from there, but they need to come in line with the other clubs."
Some Herald readers on social media have defended the tennis club and compared it with women-only gyms, a view Ms Gordon rejected.
"They're on a council lease, so they're a community centre. So, as a community centre, women are part of the community," she said.
"Those women-only gyms are privately owned. If it was a privately owned tennis club on private land, then they could be men-only, no children allowed, or whatever rules they would like to make.
"But when they're on council lease as a community tennis centre, then community encompasses all ages and gender equality, and that's the policy of Tennis Australia and Tennis NSW."
Further reading: The Herald's Opinion
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