Herd on the Terrace: Lake Karrinyup Country Club ladies say ‘let us eat cake’ after black tie’s bake sale jibe

You could almost set your watch to it. Every couple of years, without fail, an eruption of gender wars disturbs the smug peace around the lush fairways of the Lake Karrinyup Country Club. And so it was on Monday night this week when member email inboxes lit up with an incoming ballistic missile from an anonymous member pleading for — horror of horrors — voting parity between men and women. This time around the trigger was an altercation at a black tie charity do last month when a high profile male member allegedly suggested to the anonymous correspondent the limit of female members’ capability was organising a “bake sale”. It’s been marinating for a few weeks but Monday saw the issue go viral in an open letter to members — email addresses visible in defiance of all that privacy nonsense — where the plea for equal rights and a gender rotation of club presidency was passionately made. “I am not going to quote the exact words because that would identify the individual and that is not the point of this request,” said the person emailing under the pseudonym BabySittersClub. “Suffice to say, it was sexist and very condescending and somewhat along the lines that a bake sale was about the limit of our capabilities as organisers and that’s why we couldn’t possibly attend a black tie function. “This has really irked me — coming as it did in the same month where Mexico has just elected their first female president and America might do the same yet at LKCC we are still considered second-class citizens.” LKCC general manager Mark Adams said while there were different membership categories for women, male and female members had enjoyed equal voting rights since 2016. Adams said he was working with senior committee members in a bid to identify the anonymous email sender and work out what action to take about their hotly-denied “bake sale” comments claims. Ban forgotten in Butler blathering We needed a bovine-sized bucket this week after reading media reports about CBD law firm HopgoodGamin was taking over Butler Lawyers, an Nedlands outfit focused on the western suburbs elite. There was no mention of the boutique firm’s founding partner and rainmaker John Butler serving a two-month ban in autumn after being convicted of unsatisfactory professional conduct in December last year. Instead we had regurgitation of a media release in which HopgoodGamin managing partner Luke Mountford cryptically said Butler would not be involved in the “day-to-day provision of legal services”. Butler had earned his place in HopgoodGamin “as a consultant, recognising 50 years of service”. Che? Maybe it was fair enough for the media release to not mention Butler’s complex battle with Legal Practice Board of WA in the State Administrative Tribunal. SAT found it was not appropriate for Butler to receive funds from an elderly widow when he had “at least real doubts” about her capacity to understand complex legal and financial matters, including Butler Lawyers’ costs agreements. A basic Google search by any reporter would have revealed Butler’s battle. Surely some alarm bells should have been raised by Mountford going over the top in patronising a bloke clearly being sidelined as part of his firm being gobbled up by HopgoodGamin. Mountford said Butler had “earned his place in the merged firm as a consultant, recognising 50 years of service” and “always planned to retire in 2027”. “He is a well-respected member of the legal profession in Western Australia and for him, this merger is an opportunity to ensure his legacy and firm continue to grow under HopgoodGanim’s capable management,” Mountford gushed. Whatever. Reeta Safeety flies into Fokker farewell You’ve got to love executives from Sydney. Virgin Australia executive Nick Rohrlach was jetted across this week to join WA Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Rita Saffioti in unveiling the airline’s plans to buy Embraer E190 aircraft for its regional operations. Rohrlach opened proceedings by acknowledging WA’s second top politician with a name that sounded something like ‘Reeta Safeety’. Given Rohrlach was here instead of Virgin boss Jane Hrdlicka and was unveiling jets to replace ageing Fokkers, you’d have expected him to be more careful about name pronunciations. Call us parochial, but we’re more inclined to be forgiving of NRW chief executive Jules Pemberton stumbling over the admittedly tricky pronunciation of Rio Tinto counterpart Jakob Stausholm. While talking about a video outlining Rio’s Pilbara growth plans, Pemberton got stuck when he mis-pronounced Stausholm’s first name with a hard J for ‘Jay-cob’, as opposed to a Scandinavian-sounding ‘Yah-cub. Pemberton gave up after he then mispronounced the first syllable of Stausholm’s surname, instead referring to the Dane as “the CEO”. For more gossip from WA’s colourful business community, check out more from Herd on the Terrace, or check out WestBusiness in Saturday’s edition of The West Australian.