Clubs Queensland CEO Doug Flockhart has quit the top job representing over 870 clubs, warning 40 per cent may fail

He took the helm of Clubs Queensland during one economic shock and has left the organisation as it emerges from another, which he thinks will decimate the sector

HE took the helm of Clubs Queensland during one economic shock and has left the organisation as it emerges from another.

Doug Flockhart (illustrated) has called it a day as CEO of the peak body representing about 870 clubs across the state and their roughly 22,000 employees (pre-coronavirus, of course).

Flockhart, who started in the job in January 2009 near the height of the GFC, has just launched his own consulting business.

He’s also acquired a 30-foot racing yacht to take out on Moreton Bay, with plans to buy a bigger boat and sail around the world in about five years with his missus and teenage son.

Doug Flockhart has stepped down from his Clubs Queensland leadership role

On a more sombre note, he’s got a grim forecast for those trying to tough it out in the state’s club network, which has an estimated 2.2 million members.

Flockhart told City Beat that he expects between 20 per cent and 40 per cent of all clubs, both in Queensland and nationally, will fail as a result of the COVID-19 calamity.

For those venues that re-open, he’s tipping a 70 per cent fall in revenue over the next 12 months because of social distancing guidelines. He doesn’t expect that to change until a vaccine is eventually wheeled out.

So why leave the organisation now, precisely at a moment of supreme peril for the sector?

Flockhart said there are always reasons to stay or go but he wanted a new challenge after 11 years in the role.

Since stepping down last month he’s also been doling out advice to clubs and many of their suppliers, such as produce growers and brewers.

His key recommendation to club operators is to entice existing members back before chasing new ones.

“Look after those that understand your offer and seduce them back, given their habits might have changed,’’ he said. “That’s the low hanging fruit. New customers are harder.’’

Clubs Queensland has yet to name a successor but applications closed last week so we should know shortly.

COSTLY CHANGE

Change doesn’t come cheap.

Just ask the mandarins trying to reform the chronically-dysfunctional Public Trustee of Queensland.

In the year since boss Peter Carne was suspended for alleged “misbehaviour,’’ the agency has shelled out nearly $517,000 on external reviews, according to its just-released contracts register.

It shows that Stephen Stavrou, a self-employed consultant who previously spent 26 years with Deloitte, pocketed a whopping $311,025 in September.

In the year since boss Peter Carne was suspended, the Public Trustee has spent nearly $517,000 on external reviews.

Another consulting mob, Bushell & Cornish, were paid $130,414 to spearhead an “organisation governance and structure review’’.

PwC also got in on the action, earning $75,000 for a bit of advice even though KPMG handles the auditing.

A City Beat spy close to the PT told us that there are rumblings that the agency might have its powers as a statutory authority curtailed and it could become just another arm of the Department of Justice.

Meanwhile, the Crime and Corruption Commission has wrapped up a probe of Carne, although the results have not been made public.

Carne, who continues to earn a $385,000 annual salary, has steadfastly refused to comment on the unspecified allegations against him. He could not be contacted.

Carne’s contract expires in March next year, making PT insiders wonder whether his suspension will be over before the state election this October.

RIOTS SPREADING

Could the kind of rioting and looting now gripping the US spread Down Under?

A security firm, Southern Cross Protection, thinks so and has encouraged clients to urgently consider beefing up patrols.

“As riots and major protests have been orchestrated in cities around the world, our intel suggests these protests will hit the Australian city CBDs,’’ warned one of their Queensland account managers in an email to clients on Tuesday.

“With the first protest possibly beginning in Sydney's Hyde Park this week, we anticipate Brisbane and Victoria will be next.’’

Not everyone is buying the big scare, though, with one sceptical client dismissing it as “a load of BS’’.