Tatts members shown the door

Tattersall’s Club has stood down one member and suspended two others for what it alleges were breaches of the Privacy Act and club bylaws.

Tatts has stood down one member and suspended two others for what it alleges were breaches of the Privacy Act and club bylaws.

WORKERS REVOLT

WE hear the politburo at Tattersalls, aka the Queen St Workers Club, are busy arranging a firing party to deal with members fighting a bitter rear guard action against allowing women members.

Stuart Fraser.

The club on Wednesday stood down one member and suspended two others for what it alleges were breaches of the Privacy Act and club bylaws.

WOMEN WON’T GET INTO CLUB

The suspension apparently relate to lobbying by a small group intent on “shutting down the conversation” about expanding membership to include women.

Tattersall’s Club president Stuart Fraser has warned that “all members are entitled to form their own opinions and this should be respected”.

“Tattersall’s Club members have contacted the club in growing numbers, and particularly overnight, to make formal complaints that fellow members are making unsolicited contact,” Fraser says.

Our spy deep inside the workers club says it’s starting to reek of an “amateur hour” undergraduate student union vote at a university.

“Who will be up before the Kangaroo Court and roasted on the Pig n Whistle spit outside the club?” our spy says.

“Maybe President Fraser and his fellow committee colleagues should stop shadow sparring, call ‘seconds out’ and bring on the main event, namely the vote on women, immediately.”

CASH SPLASH

JAMIE “Working Class Man” Pherous is again throwing cash at his under siege travel empire. Pherous yesterday told the ASX that he has bought 70,000 more shares in Corporate Travel Management for a cool $1.6 million.

Corporate Travel Management chief executive Jamie Pherous at the annual general meeting. Picture: Peter Wallis

That investment followed him plonking down $2.5 million to acquire a big chunk of shares last week in the firm, which remains under attack from short sellers VGI Partners. He now holds more than 20 million shares in CTM with a market value of $472 million.

City Beat notes however that Pherous received $7.4 million in dividends from CTM last year so he has a fair way to go before he reinvests all that lovely cash in his baby.

He must be hoping he doesn’t run out of bullets. One director really keeping his powder dry is chairman Tony Bellas who hasn’t bought any shares since VGI released its report late last month.

PROTEST VOTE

SHAREHOLDERS at Brisbane-based Central Petroleum took a baseball bat to the board on Wednesday, voting against the director remuneration report at the company’s annual general meeting.

The action-packed meeting also saw the resignation of directors Peter Moore and Sarah Ryan.

The company’s biggest shareholder, Troy Harry, recently locked horns with chairman Martin Kriewaldt claiming well-regarded chief executive Richard Cottee was marched out the door after coming into conflict with the board.

Kriewaldt says Cottee’s departure followed a determination by the board that a change was needed.

Moore and Ryan join a board room exodus that started when director Tim Woodall announced he was leaving in September.

Kriewaldt told shareholders on Wednesday that there will clearly be a strike against the board on the remuneration report.

Total remuneration was $2.89 million for both directors and executives.

“This is usually intended to send some signal to the board, although it is a much clearer signal if a shareholder either rings me or writes in,” he said. Ouch!

NO STANDING

THOSE signs warning people not to squat with their feet on toilet seats have been spotted all the way down at Cape Bruny Lighthouse on the southern tip of Bruny Island, Tasmania.

City Beat reader Warwick Sturges sent us a photo of the sign, a version of which City Beat noted also has popped up on the Gold Coast.

With more tourists arriving from China, where squat toilets still prevail, expect to see more such quaint instructions.