Pet dog grounds Flight Centre CFO Adam Campbell

It’s a new twist on the old story of a dog ate my homework but this time it’s true. It’s understood a top executive at Flight Centre had to cancel a major overseas trip just hours before he was due to check in, and it’s all because of his pooch.

A Flight Centre executive had to cancel his trip to India because his dog chewed up his passport.

DOG OF A DAY

IT’S a new twist on the old story of a dog ate my homework but this time it’s true. We hear Flight Centre chief financial officer Adam Campbell is cooling his heels in Brisbane while his colleagues enjoy the sights and sounds of the subcontinent. Campbell was supposed to fly to India over the weekend with a group of Flight Centre’s other finance boffins. But a couple of hours before he was due to travel to Brisbane Airport for the flight, he came home to find that his dog Charles had somehow got to his passport and chewed it to bits. Charles is a 13-year-old cocker spaniel with no track record of passport destruction.

As it was too late to get a replacement travel document, Campbell had to wave good bye to his colleague while they jetted off. Our spies tells us Charlie denied responsibility but the teeth marks came back a positive match from forensics.

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Southport Golf Club seeks fair way after boardroom bogey

SECOND GOLF WAR

JUST when we thought things had calmed down at the up-market Southport Golf Club, it is nine irons at ten paces again.

Former director Adrian Rowney, who resigned last month after raising a series of issues about the employment of former general manager Nik Robinson, has been thrown out of the 95-year-old club despite the board claiming it was attempting a mediation. Rowney’s crime was apparently refusing to apologise to the board for communicating his concerns about the terms of Robinson’s employment, some of which were not signed off by the entire board.

The board says if Rowney agrees to apologise and make certain “undertakings in relation to his behaviour” he may be reinstated but if he doesn’t his membership will be terminated. The board claims Rowney accosted Robinson in the carpark, a claim denied by Rowney.

Rowney is gutted but unrepentant. “I was really looking forward to teeing off with my mates. I am not allowed to pass through the gates of a club that I was protecting,” says Rowney.

He says he was doing his fiduciary duty as a director by raising the issues with the membership and the board. One City Beat spy out on the links yesterday says Rowney has overwhelming support among the membership and the board’s own future could be shaky at an upcoming special general meeting. Nik Robinson, who joined Southport Golf Club two years ago after various stints in the Middle East and Vietnam, was unavailable for comment.

POOL PARTY

MORE than a 1000 Brisbane business types dived in last Friday night to help in the fight against motor neurone disease The 10th MW Recruitment Swimming Carnival for the MND and ME Foundation, held at the Valley Pool, attracted Pitcher Partners managing partner Nigel Fischer, McInnes Wilson Lawyers chairman Paul Tully, BDO partner Bernie Curran and McCullough Robertson Lawyers partners Peter Stokes and Cameron Dean among others. Organiser HughHamiltonsays that close to $45,000 in total was raised on the night taking the accumulative total raised in the last six years to over $200,000.

NO PARKING

MORE on the Lutwyche Shopping Centre’s plan to introduce paid parking for tenants and customers. A City Beat reader tells us the planned two-hour limit on free parking will cause problems for him as he regularly does a long shift as a volunteer Justice of the Peace at the centre. Negotiations are continuing with tenants over the plans that could see them charged up to $242 a month to park at the centre from May 1. Abacus Property Group, which owns the centre, yesterday declined to comment. A small correction to our item yesterday on the issue. The no right turn sign at the Chalk St exit that we said had just been installed has in fact been there for many years.