Pakeha-Boy,
In the past 5 yrs, we've also had a Melbourne controller on an organised famil flight get bumped by the captain coz he didn't want to take anyone in the jumpseat.
Bit of a mad scramble from the graound crew and onto the next flight.
Don't get me wrong, absolutely his perogitive, but it does happen.
These days in OZ, no way of getting up front with the majors without weeks of notice and paperwork. So short staffed that training days have ceased to exist for a long time.