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KERRY PACKER
Kerry Packer, Australia’s richest man and one of the nation’s most colourful and visionary business leaders, has died at 68.
UPDATE. John Howard: “Of all the impressions that he left with me, none was greater or more indelible than his passionate commitment to the interests of Australia and the interests of the Australian people. In all of the many conversations I had with him over the years, he was always concerned about what was right for this country.”
Richie Benaud: “We first met during the formation of World Series cricket. There was never anything mundane or orthodox about him.” A minute’s silence was observed before play in the Second Test, which thereafter featured a brilliant Australian fightback.
UPDATE II. Rupert Murdoch: “He was a man who you could truly say was larger than life, a fierce competitor who had friends in areas of great influence and was often surrounded in controversy but at the same time, capable of great generosity.”
Kim Beazley: “Kerry Packer was a tough Australian nationalist who produced great innovations in the Australian media. In the course of my political life, I have had many conversations with Kerry Packer, most of which were about the future of our nation and its economic direction.”
UPDATE III. The sayings of Kerry Packer. Please read.
UPDATE IV. London Times: “Kerry Packer was a revolutionary; a man 20 years ahead of his time in sport and whose influence was particularly felt in cricket.” Legal background to Packer’s WSC revolution here. Packer recently met Australian opening batsmen Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden:
Langer asked whether Packer felt luck plays a big part in life.
Packer responded by telling Langer he should know, because he has played and missed more than anyone he had ever seen.
UPDATE V. Most of the online death-gloating is coming from anonymous Live Journal children. But not this example, proudly posted by idiot Greg Ferris, who was more moved when his filthy cat died.
Just saw this from a BBC article on Packer-
Uncomfortable with the attention a stranger was receiving from a waitress at a casino, Packer turned to the gentleman and asked why his presence was causing such a stir.
“I’m worth US$100 million,” bragged the oilman.
” Really. $100 million?” said Packer, pretending to be impressed.
“Yes I am sir,” grinned the oilman.
“I’ll toss you for it,” Packer replied.
The oilman walked away.
There are hundreds of Packer stories. I wonder how many of them are true? I’ve heard various versions of the above story but this is the first version that involved a waitress. A bit of BBC licence no doubt.
One of my favourites is the one about how Kerry and a few of his polo buddies found themselves in an English village after a match and looking for a meal at about 9pm.
They went to a small restaurant but the kitchen had closed and they were turned away. They went to the pub next door. The kitchen there was also closed but the publican made a phonecall or two and it was re-opened. The Packer party had their meal and when he came to pay he made out a cheque for 30,000 pounds as a tip. On condition that they tell the place next door the next day.My favourite Packer story - Packer had a heart attack at a polo match and was only successfully resuscitated because the Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) that was nearby had an appropriate defribulator.
During his recovery he discovered that most of the MICA units did not have the right equipment and therefore his survival was a matter of luck. He asked the NSW state government how much it would cost to ensure that all of the MICA units were given the right equipment. He was told the figure (I think it was AUD$250million) and said simply “fair enough, I’ll go you halves.”
That is my favourite also Russell. The Premier of NSW at the time, Nick Greiner, said something like: “When you get an offer like that, you don’r really have any choice”
Posted by Steve at the pub on 2005 12 26 at 11:19 PM • permalink#4 -
Wow. What a guy. I also loved the following:“If a working class Englishman saw a bloke drive past in a Rolls-Royce, he’d say to himself ‘Come the social revolution and we’ll take that away from you, mate’. Whereas if his American counterpart saw a bloke drive past in a Cadillac he’d say ‘One day I’m going to own one of those’. To my way of thinking the first attitude is wrong. The latter is right”;
“Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer. Reluctantly.” - To a federal parliamentary media inquiry, when asked to state his full name and the capacity in which he appeared
I say thank God for the self-made millionaires of this world. Sometimes I think they’re the only ones that have any common sense.
#7,
Packer wasn’t self-made - he got a major start from his dad Sir Frank.
He could be a real bastard. Stories such as his personal heli-pad, his short-lived takeover of Anglican Weekly or the “interesting” theft of his personal gold reserve are not the type of thing you would repeat on the day of his death.
Let us simply say that his legacy was multi-faceted and interesting.
#8, actually Alan Bond made Packer’s first billion - hence “you only get one Alan Bond in your life”.
Bond offered Packer a billion for channel 9 when it was arguably only worth $150mill (the ridiculous offer came because Packer said Ch9 was not for sale at any price). Bond spent $500mill capitalising Ch9 and was then forced to sell it back to Packer for $300mill.
After that it was all golden for Packer.
I liked the one about the young bloke (call him Steve) at a restaurant wanting to impress his lunch guests whose business he was trying to obtain.
He spotted Packer in the restaurant, went over to his table and explained that he was just starting out in business and it would impress the hell out of the people he (Steve) was hosting if Packer wouldn’t mind stopping at his table on the way out and said hello, calling him by name.
Packer liked the young bloke’s nous so he did as requested, stopping at the table on his way out and saying “Gidday Steve”.
Steve turned around and said “piss off Kerry, can’t you see I’m busy”.Sounds like a good time to bring in the loony left line of “well if its not true it should be”.
Actually I guess it just goes to show how most Aussies saw the bloke.
Another great story is in Gerald Stone’s book about working at Channel 9 when Packer and his crew were looking at broadcasting the Moscow Olympics.
Also of interest is the comments section on the SMH site full of bitter, petty little arseholes paying out on him now he’s dead.16# Link required please Harold, not all of us pay sufficient attention to the SMH to know where to find it online!
Posted by Steve at the pub on 2005 12 27 at 03:57 AM • permalink#17, Yeah Dan - I knew it seemed high - I am probably running my stories together. There is another $250mill story Packer story hiding in the back of my mind and I just can’t bring it forward.
The gold was only $5mill - the Anglican weekly was just muscle - we won’t be talking about “the Goanna” - so I can’t quite figure why the inflated figure keeps coming to mind.
Another story. Kerry was in the highrollers room at Conrads on the Gold Coast playing blackjack. A couple of gamblers flown in from Malaysia were at his table and cramping his style. He tolerated it for as long as he could. Finally he turned on them. After a few choice words he gave each of them a $100,000 chip on condition they stayed out of his sight for the rest of the night.
# 19, Steve, here is the link http://blogs.smh.com.au/newsblog/archives/your_say/003121.html . I don’t know how to do the shortcut stuff, so I’ll probably get into trouble with Andrea.
I remember cricket with boring Boycott, and the pittance paid to cricket players. Kerry Packer changed the style of cricket and the pay players received. The rest is history. What he did with his money was his business.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2005 12 27 at 06:00 AM • permalinkThere was a bit of culture shock in the changes to cricket which Packer sponsored. No regrets that the guys got paid more, but the fast pace of one day matches did look a bit garish and non-craftsmanlike for quite a while. I found it difficult to stay with it for some years afterwards. I am enjoying it again at present, with the last tour of England being so much of a fight; now the South Efricawns are having a good go too.
I note on the SMH site referred to above many are making great hay out of Packers tax bill. I went and looked up the tax note for PBL’s 2005 annual report and it looks entirely conventional and kosher.
Now I don’t do Packers books ( god I wished I did) and it can’t be ruled out that there is some tax avoidance on the private side but if PBL is anything to go by no there is not.Coicidentally my favourite Packer line was when he was hauled before yet another senate committee and asked about his tax bill. He was attacked for employing accountants and lawyers to get his tax bill down ie what 99% of the Australian population including I bet the senators asking the question do.
He said something to effect of
” I pay the legal minimum and you blokes have not been doing such a good job of spending it as to be donated any more.”
Spot on Mr Packer - who will give us this straight shooting in the future.Kingsley Smith Chartered Accountant
Posted by the nailgun on 2005 12 27 at 06:23 AM • permalinkThere is much to admire in the way Kerry Packer lived his life. Heaven knows that I, for one, don’t have it in me to be as good at running a business as he was, with or without a head start or the occasional bit of good fortune. And it’s true - one day cricket is a whole lot more interesting than a five day test, we all try to minimise our tax as the law allows and it was his money to gamble with as he pleased. So, good for him. I hope he enjoyed using his money however he wanted to use it while he was alive to use it. Because wherever Kerry is headed one thing is for sure; his wealth and influence stays here.
Fifteen years ago he failed to have a near-death experience, or at least he failed to have one that he remembered. Because of that he told the world that there is no heaven and no hell and that strikes me as foolishly, almost wickedly, thoughtless. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, especially when so many other people have very different stories to tell and some of them simply can’t be explained by the ‘dying brain’ hypothesis. If he was wrong (and of course I think he was) then he now finds himself in a position with which most of the rest of us in this world are very familiar; without friends in high places and without means to buy help. I hope he made his peace with God before he died but if not, well, that was his choice.
#31 - Makes you glad this country is sufficiently civilised not to have death duties and inheritance tax, the most iniquitous and regressive taxes ever devised by socialistic governments. His wealth and businesses will continue to employ thousands of Australians (and others) instead of being confiscated.
Posted by walterplinge on 2005 12 27 at 06:47 AM • permalink“If a working class Englishman saw a bloke drive past in a Rolls-Royce, he’d say to himself ‘Come the social revolution and we’ll take that away from you, mate’. Whereas if his American counterpart saw a bloke drive past in a Cadillac he’d say ‘One day I’m going to own one of those’. To my way of thinking the first attitude is wrong. The latter is right.”
It’s people like this who should be in charge of universities.
God bless this fellow, whom I’ve never heard of ‘til today.
Posted by Rittenhouse on 2005 12 27 at 08:05 AM • permalink#29
It was on the Channel Nine report this morning. Like the queen and numerous other aged celebrities they presumably had the tributes pre-prepared and ready to roll.
Basically, he said “I try to reduce the amount of tax I pay and anyone who doesn’t attempt to minimise their taxes needs their head read.” He added “You guys aren’t doing such a great job of spending all that tax anyway, so I don’t believe anyone should be paying you extra”.
Apparently the next day, there were dozens of calls to John Laws suggesting he become the next Prime Minister.
As for his comment that there was nothing on the other sdide of dying, I interviewed the old poet William Hart-Smith, who had been clinically dead. He said something quite different - that there was plenty there, and it was very surprising.
Posted by Susan Norton on 2005 12 27 at 11:25 AM • permalinkThis is off-message (Well, Kerry packer wasn’t all that interesting!) but I have just lookled at Webdairy. It claims its news is:
“A constantly updated selection of the leading Australian and international news from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.”
I think this is a bit more interesting than the details of Kerry’s decomposition. Does it mean Webdiarty has an arrangement with the ABC to supply it with news, or is it simply stealing news from the ABC’s service. Where does the Australian Taxpayer, who pays for the ABC’s news services, fit in?
Posted by Susan Norton on 2005 12 27 at 11:43 AM • permalinkthat ferris cretin is doing a phd - that means you & i are paying for the filthy little wanker’s lifestyle
and what’s wrong with tax avoidance? when you have a tax act that’s the thickness of 3 house bricks & more, it’s every citizen’s right, nay duty, to find the loopholes & exploit them. now tax evasion, that’s another matter - illegal & defo not cricket
#31 Janice. The thing about the next life was the most arrogant thing Kerry ever said because it implied he was Jesus Christ.
I guess he now knows how wrong he was.
I wonder if the Americans would be so very adulatory about a guy who thought casinos were a respectable business - eg Donald Trump.
But he did have the admirable trait of financial generosity too.I guess he now knows how wrong he was.
Or how right he was, since I presume you’re not posting from the afterlife yourself and thus have no actual empirical data on the subject.
Speaking as an American, there are reasons I don’t adulate The Donald, but his opinion of the casino business is not one of them.
In light of his sons takeover it is wise to remember that Kerry made a few bad decisions early on in his career.
He was fortunate that his famils wealth gave him another chance and clever enough to make the most of it.
His son has had a bad inital foray with onetell but may prove to be as resilient as his old man yet.
A personification of Machiavellis “virtu” in a businessman, does anyone doubt he could have had a serious crack at parliment if he had wanted to?Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2005 12 27 at 07:59 PM • permalinkWith all the big news stories yesterday; the Packer death, worldwide tsunami commemorations, the ABC had the gall to squeeze in a 4 minute plug (twice) for one of their lefty mates, Australian playwright Stephen Sewel and his opportunistic, MERCENARY, trite little play about hurricane Katrina called The United States of Nothing
His “work” pretends to lift the rug on the “filth” of American society swept beneath it. Fat white “actor” Roy Billings plays a loud-mouth, flag-waving…you guessed it…REDNECK American, riding out the hurricane in the St. Louis superdome, using words like “nigger.”
Can you believe that both the ABC Midday news and the nightly news ran this rubbish yesterday? Roy Billings is one of these preachy lefty actors, whose rather impressive girth unfortunately betrays a life of gluttony and decadence, and he gleefully read for the ABC lines from the play in a southern American accent, which sounded like they were penned by some sort of adolescent activist, whose spectacularly unsophisticated and insulting dialogue grossly stereotyped anglo-Americans as flag-waving racists! Can you imagine how graciously a play stereotyping Moslems as terrorists would be treated by the ABC???
According to the playwright Sewel, if a Nation like the United States can’t even protect its elderly then it has lost its title as Superpower. This is fine by me because it’s lefties like Sewel who continually invoke the Superpower tag as a weapon anyway! And I guess what happened to the over 10,000 elderly people who were left to die in the French heatwave of 2003 (who ‘bleeding-hearts’ like Sewel, whose sole motivation is money, conveniently forget) rules France out of the Superpower stakes too!Sorry about the digression everyone.
I know who Kerry Packer is.
Who the fuck is Greg Ferris?
Posted by Oafish and Infantile on 2005 12 27 at 09:05 PM • permalinkI am now actually pretty hopeful James Packer. I think One Tel was big enough to teach himba very valuable lesson but not big enough to really do the Packer empire any lasting harm. He has eaten a lot of humble pie and he has put the cream on top and tucked in. He’ll be alright. At end of the day most of his father’s brilliance stemmed just from buy low sell high. You don’t need to be a genius to understand that just disciplined. I think he’s probably got it.
Posted by the nailgun on 2005 12 27 at 11:17 PM • permalinkPacker suffered a massive heart attack and was basically dead for six minutes. What he described was his personal experience of nearly dying and how he felt about it emotionally. Just as others are entitled to believe in fairies/reincarnation/various deities he was every bit entitled to come to terms with whatever happened to him in his own way and according to his own beliefs.
If he reckoned there was nothing there thats up to him. Projecting your spiritual beliefs onto someone else’s experience and trying to dictate how they should react and what they should believe is bullshit.
The commenters here don’t know any better than Packer did as to what happens after you die.All of the negative comments towards Kerry Packer have shone a light on the dark underbelly of ‘wealth hatred’ that’s been brewing here ever since John Howard’s great grandfather bought the joint off the Indigenes for pennies in the dollar.
Hang your head in shame hoWARd!Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 12 28 at 03:13 AM • permalinkFor every story of Packer’s generosity you will find many more stories of petty bullying and intimidation of his underlings. He was quite happy to cut deals with the ALP when it suited him. You don’t necessarily get to his position in life by being a nice guy. I appreciate what he did for cricket, but go easy on the reflexive beatification of the recently departed even if they employ you, we’re trying to keep our festive season lunches down.
Posted by Jim Geones on 2005 12 28 at 03:53 AM • permalinkAnother thought…
Do you think Jamie will now let us see the end of ‘Naughiest Home Videos’ - the one with Doug Mulray?
Also reckon there will be a few more Tom Cruise movies shown on Channel 9 from now on, not that there is anything wrong with that…
Posted by Flying Giraffe on 2005 12 28 at 07:48 PM • permalink“Whoa, how about a little truth in blogging, Greg. In the photo, you look like Andy Warhol’s ugly sister; we look at the banner of your web site and we’re supposed to believe you look like . . .Lee Marvin? C’mon!”
That’s ‘uglier sister’ to you buddy - Andy wasn’t that hot himself. Truth is, Andy wore a wig. I don’t, least not on my head.
Lee Marvin is simply a case of wishful thinking.
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I suppose I better reveal myself as his long lost son in time for the reading of the will.