Packer tribute, Rupert ethics, Queensland Rail and state treasurers
July 16, 2008
Here are Stephen Mayne's four stories from the Crikey edition on Friday, February 17, 2006.
17. Controversial old blokes and Kerry Packer
By Stephen Mayne
It was always going to be a highly political exercise to condense 12 hours of interviews with 25 rich and powerful people into the one hour tribute documentary to Kerry Packer but despite all the trauma of the attempted sacking of John Lyons, the Channel Nine production team of Mark Llewellyn, Ben Hawke, Peter Hiscock, Graham Davis and Tom Krause pulled it together quite well last night.
While there was plenty of laudatory stuff about Packer's generosity, they didn't shy away from the Costigan royal commission or the brutality of Kerry's father, Sir Frank.
John Singleton's claim that Kerry Packer had told him on six occasions that his father's death was the happiest day of his life certainly got you wondering about how James is feeling given that Kerry was also a very hard man.
Ita Buttrose was the only female voice over the hour but there was certainly plenty of air-time for colourful old blokes. Convicted crook Alan Bond looked back on those famous Channel Nine negotiations at the Wentworth Hotel, we had John Singleton gloating about the way Kerry forced Seven and Ten to pay a fortune for the AFL rights and there was even Trevor Kennedy retailing the story of Kerry being banned from Crockfords casino in London.
Trevor is still up to his eye-balls in controversy over those Swiss bank accounts, but at least the producers drew the line at Graham Richardson. Clearly the baggage carried by the Parrot over cash for comment has long subsided but did we really have to see him choking back the tears?
The only bloke missing from an interview was Lloyd Williams, co-executor of Kerry's estate with David Gonski, who was pictured sitting at gaming tables with Kerry but was not well enough to be interviewed because a lung condition now has him in constant need of an additional oxygen supply through his nose.
The audience of 1.5 million wasn't quite big enough to knock-off Lost on Seven which had 1.8 million, presumably with a strong skew towards female viewers. Still, even getting within 300,000 shows the pulling power of Kerry Packer, but it was a shame there weren't more women to share their memories.
Ros and Gretel Packer are even more publicity shy than Kerry and decided to leave all the talking to James, whose full 30 minute interview will be run on Sunday this week. It really does seem that Packer women are to be seen but not heard.
The reaction inside Nine this morning has been very positive and there's now even talk of producing a DVD so that some of the extended interviews can be viewed in full. Hmmm, that might be testing the limits of the Packer family given that they did sign-off on some elements of last night's documentary.
20. How to dob in dodgy ethics at News Corp
By Stephen Mayne
The decision to shift News Corp to America hasn't exactly been plain sailing for Rupert Murdoch and despite the weaker governance structures overall in Delaware, the ethically-challenged company has had to develop some new policies.
For instance, under the Sarbannes Oxley Act and SEC listing rules, News Corporation has to have a code of conduct which is available here.
The section on dealing with government officials includes the following:
No payment shall be made to, or for the benefit of, any public official in order to induce or entice such official to: enact, defeat or violate any law or regulation for the Company's benefit; influence any official act; or obtain any favourable action by a governmental agency or official on behalf of the Company.
What about when the benefit conferred, or punishment inflicted, happens to be skewed coverage about a politician or government in a powerful media outlet? This has been one of the core businesses of both Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer for decades and the Packer family's mastery of the process will be on display again today when John Howard speaks at the Opera House.
Another classic example is the formulation of new media laws at the moment. Mark Day, who owns a farm with News Ltd chairman John Hartigan, often sends smoke signals about how the moguls are feeling about government policy. His column in The Australian yesterday included the following:
As we wait yet another week for Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan's reform proposals to be revealed, a very real possibility emerges that there will be no reform at all. I believe key players in the media debate – heavyweights News Limited (publisher of The Australian) and James Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Limited – have lost enthusiasm for reform and would not be fussed in the least if the Prime Minister decided the whole thing wasn't worth the effort.
If the moguls prevail, as usual, maybe someone should take it up with the newly appointed News Corp Ethics Officer or blow the whistle through the alertline (866-480-6129) and Alertline Website, which are also new features of the code of conduct forced on Rupert by the move to America.
26. How a parochial government runs Queensland Rail
By Stephen Mayne
Queensland Rail is a very big monopoly business owned by the state government. Revenue out of Australia will soon top $3 billion and this week's $446 million purchase of ARG's WA bulk commodity rail business will lift total assets above $9 billion.
Splashing taxpayer funds on assets thousands of kilometres away from Queensland is not exactly the type of core service Sunshine State residents would be expecting from the Beattie Labor Government. Indeed, NSW Premier Morris Iemma cited Snowy's construction of a new power station in Victoria as one of the reasons for dumping the controlling 58% stake owned by the NSW government.
It was interesting to read in The AFR today that Queensland Rail CEO Bob Scheuber is a real old school train enthusiast who remains a member of Rail, Tram and Bus Union and followed his father into the business more than 30 years ago.
So who is in charge of the big picture strategy at QR? A quick look at the board suggests an interesting combination of transport types, accountants, councillors and unionists, which is nothing like the board of, say, Patrick Corp or Toll Holdings. The six longest serving QR directors have averaged about five years and mostly joined in a major board clean out after the Beattie Government was elected in 1999. They are:
Bronwyn Morris (Chairman): accountant turned professional director
Paul Bell: Emerald Shire councillor for 20 years, including nine as mayor
Warren McLachlan: mayor of Monto Shire and former chairman of Cattlemen's Union
Richard Joel: former long-time CEO of Brisbane Council's Office of Economic Development
Dawson Petie: former general secretary ACTU Queensland and general manager QIC
Cathie Wood: runs training company and has transport industry experience
However, the commercial strength of the board was strengthened in July last year with these three appointments:
Susan Rix: partner at accountant BDO Kendells and experienced on several government boards
Robert Holloway: IT veteran and former Queensland state director for Optus
John West: 30-year veteran of transport industry
They replaced:
Ted Brown: former Dean of Engineering at University of Queensland
Clare Endicott: plaintiff lawyer
David Stevenson: director
That said, what remains is still an unusual combination with the one common theme being that all nine directors are Queenslanders at a time when the business is attempting to go national. Buying interstate assets is clearly tolerated but getting out-of-towners to help guide the strategy is not. The board clearly has strong Labor Party connections but not excessively so given the size and complexity of the business.
One other interesting Labor connection in this week's $1.3 billion sale of ARG is that QR's buying partner, Babcock & Brown, has close ties to the Queensland Government. Beattie's former Treasurer David Hamill is now chairman of Babcock & Brown Infrastruture, the business that was founded when the investment bank paid almost $600 million to the Queensland government for the Dalrymple Bay coal terminal in Mackay.
Why the Beattie Government is selling coal ports in Queensland and buying trains to carry bulk commodities in WA is a little hard to fathom, but this is something you can do when your balance is about $20 billion stronger than any other state. Back to Top
27. State Treasurers – compare and contrast
By Stephen Mayne
Two of Australia's longest-serving state Treasurers, Victoria's John Brumby and South Australia's Kevin Foley, both gave very detailed presentations on the relative strengths of their economies yesterday.
Foley was just presenting to sceptical journalists ahead of the March 18 state election, but News Ltd's Terry McCrann was clearly impressed with Brumby's performance at CEDA.
Brumby also appeared well on top of his brief at the Australia Future Directions Forum last week, when he made the point that's he's now the longest serving state Treasurer, although his six years is nothing compared with Peter Costello's 10 years as Treasurer, preceded by two years as shadow Treasurer.
The second longest-serving State Treasurer is WA's Eric Ripper, who survived the ascension of Alan Carpenter and has been there since 2001. It will be interesting to see if Kevin Foley remains South Australian Treasurer after the state election, because he's already notched up four years of service.
Brumby inherited the position from Premier Steve Bracks, who decided in 2000 that it was too big a workload to lead the state and run the Treasury. Morris Iemma and Peter Beattie have clearly reached the same conclusion which means that both now have brand new Treasurers in Michael Costa and Anna Bligh.
The Treasurer with the toughest job is undoubtedly Michael Costa, the former secretary of the NSW Labor Council, who must deal with the legacy of Michael Egan and Bob Carr - a projected budget surplus of up to $800 million.
Costa won't have enjoyed Reserve Bank governor Ian Macfarlane telling Senators this morning that NSW is definitely lagging the national economy, but Brumby and Steve Bracks are facing an election this year and the Guv also said Victoria is lagging "to some extent".
As Paul Keating, John Cain and Bob Carr demonstrated, Labor governments tend to lose financial discipline as the years go by. Given the way a third term sent NSW finances off the rail, maybe John Brumby isn't joking when he talks about aspiring to replace Eddie McGuire as president of Collingwood next year.
It's something that Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon should also contemplate, given that he is the last remaining Premier to retain both portfolios as he goes after a third term.
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