Kerry Packer viewed politics the same way as he viewed everything else -- as a means to make money, or as a means to enjoy money.
He was a boarder from a young age at Geelong Grammar, Australia's most prestigious school. Like most young boarders, he suffered horribly from home sickness. Kerry was dyslexic and did not do well at his school work but compensated by becoming a very useful schoolboy boxer. Few dared cross him.
When he came into his inheritance, he watched television three hours a night, mainly his own outlet, Channel Nine. Nine has never really recovered from losing its guiding genius and if Packer always seemed to have an uncanny knack of knowing what the man or woman in the street wanted, it was because he was one of them, just four or five billion dollars richer.
The other half of the Packer empire was the magazines, Australian Consolidated Press. He offloaded the loss-making Telegraphs to Rupert Murdoch, no doubt with relief. Rupert, with his genius for print, soon turned them around. The cash cows like Women's Weekly and Women's Day remain part of the ACP stable to this day.
Then there is the curious case of The Bulletin, often referred to as The Bully. It had been losing money for years and the first thing the venture capitalists did when they took control of ACP was fold it. Why did Packer keep it open?
Those who remember The Bully will recall a series of columns written by politicians. One was by Pauline Hanson. Now, Pauline has never read a book in her life. She has great difficulty reading a long feature article. She couldn't write an article that could go into The Bulletin. Her eminence grise, John Pasquarelli, wrote the columns and they split the not inconsiderable payment. Packer had put her on the payroll, the same way he put other politicians on the payroll. As one might expect of Kerry Packer, it was a very clever tactic where any accusations of 'secret commissions' could be readily denied.
Packer's basic premise -- that 'I minimise tax because I think I can spend my own money better than the government can' -- is one the the very, very non-PC would have trouble arguing against. No doubt every Sydney politician imbibes with his mother's milk the message that it's much better to have the Packers with you rather than against you. As for Kerry's State funeral, it's a little known fact that the Packer family paid most of the bills. If you are going to pander to the masses by giving an AFL footballer like Jim Stynes a State funeral, why not give one to man who allowed cricketers to make a decent living during their short careers by establishing World Series Cricket?
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