Howard's ex list, Packer, Gonski and mayors in parly

4. How Howard has churned through 32 Ministers

By Stephen Mayne

The departure of three more ministers and the forthcoming tenth anniversary of the Howard Government poses an interesting question – just how many former Ministers are there and do they out-number the current 30?

Well, we've managed to come up with 32 former Howard ministers as follows:

Richard Alston, John Anderson, Larry Anthony, Brownyn Bishop, John Fahey, Tim Fischer, John Herron, Robert Hill, Jackie Kelly, De-Anne Kelly, David Kemp, David Jull, Ian McDonald, Ian McLachlan, John Moore, Judi Moylan, Jocelyn Newman, Warwick Parer, Kay Patterson, Geoff Prosser, Peter Reith, Bruce Scott, John Sharp, Jim Short, Warwick Smith, Alex Somlyay, Andrew Thompson, Warren Truss, Wilson Tuckey, Danna Vale, Darryl Williams, Michael Wooldridge.

This shows a good deal of turnover at the top, which doesn't really matter if the incoming talent is better than those who depart. The first Hawke ministry was said to be the best in 13 years of Labor due to the presence of people like Peter Walsh, Lionel Bowen, Neal Blewett and Bill Hayden.

The decision to leave Malcolm Turnbull and Andrew Robb out of the Ministry means it has probably gone backwards and is now arguably the weakest Howard team we've seen in ten years, albeit with a competent and entrenched team at the top. Labor had a little bit more continuity overall, although not in the three key posts of Prime Minister, Treasurer and Foreign Ministers where there has been no change for the Howard Government.

The only uninterrupted ministerial survivors from the first Howard Ministry are John Howard, Peter Costello, Philip Ruddock and Alexander Downer, whereas after ten years, the previous Labor administration could claim Kim Beazley, Gareth Evans, John Button, Brian Howe and John Dawkins in the same category.

After ten years in office, Labor had probably not churned through 32 Ministers like John Howard, although we have come up with 30 names after 13 years and we might have missed a couple:

Neal Blewett, Lionel Bowen, John Brown, Robert Brown, John Button, Barry Cohen, John Dawkins, Michael Duffy, Wendy Fatin, Arthur Gietzelt, Don Grimes, Alan Griffiths, Bob Hawke, Clyde Holding, Ben Humphries, Chris Hurford, Barry Jones, Ros Kelly, John Kerin, Peter Morris, Gary Punch, Graham Richardson, Susan Ryan, Gordon Scholes, David Simmons, Peter Staples, Tom Uren, Peter Walsh, Stewart West, Mick Young.

If you fancy checking the numbers, Wikipedia has kindly listed the first Hawke Ministry, third Hawke Ministry, first Keating Ministry and second Keating Ministry along with the first, second, third and fourth Howard ministries.


19. Going over the top for Kerry Packer

By Stephen Mayne

John Howard is leaving no stone unturned in continuing to ingratiate himself with the Packer family, but does anyone else think the extravaganza planned for the Opera House on February 17 is going way over the top? That was certainly the sentiment that came through from calls and SMS messages when 774 ABC Melbourne's Jon Faine had Channel Nine Melbourne's news director Michael Venus in his media hotseat this morning.

Venus straight-batted questions about whether Packer's mistress, Julie Trethowan, should be invited and also said that any complaints about the taxpayer-funded memorial service should be directed at John Howard as it was his idea – he called Ros Packer with the offer shortly after Kerry's death.

Indeed, Crikey understands that NSW Premier Morris Iemma declined to offer a state-funded funeral, clearly sniffing the breeze about a public backlash against a Labor Premier with a budget problem spending public funds on the richest bloke in Australia who openly gloated that he minimised his taxes and had his ultimate private holding companies based in The Bahamas.

None of that stopped John Howard from coming to the rescue and he even confided to The Bulletin that he used to share a meal with Kerry about once every six months, usually at the Big Fella's home.

John Howard is exactly the sort of boring bloke that Kerry Packer would normally despise, but their shared interests have been laid out for all to see – Packer publicly backed John Howard before each of his four election victories and Howard has produced media policies that helped build his $7 billion fortune.

For an intensely private man who was buried at his Hunter Valley property Ellerston with just immediate family present, the excessive nature of the celebration is quite extraordinary and now includes the following:

* a 100-page special tribute edition of The Bulletin which is now the biggest selling edition of the magazine in 25 years
* 20 pages of tribute in the February edition of The Australian Women's Weekly
* a two-hour state-funded memorial service to be broadcast live on Channel Nine on February 17
* a one-hour uninterrupted documentary on Channel Nine around the time of the state funeral

The scale of the broadcasting challenge for the memorial service is such that outgoing Channel Nine boss Sam Chisholm has been ringing around the other networks asking to borrow some cameras on the day.

It sounds like it is being designed to go international, especially to places like England and India where the World Series Cricket revolution raised Kerry Packer's public profile like nothing else could. Indeed, Michael Venus said this morning that orders for The Bulletin's tribute issue are "flooding in from all over the world".

There is no doubting the intense public interest in Kerry Packer's life, but John Howard might yet come to regret spending hundreds of thousands of federal funds on this memorial service. Don't be surprised if the Packer family ends up making some sort of federal donation that more than covers the cost.


20. The Weekly's tribute to KP

By Stephen Mayne

When James Packer married Jodhi Meares in October 1999, the entire cover and subsequent 17 pages of the November 1999 edition of The Australian Women's Weekly were devoted to exclusive pictures and coverage of the $10 million extravaganza at the family's $25 million Cairnton compound. The over-the-top coverage began as follows:

Glamorous, exotic and breathtaking in its beauty...that's how guests described the marriage on Saturday, October 23, of James Packer and Jodhi Meares. From the twinkling of 250,000 fairy lights and dancing lanterns over the entrance to the heady scent of tiger lilies (the bride's favourite flower) and urns brimming with lilies, roses and orchids of every hue, romance ruled the night.

Not even a Sydney downpour could dampen the mood of the bridal couple and 650 guests, including the Prime Minister, John Howard, and wall-to-wall celebrities who gathered at the Packer family's magnificent Bellevue Hill estate for the party to end all parties.

Fast forward more than six years and The Weekly devoted 20 pages to its Kerry Packer tribute but he did not displace Oprah from the cover, nor the 11 pages of beauty ads which traditionally follow. The Weekly used former 60 Minutes reporter Tracey Curro to produce the obituary to accompany the photos provided by Ros and Gretel Packer for the February edition that went on sale this morning.

Curro, who has been guest presenting on 774 ABC Melbourne in recent months, produced a fairly straight account of Packer's life, which was far less gushing than the three-page tribute that editor Deborah Thomas wrote.

Indeed, Curro produced something that I hadn't seen before in all the forests of coverage: "A robust young man, he gave up drinking in 1956 after he was involved in a car accident on the Hume Highway near Goulburn, 1956, in which another person died."

Despite all the pre-publicity, there were no words from Packer's widow Ros who presumably is most upset about recent revelations of Kerry's generosity in gifting more than $10 million in assets to his long-time mistress, Julie Trethowan.

Daughter Gretel essentially provided extended captions to accompany the range of interesting photos from the family albums but she was not interviewed on-the-record by Curro.

This means we still haven't heard from either Ros or James Packer and both are debating whether to co-operate with the Channel Nine documentary. James Packer is expected to speak at the memorial service on February 17, but this is not the same as being subjected to an interview by Graham Davis, a normally aggressive reporter for Sunday, who is doing the interviews for the Nine documentary.

There really is something strangely paradoxical about the Packer empire going so over the top in their tributes to Kerry Packer, while immediate family members decline to co-operate or speak publicly in anything but the most controlled or limited way.

25. David Gonski - the busiest man in Australia

By Stephen Mayne

David Gonski has emerged as the second executor of Kerry Packer's estate, which confirms his status as one of the best-connected men in Australia. He's also arguably the most over-committed man in Australia. How's this for a line-up up responsibilities at the moment:

Chairman, Coca Cola Amatil
Chairman, Australia Council
Chairman, NIDA
President, NSW Art Gallery
Chancellor, University of NSW
Director, ANZ
Director, Investec
Director, ING Group
Director, Westfield
Co-executor, Estate of Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer

Gonski was also Packer's best mate on the Fairfax board until he resigned last year and it was the Gonski-led Westfield faction on the Fairfax board who pushed for Fred Hilmer's appointment as chief executive of the publisher in 1998.

He's certainly loyal to his mates, because when Gonski was elected chancellor of the University of NSW in May 2005 he continued to look after Hilmer with his recent appointment as vice-chancellor of UNSW, effective from June this year.

There was only a three month gap between Gonski taking the reins at UNSW and the Hilmer appointment, but the university insists it came "after an extensive search and selection process".

There are some interesting parallels between Gonski and ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel, who have both had to deal with conflict of interest claims over the years. Both made a fortune as well-connected lawyers and then investment bankers in the 1980s and early 1990s who then became professional directors and dedicated themselves to public service. Both are Jewish, incredibly bright and closely associated with the Liberal cause.

Gonski is very cosy with the two richest blokes in Sydney and his executor role on the Packer estate demonstrates this point. However, don't expect Graeme Samuel to be executor of the biggest estate in Melbourne, Dick Pratt, given that the ACCC is throwing the book at the packaging billionaire over cartel allegations.



30. Want to be in parliament? Why not try the mayoral route

By Stephen Mayne

The whole Crikey adventure has thrown up a few interesting speaking gigs over the years and the open brief for next Sunday morning is no exception: spend one hour telling 40 new Victorian mayors about the challenges that lie ahead. Hmmm, what to say?

Having established the link between journalism and politics in our comprehensive lists, as preparation for this gig, we may as well do the same for local government. Journalism is one of the fastest ways into politics, especially if you only want to be a staffer, but does being a mayor or councillor make it a lot easier to break into Federal or state parliament?

Here are 11 names to get this list going:

Lyn Allison: councillor in Port Melbourne 1992-94 and now leader of the Democrats

Greg Barber: the first Green mayor in Victoria (City of Yarra) and is a Green certainty for the Victorian Upper House in the Northern Metropolitan region after this year's state election

Michael Caltabiano: elected to the Queensland State Parliament seat of Chatsworth in a by-election last year and before that was a Brisbane City Councillor for the Liberals

Michael Crutchfield: Labor member for South Barwon in Victorian Parliament, former Geelong Mayor and a former union delegate of the United Firefighters Council

Mark Latham: from Mayor of Liverpool to Federal member for Werriwa and Labor's alternative prime minister

Jane Lomax-Smith: former Adelaide Lord Mayor and now Education Minister in the Rann Government

Clover Moore: councillor in Sydney and South Sydney from 1980-87 and then independent member for Bligh from 1988 and also Lord Mayor of Sydney for the past two years

Kate Reynolds: Mount Pleasant councillor and now Democrat member in the South Australian Parliament

Frank Sartor: the former Lord Mayor of Sydney is now Minister for Planning in the Iemma Government

John Thwaites: South Melbourne mayor in 1991-92 and now Victorian deputy premier and Water Minister

Reginald ‘Spot' Turnbull: A former Lord Mayor of Launceston and Australia's first independent senator, plus Tasmanian Treasurer until dismissed from Parliament in 1959

This list will surely finish up close with close to 100 people so send all corrections and additions to smayne@crikey.com.au and we'd also love some free advice on what to tell all these new mayors on a training weekend after last November's local government elections in Victoria.

Copyright © 2022 The Mayne Report. All rights reserved

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