Ellison on torture, AWB AGM and Packer insights
July 16, 2008
Here are Stephen Mayne's three stories from the Crikey edition on Friday, 24 February, 2006.
1. Our Justice Minister's views on torture
By Stephen Mayne
Federal Justice Minister Chris Ellison dropped a proverbial bomb at the Law Summer School in Perth yesterday during a debate on the lofty topic of the juxtaposition of anti-terrorism laws and the rule of law.
Lord Justice Kennedy and Professor HP Lee spoke, followed by a panel discussion including John North (Law Council president), Alexandra Richards QC and Senator Ellison, among others.
Eventually the subject was raised about what courts do with evidence obtained by torture. Lord Justice Kennedy responded in terms of an English House of Lords decision. Then came the Ellison bombshell when our Justice Minister openly declared that he had a policy of not asking if information was obtained by torture – the information was paramount, not the means of it being obtained.
He went on to say that the AFP would love to be able to torture people to get information if there was a bomb attack pending and they needed to know the details.
The rather stunned audience was then told that Amrosi and some of the other Bali bombers were convicted on evidence obtained by the Indonesian police using torture, but the AFP abided by Australian law in the investigation.
Gee, thank goodness for that. And this man is a Minister of the Crown in whom we place our trust!
4. Answers AWOL at AWB AGM
By Stephen Mayne, small AWB shareholder
It was a case of parliament meets a corporate AGM yesterday when four members of the Corporations and Financial Services joint committee – Liberals Grant Chapman and George Brandis, Labor's Penny Wong and Democrat Andrew Murray – attended the first hour of the AWB AGM at Melbourne Park yesterday.
Sadly, they didn't get a lot out of it because besieged chairman Brendan Stewart used the "can't comment as that's before the Cole Inquiry" stonewalling tactic about 30 times over the three-hour meeting.
Sitting in the middle of the politicians was none other than Gavin Anderson spin king Ian Smith who, along with the lawyers, presumably advised the AWB board to neuter much of the value of the AGM by refusing any debate over the Iraq bribery scandal.
Smiffy's group and a phalanx of lawyers have soaked up the $16 million pre-tax hit that AWB has suffered because of the Cole Inquiry, which exactly explains the promised 10% profit rise this year being wound back to a flat forecast.
While his general counsel Jim Cooper was being put through the ringer at the Cole Inquiry in Sydney, Brendan Stewart relied on three lawyers sitting behind him to guide yesterday's meeting.
This brought back memories of the five lawyers who sat behind Sir Eric Neal at the 1993 Westpac meeting pulling the strings. Stewart got through yesterday's torrid meeting in reasonable shape but he came across as every bit the farmer when one goose from NSW asked whether this whole Volcker Inquiry was a US conspiracy to get rid of the single desk. After taking legal advice for 30 seconds, Stewart pointed out that Volcker was actually a UN thing.
About 30 different shareholders spoke – 28 farmers and two reps from the Australian Shareholders' Association – and it was notable that no-one spoke out against the single desk. After three hours of argument I found myself almost convinced about its merits, although there clearly needs to be a massive cull of the board and senior management if it is to remain.
The majority of speakers were from interstate and the Herald Sun this morning claimed that AWB flew in several pro-single desk advocates from around the country and put them up in hotels. This may be so, but Stewart waited until all the questions had expired and not one speaker called for the abolition of the single desk. Several farmers attacked the media for dredging up anti-single desk advocates who were certainly nowhere to be seen yesterday.
The representative board which gives farmers a guaranteed majority will surely have to go. Brendan Stewart is the chairman of a $1.5 billion company but yesterday he was re-elected with 92% support – that was 300 of the 327 Queensland resident grain growers who were eligible to votes on this resolution.
These farmers need to realise that if you want public capital, you can't have such a ridiculous board gerrymander. Maybe they should buy back all the B class public shares at full freight and then just leave the A class grower shareholders to do as they please.
Public shareholders are clearly frustrated as the only resolution they could vote on, the remuneration report, attracted a surprisingly large 28% against vote. This suggests the $400,000 pay rise for directors would have been defeated if it hadn't been withdrawn.
Some shareholders attempted to not endorse the accounts, pass a resolution of dismissal and postpone the board elections, but this was all batted away by Stewart, usually after the legal string-pullers had given their advice.
14. More on the KP media blitz – and an anecdote
By Stephen Mayne
The Crikey army's fascination with the Packer family continues as emails keep pouring in after last Friday's memorial service.
Subscriber Pam was totally flabbergasted when it was announced that the VIPs would stand and leave the memorial service first. This included Tom Cruise, but not Nick Ross, the chopper pilot whose kidney gave Kerry Packer another five years of life. What does that say about the superficiality of the whole Packer media blitz about him being close to the common man?
As for the presence of Anglican Archbishop Jensen, a subscriber points out this probably reflected the $1 million that Kerry Packer dropped in to fix the financial deficit at Moore Theological College, the bible school for Anglicans in Sydney, about four years ago.
Given that John Howard was appointing Archbishop Hollingworth Governor General around this time, maybe Big Kerry thought this was a good way to keep sweet with the PM? Then again, we keep being told how Kerry insisted on confidentiality with these donations. Confidentiality appears to lend itself to exaggeration, if the claim by Alan Jones in The Bulletin that Packer gave "hundreds of millions" to Sydney hospitals is any guide.
Another subscriber points to what US industrialist Andrew Carnegie said: "A man who dies with his fortune intact dies diminished.”
Rather than waste it on gambling, mistresses and other excesses, Carnegie gave away something more than 90% of his fortune for good works prior to his death. Kerry turned $100 million into $7 billion and managed to spend an estimated $50-$100 million a year living an extravagant lifestyle along the way.
On the question of John Laws missing the service, a subscriber points out that he finishes his program on a Friday at 11.30am, followed by half an hour of highlights from earlier in the week. He would have had time to get from the lower North Shore to the Opera House if he'd really wanted to attend the memorial service. Maybe he was taking a stand for his mate Paul Keating?
Then there is the question of how much of our money was spent last Friday. Brian correctly points out that there hasn't even been a wild ball-park guesstimate of the total cost.
It would be very interesting to know where taxpayer largesse stopped and Packer family contributions started. Security, food, TV production, transport of mourners, transport of choristers, transport of Greg Norman,Tom Cruise and friends. James Packer is a Qantas director, so did the national airline help out at all? Was Alan Jones paid for his performance? Was Geoff Harvey? Was anyone?
Finally, we did like this anecdote from former BBC boss Greg Dyke on Packer not being a great bloke:
The recollections I have of Kerry Packer, the Australian media magnate who died over Christmas, go back to the time when he decided to buy 20 per cent of the fledgling breakfast station TVam. I was editor-in-chief of TVam at the time and remember asking Packer why he had spent a million pounds on TVam when most people thought it was going bust. His reply? "I risk more than that at the races on a Saturday."
One day Packer asked me what was needed to turn TVam into a success, assuring me what I said would be confidential. I explained that while I was a fan of TVam's chief executive, Tim Aitken, I thought we needed a full-time leader, not one who spent most of his time running a bank.
Packer went straight to see Tim and said: "Dyke says I should fire you." It was then I decided Packer wasn't my sort of bloke. A few weeks later Tim became chairman, Packer's protege, Bruce Gyngell, became chief executive and I decided my future lay elsewhere.
So much for the sanctity of keeping confidences.
Keep the Packer anecdotes coming to smayne@crikey.com.au.
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