12/20/2023 0 Comments Steele saunders kerry packer![]() ![]() His newspapers distinguished themselves during the Depression by accusing New South Wales Labor Premier Jack Lang of being a communist, and by publishing favourable reports of public meetings held by the New Guard fascist movement. While both newspapers featured populist editorials and muckraking investigations of political corruption, Packer always had stridently right-wing sympathies. helped found the popular Smith’s Weekly newspaper in 1919, which was followed by the Daily Guardian in 1923. ![]() After first working as a journalist, R.C. Packer moved to Sydney in 1900, one year before the federated Australian nation-state was founded. The son of a colonial customs official in Tasmania, R.C. The origins of Packer’s enormous wealth can be traced back to Kerry Packer’s grandfather, Robert Clyde (R.C.) Packer. Its commemorations have thus taken the form of an open celebration of itself. Packer can only be understood as both a product and representative of the Australian ruling class as a whole. ![]() The ruling class can point to no noble historical episodes of political sacrifice and revolutionary struggle, and has always been characterised by parasitism and backwardness. The nation-state was founded as an outpost of the British Empire, with the wealth of the elite largely derived from the pastoral and mining exploitation of a land violently seized from the indigenous population. The Australian ruling class, after all, has little to parade beyond its money and possessions. On the contrary, one senses that much of the establishment’s high praise is driven by envy for the billionaire’s ability to amass a fortune through largely parasitic and non-productive enterprises. The fact that Kerry Packer’s business empire was ultimately based on two factors-politically-influenced state regulation and systematic tax avoidance-has deterred none of his admirers. Contrary to the long-standing myths about Australia being an “egalitarian” society, for the ruling elite there is but one relevant measure for assessing the value of an individual’s life-namely, just how much money that person has amassed. That such an individual has been so fulsomely praised casts a sharp light upon the nature of social relations in contemporary Australia. His god was money and he worshipped devoutly.” As Packer’s unofficial biographer Paul Barry commented, “Despite his vast wealth, he was a man with no obvious sense of civic duty. (“The ultimate purgatory would be to go to the Opera House and hear Joan Sutherland sing,” he once said.) He had a vicious and cruel sense of humour, enjoyed bullying his employees and federal politicians alike, and esteemed nothing beyond his own wealth and power. He was poorly educated, and despised books and the arts. Packer himself was a particularly philistine and boorish individual. What accounts for this extraordinary spectacle? In the days since, coverage of his funeral, his son and heir Jamie, and various other aspects of Packer’s life has been no less exhaustive. The Sydney Morning Herald’s December 28 edition, headlined “Death of a Giant”, devoted no less than seven full pages to various aspects of his life and death. The media joined the effusive praise for Packer. Labor leader Kim Beazley said that he would miss his conversations with Packer, whose views “were underpinned with a profound patriotism and a nationalist approach”. The government has announced that it is holding a state memorial service for the billionaire, to be held next month. Packer’s death, Howard insisted, represented “a very big loss for Australia because he was a passionate believer in this country”. Prime Minister John Howard called a special news conference on December 27 to declare his sadness for the demise of a man he described as a “friend”. His Publishing & Broadcasting Limited company has a range of interests spread across television, magazines, and casinos and gambling. Packer was Australia’s wealthiest individual, with a personal fortune estimated at $7 billion (US$5.1 billion) at the time of his death. The Australian ruling elite has spent much of the holiday season eulogising the late Kerry Packer, who died December 26. ![]()
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