The IBA had to approve, in principle, the proposed transfer of Packer’s 27.25 per cent holding (now named Nine Broadcasting) in TV-am, to Bond Media UK Ltd. By this deal, Alan Bond, a fellow Australian, acquired Packer’s share in TV-am. In January 1987, however, Packer’s Consolidated Press Holdings Group sold its television and broadcasting interests to Bond Corporation Holdings Ltd. It was “our State’s darkest political decade”.Kerry Packer in 1984 had provided a large proportion of money to rescue TV-am at a time when it appeared that no alternative source of finance was available. “The facts of history speak for themselves,” he said.įor Mr Court, the summary is simple. Mr MacKinnon said the royal commission “clearly showed the real folly of those years”. Mr Edwards said the Liberal Party decision not to back the Rothwells bailout was correct politically, while Labor was damaged for years. “As well intentioned as we were, we made some mistakes because we weren’t experienced and we didn’t have the knowledge that was necessary to be able to deal with a whole range of matters,” he said. Mr Burke said that with hindsight, the government became too close to entrepreneurs and business. Mr Court highlighted WA Inc losses to taxpayers, and in 1993 he defeated Dr Lawrence to end Labor’s 10 years in office. Mr MacKinnon’s dogged pursuit of the inquiry was unable to save him either, and in 1992 he was replaced by Mr Court. In February 1990, Labor turned to Carmen Lawrence as leader, hoping for a fresh start and political clear air.ĭr Lawrence finally agreed to a royal commission and its explosive hearings and damaging findings in October 1992 sealed Labor’s fate. Mr Dowding led Labor to a third successive victory but soon Mr Bond and Labor fell out. “I liken him to a leader like Maggie Thatcher, like George Bush.” “Peter Dowding is a leader,” Mr Bond said. It failed and PICL followed Rothwells into liquidation.Īs Mr Dowding headed into a State election in 1989, Mr Bond got behind him. Mr Burke stepped down as premier in February 1988, replaced by Peter Dowding, but the questions about various government deals continued and its troubles grew.īy midyear, Mr Bond played a central role with the State Government Insurance Commission in buying Mr Holmes a Court’s Bell Group.Īnd in October, the Dowding government and Bond Corp agreed to buy a proposed Kwinana petrochemical project, known as PICL, from Mr Connell and entrepreneur Dallas Dempster for $400 million, in the hope most of it would flow into Rothwells to keep the high-risk financier afloat. Mr Bond was eventually shown as one of Labor’s biggest donors in those early heady days, sending more than $2 million the party’s way through Mr Burke’s Leader’s Account.
#Kerry packer rescue full
“He was brimming full of ideas and had a very firm view about the role that he thought Bond Corporation could play in the running the State,” Mr Burke said.Īs the good times rolled, Mr Bond joined well-known business figures in a Labor fundraising body, the John Curtin Foundation.Īlan Bond being assisted to court by his lawyers. Mr Burke said Mr Bond was “very forthright, perhaps even brash, in telling me how the government should run the State”. Mr Bond was the most ambitious, and in 1983 he went knocking on the door of the new administration. What followed was a coming together of ideas, energy, ambition and money. The new premier wanted to find ways to fund State services needed by utilising WA’s “four-on-the-floor entrepreneurs”. The 10 turbulent years had their genesis in Mr Burke’s election as premier in 1983. Given the tag “WA Inc”, they saw Labor dumped from office.
“I had little to do with him after that, deliberately,” Mr MacKinnon said.īut he then went on to hitch his and the WA Liberal Party’s star to a relentless push for a royal commission into the government’s business dealings. He said Mr Bond attacked his refusal to back the plan and “threatened to remove me as the Liberal leader”.
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