The Labor aficionados who claim to despise Morrison, will find some way to justify this obscene collaboration. Probably meld it into the gangrenous mindspace they store their Genocide, Big Gas, AUKUS, Ecocide, etc. justifications.
The Labor/Liberal Duopoly at work
Cardboard king rich-lister Anthony Pratt does not do things by halves. Why hire one ex-leader when you can have two?
The global chairman of Visy Industries and Pratt Industries has signed up not just former prime minister Scott Morrison as a consultant, but former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews as well. Pratt’s admirably bipartisan hiring policy means he now has a Liberal ex-PM and Labor ex-premier on his books. All bases covered. But definitely not a two-for-one deal, judging by the fees, which one source said were in the region of $100,000. Each.
The Melbourne box billionaire – worth $24.3 billion with his family thanks to the Visy global packaging business and US-based Pratt Industries – has always cultivated the powerful and influential to get ahead in business. This masthead’s investigation showed Pratt hired former prime ministers Tony Abbott and Paul Keating as consultants, with Keating’s monthly fee of $25,000 eclipsing Abbott’s $8000.
The deals with Morrison and Andrews were done a few weeks ago when the pair came looking for work. Separately looking, of course!
In their post-parliamentary lives, both men have set out their shingle in pursuit of coin. In January Andrews set up consultancy businesses Glencairn Street Pty Ltd and Wedgetail Partners Pty Ltd after standing down as premier in September after a nine-year stint. Meanwhile, Morrison, who left parliament in February after losing the 2022 federal election, has found global advisory roles with US-based venture capitalists DYNE Maritime, American Global Strategies and Dubai engineering group Sidara.
The pair have maintained good relations with Pratt over the years. Andrews was on the guest list at the Pratt family mansion Raheen in Kew in February, attending a performance by US pop star Katy Perry alongside his successor as premier, Jacinta Allan; Prime Minister Anthony Albanese; and a bevy of business and political names. And Pratt proudly boasted to then-US president Donald Trump in September 2019 at a factory opening in Wapakoneta, Ohio, that Morrison was the “Don Bradman of Australian job creation”.
We await with interest more news on Scott and Dan’s bespoke billionaire concierge services. Pratt’s people were unable to comment. We did approach Morrison and Andrews, but emailing them, or indeed any ex-leader whose name is not Malcolm or Kevin, is often like touching the void. Both sides now: Anthony Pratt hires Scott Morrison and Daniel Andrews | By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman | Sydney Morning Herald