It arrived with a portentous thud, tucked inside the September 28, 2001 edition of The Australian Financial Review newspaper. “The Power lists comprise three premier lists,” stated the opening line of the 110-page inaugural Power issue of The Australian Financial Review Magazine. “These identify the people with the tightest grip on three major strands of power in this country: overt, covert and cultural.”

And then the next line, as if to fend off an expected torrent of criticism: “Of course the process was not intended to be scientific. Power is in large part a matter of perception and opinion.”