Campbell: Why James Packer’s bratty outburst makes me angry

James Packer’s bratty tirade against Daniel Andrews is absurd given how easy the former Premier went on his dodgy casino.

James Packer has made me feel angry on behalf of Daniel Andrews.

It’s an unpleasant feeling, one I didn’t think possible.

But with his entitled interview with former AFR journo Joe Aston, he has laid bare his breathtaking ingratitude.

To recap: when Packer’s company had the licence from the Victorian government to operate the state’s only casino it breached “its legal, social and moral obligations, resulting in illegal activities, tax avoidance, money laundering, criminal associations, and significant harm to vulnerable community members”.

Crown Casino breached many of its obligations under Packer’s leadership. Picture: David Crosling

Unsurprisingly the Royal Commission which reached those conclusions also found his company was unsuitable to hold the Melbourne Casino Licence.

If it was just Victoria you could perhaps explain it away as a one-off.

But inquiries also found the Packer-controlled entity was unsuitable to operate casinos in NSW and Western Australia.

In the circumstances Daniel Andrews would have been well within his rights to have simply cancelled his company’s licence.

Daniel Andrews would have been justified in going harder on Packer given the controversies that plagued his businesses. Picture: James Ross

Indeed, in my opinion he should have and so should his interstate counterparts.

After all, governments allowed everyone else who set foot inside Packer’s casinos to lose everything they had.

Why should they have been worried about protecting his interests?

But instead, for reasons which have never made sense to me, Packer was allowed to sell out to the US private equity mob Blackstone in a deal worth $8.9 billion.

It seems there was one rule for him and another for the suckers at his gaming tables.

You would think he would count himself lucky, but amazingly he seems to be aggrieved at his treatment.

Last week he unleashed on Dan in his interview with Aston.

“Daniel Andrews is about my least favourite person in the world. I think Daniel Andrews not only ruined Victoria, he almost ruined my life,” he said.

His beef is with tax changes he says were sprung on the company ahead of its sale to Blackstone.

“With three weeks to go,” he said, “f---ing Daniel Andrews changes the tax rates on Crown and rips 50 million of …. out of Crown and gives no compensation.

“It’s a miracle that Blackstone didn’t activate the material adverse change clause. I thought that was appalling behaviour. I’m looking forward to seeing Daniel Andrews in person and speaking far more aggressively than I am.”

In fact, the only “miracle” is that the company still had a licence to sell.

There’s an internet word – “failson” which is defined as an “incompetent, unsuccessful middle or upper-class man who is protected from economic duress by his family’s wealth or influence.

It might have been coined for James Packer.

Seriously, who does he think he is?