Helen Coonan continues the culling at Crown
Helen Coonan’s Crown Resorts finds itself in something of a lull following completion of Patricia Bergin’s NSW inquiry into the casino group and ahead of impending, separate royal commissions into the gambling den’s operations in Melbourne and Perth.
The downtime is providing some clear air for executive chair Coonan to quietly continue her cull of execs closely associated with major shareholder James Packer.
Margin Call hears that billionaire Packer’s controversial Mr Fix-It, Ishan Ratnam, has exited Crown’s employ after more than 15 years of loyal and discrete service to the billionaire and his casino empire.
Ratnam, who also goes by the name Ishan Kunaratnam, was a key witness at Bergin’s inquiry as a longstanding executive in Crown’s VIP international high-roller operations and as Packer’s sometime butler, host and personal assistant.
More recently Ratnam has been keeping a lower profile as club manager at Crown’s Capital Golf Course, which the $6.7bn group bought from Melbourne millionaire property developer Lloyd Williams in 2014 for $67m.
Williams was instrumental in founding Crown Melbourne and was an executor of the late Kerry Packer’swill. Ratnam worked for Williams, too, when the developer ran Crown.
Crown did not respond to Margin Call’s inquiries on Ratnam by deadline.
The executive has had a colourful ride during his time at the gambling den.
Ratnam was by Packer’s side when a Crown security guard was allegedly assaulted at Crown’s Melbourne casino in 2016, and was tied up in a scandal surrounding the former boss of Fiat Chrysler Australia Clyde Campbell, who was accused of funnelling money through a company that was part-owned by Ratnam.
His exit from Crown, however, might not be the last we hear from the ever loyal exec.
There is always the possibility that just like in NSW, Ratnam could be called to give evidence at the Victorian and West Australian inquiries. What fun.
Harassment probe
Nothing like a federal government-initiated great big, expensive inquiry to bust things open and bring about change.
Folks surrounding Brittany Higgins’ Parliament House rape allegations and horrific allegations levelled at ChristianPorter must be so relieved that Scott Morrison and his Finance Minister Simon Birmingham took the bold step to appoint sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins to lead an independent probe into how Parliament House treats and responds to allegations of sexual harassment and assault.
But where on earth would Jenkins start?
Here’s an idea.
Perhaps with the almost 1000-page report — Respect@Work: National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces — that Jenkins and her Human Rights Commission undertook for the Morrison government and delivered early last year?
This inquiry, which cost $550,000, examined the nature and prevalence of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces, the drivers of this harassment and measures to address and prevent sexual harassment.
Jenkins’ weighty tome was released publicly by Attorney-General Porter and Minister for Women Marise Payne on March 5 last year and included 55 recommendations on how to address sexual harassment in the workplace.
The report, which was the culmination of an 18-month inquiry by Jenkins, involved extensive consultations with business groups, academics, government agencies, community bodies and victims of sexual harassment.
“The government will now take the time to carefully consider the report and its recommendations,” Porter and Payne’s press release that accompanied publication of the report said.
Jenkins’ report declared in a cover letter to Porter that “Australia now lags behind other countries in preventing and responding to sexual harassment” and that “the rate of change has been disappointingly slow”.
“Sexual harassment in Australian workplaces is widespread and pervasive,” Jenkins told Porter, who is now on mental health leave after last week outing himself as the cabinet minister at the centre of the rape allegation.
“The current legal and regulatory system is simply no longer fit for purpose,” Jenkins went on. “There is an urgency for change.”
Margin Call notes that Jenkins’ work included consultations across the nation with government departments and agencies, including several sessions with Porter’s Attorney-General’s Department.
Other meetings were held with many pollies including Kelly O’Dwyer, Payne and Tanya Plibersek, all who’ve been ministers for women, former independent MP Cathy McGowan and Greens senator Larissa Waters, as well as a who’s who of business leaders, unionists and bureaucrats that walk the halls of Parliament House day in, day out.
There were meetings with the government’s Office for Women that sits within ScoMo’s Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, as well other meetings with the PM&C more generally.
But since then, from the ScoMo, Porter and Payne team on the landmark report?
Crickets.
One year on, Jenkins’ report remains on a shelf, in a drawer or maybe at the bottom of an in-tray in Porter’s office, with Jenkins having until November to now complete her fresh report.
Anyone else feel stuck in a loop?
Scentre chief cleans up
Scentre boss Peter Allen is poised to reap $3.5m in performance rights after navigating the shopping centre operator through the COVID-19 crisis.
Not a bad trade-off after copping a 20 per cent pay cut for three months of last year.
Ahead of the local Westfield owner’s annual general meeting next month, chairman Brian Schwartz set out his notice of meeting, asking shareholders to vote on issuing the chief executive 1,467,353 performance rights.
A short-term bonus of roughly $500,000 in rights to vest in 2023 is put forward as part of the 59-year-old’s 2020 remuneration for leadership, including his “firm but fair” approach to lease negotiations through the height of the pandemic — perhaps fitting given his stand-off with Premier Investments’ Solomon Lew over rental relief.
But the bulk of the handout is a $3m grant as part of Allen’s longer-term remuneration, subject to vesting conditions in three and four years time.
For an industry that has been smashed by lockdowns, and a company which posted a $3.7bn loss, it’s not a bad haul for the former fighter pilot, who is also vice-president of AFL club Essendon.
Recall he was also the beneficiary of retention rights in September, given the high bar for vesting of awards in the previous years.
Combined, that makes for a near $5m payday by February 2024.
Our guess is that he will be counting down the days.
Ishan Ratnam
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