New Crown Resorts director Nigel Morrison praises James Packer

A young Nigel Morrison, left, with then Crown Casino chairman Lloyd Williams in 1999.

As much as the new broom that’s sweeping through Crown Resorts might want stakeholders to believe that the spectre of billionaire James Packer no longer looms large in the boardroom of the in-crisis casino empire, the reality appears a little different.

One of Crown’s newest directors, Nigel Morrison, in his pitch to shareholders to be elected on to the board at the company’s Jane Halton-chaired virtual annual meeting on Thursday, made clear his admiration for troubled businessman Packer.

Morrison worked as an executive of Crown in Melbourne for seven years until 2000 as chief operating officer of the southern capital’s monopoly gambling den, before joining other casino companies elsewhere in the Asian region including New Zealand and Hong Kong.

Cartoon by Rod Clement

In response to a question concerning his relationship with the Sydney-born billionaire, who for several years has lived a peripatetic lifestyle offshore, Morrison banged on about how Packer, 54, had been instrumental in the development of Crown in Melbourne, Perth and most recently Sydney.

“You have got to attribute a number of those (successes) to Packer,” Morrison gushed.

Never mind that Patricia Bergin’s Royal commission into Crown in Sydney found Packer, who still has a 37 per cent stake in the $6.5bn company, to be “deeply flawed” as a casino associate, with it now up the regulator in NSW to determine whether Packer is an appropriate person to be involved in the casino.

Social snaps of new Crown directors Nigel Morrison and Bruce Carter in Adelaide in 2015.

Release of Ray Finkelstein’s final report following the royal commission into Crown Melbourne is imminent, with the document last week received by the Andrews government, while the review into Crown in Perth will report next March.

Interim chair Halton, who is filling in following the inevitable exit of Helen Coonan, had the pleasure of presiding over a humiliating second strike against the gambling group’s remuneration report.

“We are listening,” the also ANZ director said of the shareholder revolt. “We understand completely the concern.”

Shareholders could be forgiven for wondering how long it will take for the new look Crown board to actually hear.

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Ziggy on the sidelines

They weren’t invited to the meeting, but nonetheless the nation’s casino regulators were omnipresent at Crown’s AGM even as shareholders took over the questioning this time around.

Probity, as we have come to learn through the recent director turnover, is a lengthy process, forcing chairman-elect Ziggy Switkowski and incoming director Anne Ward to watch on merely as observers on Thursday.

Ziggy Switkowski watched on as an observer … Picture: Paul Jeffers/ The Australian.

While interim chair Jane Halton ran the show. Picture: Mick Tsikas.

The move saw the casino group pull a resolution relating to Switkowski’s election at the eleventh hour, evidently the delays coming as a surprise to the group despite the former RMIT chancellor holding similar approvals for his more than 10 years at Tabcorp up until early 2020.

It’s a feeling Crown chief Steve McCann knows all too well. He only got the nod this week from all three state regulators, even after being appointed to the role almost six months ago.

At that rate, interim chair Jane Halton will hold her post until well into 2022, in what could be perfect timing if it can line up with the release of the final report of Perth’s inquiry.

One name who won’t be sticking around that long is Toni Korsanos, the latest meeting being her last as she heads off to make bigger bucks over her float of SG Lotteries.

Just as speculation mounted the new float had locked in cornerstone demand upwards of $3bn, Korsanos, one of only a few to have left Crown of her own volition and in line with the annual meeting schedule, made just a brief appearance at the virtual meeting, heaped with praise by Halton for her steadfast commitment in a rocky year.

Shareholders heard she had suggested a move to put director elections on the agenda every year, as is the practice at Treasury Wines where she also sits on the board, with that procedural matter now adding to Switkowski’s growing to-do list.

Probity cleared or not, Perth’s unfolding inquiry doesn’t seem to care, all directors and McCann are set to be called to give evidence next week in what commissioner Neville Owen has described as the remediation portion of the inquiry.

It was CFO Alan McGregor’s turn on Thursday, now an old hand at the probe process, detailing the company’s connections with CPH, again, before going on to describe the group’s reformed tax practices.

The real excitement comes next week when Packer beams in from his LA abode, just his second public appearance before any regulator to date.

Get the popcorn ready.

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Gone bush

While Crown plots its new path under a reinvigorated board, the old guard are doing, well, noticeably less.

Former chief Rowen Craigie, who steered the company for a decade from 2007, has kept a remarkably low profile since his exit, and its accompanying $10m payout, in 2017.

Crown chairman James Packer with then CEO Rowen Craigie in 2013. Picture: AAP Image/Julian Smith.

Recall at the time Craigie, now 66, was the highest-ranking scalp in the wake of the China arrests, details we’ve since heard plenty more of thanks to Bergin’s inquiry.

While he had set up his own consulting firm, aptly named Rowen Craigie Consulting, Margin Call also hears the casino exec has in recent months made a permanent move north to the beachside town of Cabarita on NSW’s Tweed Coast.

Hardly comparable to Crown’s bright lights, though we do hear the local surf lifesaving club does a good meat tray.

Craigie largely severed ties with the garden city following his resignation in 2017, selling his Middle Park home to Andrew Thorburnsoon after his departure, though he maintained a position on the board of Racing Victoria.

As of the racing organisation’s September meeting however, Craigie no longer is on the board, its chair Brian Kruger (a former chief of Toll Holdings) citing Craigie’s permanent relocation while Racing Minister Martin Pakula thanked him for his four years of service.

He does however remain on the board of the organisation’s integrated media business, hardly enough to keep him based in the world’s most locked down city though.

Craigie appearing before the NSW casino inquiry in 2020. Picture: Supplied.

After building a three-storey beachside mansion at Cabarita over several years, the former exec looks to have a new project on his hands, shelling out $1.9m last month to build his Tweed property portfolio out to two, this time with Joanne Sumner-Wright on the title too.

Still, he retains an apartment in Port Melbourne that he bought at end 2019 for $1.07m as well as a home on the Mornington Peninsula in Blairgowrie, held for 26 years after buying for $160,000 in 1995, mortgaged to National Australia Bank.

What to do though, with all his spare time? We hear there’s still an opening at his new home state’s racing board, with Better Regulation Minister Kevin Anderson said to be weighing up the skills matrix of his racing body. An ex-Crown exec could be just what they need.