Don Burke: Kerry Packer told Nine star to behave

Media titan Kerry Packer personally called one of his biggest stars Don Burke and ordered that he behave himself.

Media titan Kerry Packer personally called one of his biggest stars Don Burke and ordered that he behave himself.

The Daily Telegraph reports today that Packer, the then owner of Nine, phoned Burke after Olympic swimmer Susie O’Neill lodged a formal complaint against the Burke’s Backyard host in 2000.

O’Neill claims Burke made crude and belittling remarks during a visit to her Brisbane home ahead of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The eight-time Olympic medal winner said Burke was looking at a painting of a flower by her husband when he made a sexual remark about her body, prompting her to complain to Nine about his behaviour.

The Telegraph reports Packer phoned Burke as a result of O’Neill’s complaint, casting doubt on Channel 9 assertions the network was ignorant of the claims surrounding Burke at the time.

It has also been reported that Burke was banned from flying with Qantas during the peak of his fame because of his inappropriate conduct.

More allegations of sexual harassment by Burke have emerged as it was revealed more than 800 women had contacted journalists with claims about industry figures.

Two women said the former Nine TV host had attempted to force them onto beds in separate incidents. Home decorator Julie Nielsen invited the host of Burke’s Backyard into her home to film a segment only for him to allegedly attempt to force her onto a bed.

“You wouldn’t accept that behaviour from anyone and I had only known him for half an hour and it was just full on, he was a real bully,” Ms Nielsen told A Current Affair last night.

Tina Jarrett, a waitress in Moss Vale, alleged that Burke pushed her onto a bed when they were having after dinner drinks and said: “My wife and I have an agreement that it would be okay if I had sex with you my wife would agree with that.”

“I freaked out and said get off me — no way,” she told A Current Affair.

Kerry Packer reportedly phoned Don Burke to tell him to behave himself.

Burke, 70, who was the genial face of Nine’s ratings-winning gardening program Burke’s Backyard for almost 17 years from the 1980s to 2004, has denied all allegation of harassment or indecent assault and engaged defamation lawyers.

A Current Affair also claimed that Qantas banned Don Burke due to inappropriate behaviour for a period in the 1990s. The airline was not able to confirm this to The Australian last night.

The fresh allegations about inappropriate behaviour from one of the industry’s biggest stars came as the number of women making complaints and exposing harassment by other men in the media and entertainment industries skyrocketed and included Olympic champion Susie O’Neil.

The ABC’s 7.30 reported the story of Amanda Pepe who was a 20-year-old journalist working in Outback NSW in the late 1980s when Don Burke and his film crew came to town.

Ms Pepe was assigned to cover the visit and, after she hit it off with the crew and Mr Burke over dinner, he offered her a television presenting role on a new project and flew her to Sydney. He picked her up from the airport and had a single rose waiting on the passenger seat of the car. Then, he drove her to a hotel room.

“The intent was very clear that he expected to have sex, and that he’d pay for the room, that I, more or less, owed it to him,” she said. And, yeah, it was very uncomfortable. I think he tried to, more or less, guilt me into it.

“And I was feeling extremely unsure of myself by this stage. And to this day, I’m glad I didn’t go through with it.”

A freelance sound recordist who worked with Burke also told the program he witnessed the same behaviour reported by women.

Don Burke with his wife Marea in 2014. Picture: Supplied.

The recordist, who is anonymous, said Burke would “frequently” point to women on the street and ask him: “Would you f — k that mate?”

The presenter also asked the recordist if he would “lick my dog’s arse.”

“And that was just so humiliating. It showed the sort of man that he was to me,” he said.

Journalist and campaigner Tracey Spicer, who started investigating harassment in the wake on US scandals, said 670 women had now come forward to her and 200 women had approached Fairfax Media investigative journalist Kate McClymont.

Labor leader Bill Shorten said the governor-general should consider stripping Burke of his order of Australia, “I think it’s something that has to be looked at …. there should be accountability for his behaviour,” Mr Shorten told ABC Radio.

“To the victims who have come forward, and there has been plenty of them, this is not easy to do or to relive or to talk about.”

Last week Burke engaged Patrick George, a senior partner at Kennedys Australia, to act for him in any potential legal action arising out of the extensive coverage of his behaviour.

But the status of legal action by Burke remained unclear this evening and none had been lodged.

Earlier, swimmer Susie O’Neill, now a Brisbane radio announcer, said Burke made sexual remarks during a visit to her Brisbane home ahead of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

The eight-time Olympic medal winner said Burke made a sexual remark about her body after observing a painting of a flower by her husband. “It was crude and it was belittling,” O’Neill told Fairfax Media.

Burke has rejected the allegations that he sexually harassed and indecently assaulted women, saying he was “deeply hurt and outraged” by the claims, and asserting they were made by former employees who held a “grudge” against him.

“There is a lot of people that don’t like me and they can’t all be wrong. I guess this is the Harvey Weinstein thing and we’ve got a witch hunt,” he told A Current Affair on Monday night.

The Australian does not suggest Burke is guilty of any of the allegations, only that he has been accused.

Two former Nine Network chief executives — David Leckie and Sam Chisholm — were publicly critical about their interactions with Burke.

Leckie, who led Nine from 1990 to 2001, told Fairfax that Burke was a “horrible, horrible man”.

A statement from Nine said the allegations were extremely serious and would not be tolerated at Nine today: “The current management of Nine is simply not in a position to comment on these specific allegations or on how these sorts of matters may have been dealt with in the past.

“I’m prepared to cop that I might have terrified a few people and that I shouldn’t have done that ... Towards the end of Burke’s Backyard I must have been a bear with a bloody sore head and I do apologise for it. “I have looked in the mirror and there’s a lot I don’t like.”