It’s been quite the innings for some of Australia’s wealthiest billionaires. Certain large proprietary companies owned by the establishment – Secret Rich-Listers as we call them – have been cloaked in darkness by government legislation for more than a quarter of a century. Luke Stacey reports how South Australian Senator Rex Patrick is fighting to buck the trend and demolish Australia’s Secret Rich List once and for all.
“Political donations buy access to parliamentarians, they buy policy outcomes, and they buy a post-parliament career with the revolving door between politics and business”. Stephanie Tran and Michael West investigate the dark money which flows from Australia’s old-wealth family empires to the major political parties.
Have Australia’s wealthiest old families bought off the political process? Despite myriad attempts over the years to repeal the cosy “grandfathering” exemption, the billionaires are still permitted – like no other Australians – to keep their companies “dark”. Today Michael West Media unveils the first in a series of investigations by Luke Stacy and Stephanie Tran involving more than 5,000 corporate searches to find the people and the labyrinthine structures behind the Secret Rich List. Luke Stacey and Michael West report.
