RIP & Good Riddance to Richard Pratt

[Jovial Monk]

From PB. A rare time I agree with Darren Hinch:

I think Hinch sums up Pratt pretty well.

“Between them Visy and Amcor owned more than 90 per cent of the cardboard box industry in Australia. Your cans of soft drink, your cakes of soap, your laundry powder, your toothpaste, your cans of baked beans and pet food almost surely came to the supermarket in cartons manufactured by Visy or Amcor.

When news of a civil action first broke in 2005 Pratt lied. He said: “I had no part in any market-sharing agreement or understanding with my competitors.” He had. He met at least twice with the boss of Amcor’s twice at the All Nations hotel in Richmond.

There were clandestine meetings in car parks and motels and suburban pubs because they all knew what they were doing was wrong. Men on big expense accounts not using their own mobile phones because the calls could be traced.

They conspired to screw you. And, illegally, they got at least $700 million of your money.”

http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/blog-with-d ... -af45.html

[Ethnic]

And there's plenty more where that came from - Coles/Woolworths have 80% of the grocery market, Pepsi/Coca Cola dominate the soft drink market, Lion Nathan owns most of the beer. Our competition laws blow. When will we have a government that will stand up to this?

[mantra.]

Yes we are the only country in the developed world who squashes competition. Even in the US & Canada I think the largest multinationals only have a market share of less than 30%, but here it's open slather. It made me sick to see the words that Richard Pratt's main concern in his final hours was that the business he built should continue to grow and keep pushing so that Visy Australasia and Pratt USA can emerge even stronger and greater.

A true capitalist till his last breath - no concern for all those little businesses trampled on along the way to achieve his billions with the full co-operation of the lax and ineffective ACCC.

Small businesses have been begging for loop holes to be closed in our consumer laws for more than a decade but the governments don't listen - no doubt the donations to their respective parties are too large to ignore.

[JW Frogen]

The name Pratt is very unfortunate.

Who would not automatically say RIP & Good Riddance?