When he first took the stage last Wednesday, Paul Barry seemed pretty sick of talking about his latest book, Who Wants to be a Billionaire. He was speaking at its Brisbane launch hosted by West End’s Avid Reader book shop.
It seemed reasonable, really. Who wouldn’t be sick of it after the media stormlet that centred on it over the last few weeks? (The whirlwind subsided once the book was released and people actually read it.)
Speaking from behind both a microphone and mini iPodesque camera (maybe it was an iPod), the veteran journalist exuded something more than confidence; a certainty of his knowledge, ability and intelligence, while managing to avoid any trace of arrogance. Others may disagree on that last point; I’m notoriously tolerant of arrogance if I think it’s justified.
Barry is the author of other offerings exploring the world of the Packer family — The rise and rise of Kerry Packer and its uncut version, and Rich Kids about the One.Tel debacle. This one, he says, is an exploration of what drives James, the current patriarch.
At this point, I wondered for a second why anyone would care, beyond standard curiosity about the rich and famous. But seeing as what businesses the Packer family runs (several major media outlets and casinos) and how they run them (with a stark lack of what us ordinary folk would call either ethics or morals) any insight into these things is a matter of public interest.
It took Barry three years to write this story and to build it he says he interviewed about 230 people — teachers, schoolmates, friends.
From these conversations, a picture emerged of a man burdened with the responsibility of maintaining the family’s billions and growing them into more. Of a person who grew up overshadowed by a harsh and egotistical father who constantly put him down and wouldn’t let him go to uni because he’d pick up crazy left-wing ideas. The interviewees collectively created a portrait of a desperate man.
Barry tried to talk to Packer himself to get his input into the book that was, after all, about him. What does it say when someone raised in the lap of media conglomerates won’t talk to the media because he doesn’t trust them?
But then, when you make most of your money from casinos which in turn make about 40 per cent of their money from problem gamblers, you’d probably want to stay out of the spotlight and its pesky tendency to illuminate dark corners.
I don’t normally read books about rich yobos, but Barry convinced me his might be worth a look. Brisbane Square Library here I come.
