Author(s): Neil Chenoweth

Business & Economics

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an Australian in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a Swiss banker ...' The dark channels of money and power that flow beneath the surface of Australian society are perilous places. Behind the gossip columns and headlines, the famous names and celebrity makeovers, life is a precarious business. One wrong move spells disaster. For this is the world of the networkers. The games they play, the restaurants they frequent and the social circles they inhabit determine who is in and who is out. Who ends up very rich and who is bankrupt. Everyone is a diner, but who gets to share the crumbs and who ends up on the menu? For years Graham Richardson, Trevor Kennedy and Rene Rivkin navigated these waters deftly with a little secret help from their offshore advisor. The exposure of their Swiss accounts uncovered a world of secret share trading going back decades by a much wider group of players. This is a story of more than just three clever swimmers. It's a lifestyle. In Packer's Lunch Neil Chenoweth plots the twists and turns of the 1990s network wars with a deadly eye. His cutting account ranges from the culinary carn