Mighty pay homage to cardboard king

In 2007 Richard Pratt achieved a lifetime dream of becoming president of Carlton Football Club. Photo / Getty Images

Australia's vast Visy empire, reaching from New Zealand to the United States, this week shifted to a new generational axis as Anthony Pratt moved into the controlling chair at the group's Melbourne headquarters.

His father Richard died of prostate cancer, and was farewelled on Thursday at a funeral packed with the powerful, influential and famous, leaving a crater in corporate Australia for his heir to fill.

Pratt was not only the nation's fourth-richest man, with a fortune estimated at almost A$5.5 billion ($7 billion). He also epitomised the Australian dream of opportunity and enterprise, and the spirit of a generation of buccaneering businessmen.

Philanthropist, family man, actor, singer, football player and benefactor of the arts, Pratt also lived a secret life that only became public, painfully, in his last years: a mistress and a young daughter, and collusive business practices that dogged him to his deathbed.

As he lay dying, Australia placed virtues over sin. Criminal charges relating to earlier price-fixing action against Visy were dropped and none less than Prime Minister Kevin Rudd joined a long list of valedictions from the mighty.

Victoria's Labor Premier, John Brumby, described Pratt as "an exceptional Victorian, exceptional Australian".

Former conservative Prime Minister John Howard praised him as a remarkable man who exemplified the migrant story: "He combined all the positive elements that migrants successfully gave so much to our country.

"He became in many ways the example of things regarded as Australian - sport, success, family and commitment."

Yet even as the valedictions flowed, shadows remained. Some commentators believed Pratt's family and friends had used well-honed media skills to shape a final, sympathetic view of the billionaire, feeding information from within his closed Kew mansion.

And the Australian carried a bitter, concluding note to Pratt's feud with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which had driven the criminal charges against him.

The Australian quoted sources claiming that ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel believed himself to be the victim of a "vicious, orchestrated campaign" by Pratt's supporters. Pratt had previously accused Samuel of running a personal vendetta against him.

It was a long road from Gdansk, Poland, where he was born in December 1934 to Leon and Paula Przecicki, Jews who fled the coming Nazi holocaust in 1938.

They lived first in the rural Victorian centre of Shepparton, where Leon first bought an orchard, then found that it was more profitable to make boxes for other farmers.

The business prospered, and in 1948 the family moved to Melbourne, where the company, Visy, started manufacturing corrugated cardboard boxes.

Pratt thrived in the city, marking himself in the Carlton AFL juniors and reserves - where he won best and fairest for the under-19s - and discovering real talent on the stage.

By then working for Visy's sales and marketing department, Pratt started studying commerce at the University of Melbourne, but was distracted by acting, singing - with a rich baritone - and a boisterous love of life.

Revues and plays killed his studies before graduation, but won him the role of Johnny Dowd in Ray Lawler's West End and New York productions of The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. Reportedly, he was offered - but declined - work in Hollywood.

Instead, Pratt returned to Australia and Visy, met and married wife Jeanne in 1959, and took over the company on the death of his father a decade later.

Pratt's management style was an awesome blend of energy, attention to the smallest detail, and aggressive expansion. He was at work throughout his life by 6am, working long, hard days, and maintaining detailed knowledge of all his operations.

He forged influential connections, courting both sides of politics and counting former Labor Prime Ministers Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke among a circle that also embraced former conservative Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser.

He had an extensive network of friends and contacts among business that expanded as he turned to the arts and philanthropy, donating up to A$10 million a year to causes such as mental health through a foundation that rarely made the news.

Visy prospered, expanding into New Zealand, the US and Papua New Guinea.

He was a major player by the 1980s, with a fortune estimated then at A$70 million, and a two-fisted style that sat well with the period, pushing not only his core business but diversifying into some at times shaky ground.

He was associated in deals with a number of now-fallen stars, such as New Zealand's Allan Hawkins, of Equiticorp, Christopher Skase, Alan Bond and John Elliott, and was burned badly by diversion into financial services through the Battery Group.

In 1993 his dealings with Elliott caused more grief when the National Crime Authority and the Tax Office churned them through their mill as part of investigations into foreign exchange dealings by Elliott's Elders IXL.

Nothing came of it, and the NCA paid costs incurred by Pratt.

But as Visy's fortunes continued to boom and Pratt's billions accumulated, clouds were gathering, both at home and in the office.

In 2000, a legal dispute between Sydney socialite Shari-lea Hitchcock and her nanny claimed Pratt as collateral damage.

The nanny claimed Pratt had tried to silence her with hush money, and the secret was out: Pratt had a long-time mistress, who in 1997 had given birth to a daughter, Paula.

In the only public discussion of her husband's affair, Jeanne Pratt told the Weekend Australian: "Put it this way. Shit happens and life moves on."

The affair surfaced again as Pratt neared death, with reports that 11-year-old Paula would inherit property and millions of dollars, and that in an act of great generosity Jeanne had allowed Hitchcock an hour to farewell her former lover.

At work, Pratt was in serious trouble. Visy and rival Amcor were being investigated for price-fixing and market rigging.

In 2007, just as Pratt achieved a lifetime dream of becoming president of Carlton Football Club, the Federal Court fined him a record A$36 million for an offence he admitted.

The case did not end there.

In a controversial and much-criticised move, the ACCC pursued Pratt over discrepancies in statements made to the commission, leading to four charges of false or misleading evidence. Pratt resigned the Carlton presidency, handed back an Order of Australia awarded in 1985, and fought back furiously to clear his name.

He was so convinced of his innocence his lawyers rejected suggestions the case should be dropped because of his illness and insisted it go ahead.

In the end, just a day before he died, the charges were withdrawn on the grounds of his impending death.

But it also emerged that the Federal Court had ruled that critical evidence could not be used, which supporters claim vindicated Pratt.

At his funeral, Pratt Foundation chief executive Sam Lipski said of his friend: "We all know the mills of history grind slowly, but I'm certain history will vindicate Richard, his achievements, his generosity and his honour."