How will Pratt be remembered?

Richard Pratt has died. But in the wake of his death an extraordinary debate has broken out.

In a nutshell, how will Pratt be remembered? As a great entrepreneur and a philanthropist? Or will he be remembered as the head of a cartel that ripped-off hundreds of millions of dollars from business owners and consumers?

We learnt recently that the criminal case against then gravely ill billionaire Pratt has been dropped by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. It was been dropped not because it might fail, but because of his then ill health. 

In fact crown prosecutor Mark Dean said on Friday it was the Department of Public Prosecution’s belief that there remained reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution.

This of course is not what Pratt wanted. His lawyers opposed the application in the Federal Court, urging the DPP simply to discontinue the prosecution on the grounds that it was bound to fail.

Pratt was facing charges of misleading the ACCC at a hearing in 2005 when he denied he had been involved in price fixing. He was later fined a record $36 million in a civil action after being found guilty of anti-competitive price fixing.

But what Pratt’s lawyers should have realised is that many people have already made up their minds about Richard Pratt.

Those who benefited from his extraordinary philanthropy will remember a generous man who gave much to the community. Those who were on Pratt’s payroll will thank him for a steady stream of revenue over many years that helped them take out mortgages and support their families. Those who watched him build his business will tip their hat to an extraordinary entrepreneur.

And the business owners who have been forced to pay far more for their cardboard boxes by the cartel that he organised will remember Pratt as a price-fixing cheat. Nothing the courts decide, as lawyers run back and forth trying to prove this and that, will make a whit of difference.