Richard Pratt was estimated to be worth $A6 billion, and is reputed to have given about $A14 million a year to charity. If I used my calculator correctly, he was giving away less than 0.25% of his wealth each year. Forgive me for being underwhelmed. I suspect many Australians are more generous than that, and do it with no fanfare.

Blimey, All-, if your post is designed to show how much you agree with me, then you have a pretty elastic definition of the word "agree"

>>Mr Pratt was in all essence a very good man ; both in business and in spirit<<

I'm not sure where I have expressed that opinion.

>>his successes came from the innovative and professional abilities <<

I tend to the view that price-fixing and monopolistic practices had some hand in his personal wealth-creation.

>>the only thing he was guilty of was to submit to the Useless Idiots propaganda to end the entire saga of the accusations<<

The more normal behaviour of a wealthy, innocent man is to fight every inch of the way to protect his reputation. To sign a confession and then protest that "I only did it to get the whole mess off my plate" is disingenuous.

>>Now there are less of these forward thinking innovative minds<<

There are many "forward thinking innovative minds" who are not inclined to operate with, shall we say, a lack of candour. When these folk are ripped off by less ethical operatives, the standard Aussie reaction is to laugh at their misfortune, and applaud the ripper-off.

>>I would like someone to explain in a simple language; how it is Governments and their Bureaucrats become the new Philanthropic consciousness , when they actually are the statutory recipients of Wealth of those people who have something to offer – then it is divided into taxes to support the New age Proletariat Philanthropy paradigm<<

Before that can happen you need to phrase your question in "simple language".

Candide. You and I don't get a tax deduction for our donations either, so in effect we are also copping the bill for the donations made by the rich and famous through their companies.

David

David
I'm pretty sure my donations to charity would be tax deductible, though I haven't tried claiming on any, as that seems to be going against the spirit of giving. I think all you need to claim the deduction is an income above the tax threshhold.

The reality is that most people on small incomes probably don't bother to claim as their marginal tax rate is low. Also, not all contributions are tax deductible anyway.

David

It is often forgotten that Mr Pratt would have been charged on a criminal offence, rather than the civil offence which brought about his fine, had Messrs Howard and Costello lived up to their promise to introduce legislation to properly punish the largest cartel operators.

As to whether he would have (or should have) died in jail, that is a matter of opinion most likely affected by one's political persuasions and affiliations.