EXCERPTS
MARK COLVIN: Before we go to our next report - a warning. Many listeners may find it contains disturbing details of obscene wealth, the like of which most of us could scarcely imagine, let alone possess.
It's that time of year again when the influential money mag Business Review Weekly releases its annual Rich 200 List.
NICK GRIMM: You could look at it this way: never before have so few multi-millionaires made the Top 200 Rich List. Of course that's because there's more billionaires crowding the field.
Eleven Australians can now lay claim to the "b" word, with Australia's richest man, Kerry Packer, picking up an extra billion dollars in just the past year.
ROBERT SKEFFINGTON: 2004, in terms of the rich, it's as good as it gets.
NICK GRIMM: Make no mistake, the filthy rich are ... well ... filthier than ever.
...childcare seems to have been a big money maker.
ROBERT SKEFFINGTON: Yes, in fact we have a new childcare entrepreneur on the list this year in the form of Michael Gordon from Peppercorn, and he, of course, joins Eddie Groves. Now, both Queensland entrepreneurs who've made substantial money out of, I suppose, consolidating and rationalising childcare facilities, and we also have people like Eddie Groves who are now talking about having for profit schools, instead of just childcare facilities, so we probably haven't seen the end of that particular sort of entrepreneurial field.
(Robert Skeffington is the Editor of Business Review Weekly's Rich 200 List.)
- reprinted from ABC Online