I finally got around to having a flick through this years BRW Rich List edition. The usual suspects are at the top: multi-billionaires like Kerry Packer, Dick Pratt and Frank Lowy. No surprises there.
But the entry that really caught my eye was the story of a Dutch immigrant by the name of John Van Lieshout. Van Lieshout miraculously debuted on the Rich List with a personal worth of $1 billion. Huh? You mean that he just dropped from the sky as Australians 21st billionaire?
Obviously the people at BRW have cocked up in previous years by forgetting to put him on their list. It seems their definitive list isn't quite as, wel,l "definitive" as they would think.
It is a big omission, and you would have thought BRW would creep the missing billionaire up the list over a few years, rather than parachuting him straight into billionaire club, and highlighting its previous omissions. If you read the entry on Lisehout, it becomes obvious that BRW has been blundering for years by not including him. His discount Queensland furniture chain Super A-Mart is hardly an invisible business, after all.
But it wouldn't be an easy exercise to compile the Rich List, and no-one could ever get even close to accurate given the secrecy of Australia's rich and the complexity of their affairs.
But if you haven't yet got yourself a copy, grab one.
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