The Packer family is Australia’s richest and most powerful dynasty which has vast tentacles and connections that extend all over the world. And there remains a public fascination about them, as the coverage of Kerry’s death and sales of Paul Barry’s biography attest.

So when a news story breaks in which there is a connection to the Packers, it should be pointed out, right? Strangely, there were two stories in The Age today that were screaming for some Packer context that wasn’t provided.

The first was about cosmetics company Jurlique copping an ACCC prosecution which included the following lines:

Jurlique was founded in 1983 by Jurgen Klein, a scientist and naturopath, and his now ex-wife Ulrike, a horticulturist. Yesterday the ACCC also issued proceedings against Dr Klein, the company’s managing director at the time of the conduct. The watchdog alleges Dr Klein directed and authorised the practice of resale price maintenance.

A spokesman for Jurlique said that following the ACCC investigation, the company had changed its business practices and that new management and shareholders had been appointed. Dr Klein ceased his involvement in the company in July 2005, the spokesman said. “These are historical issues.”

Sure, the investigation covers the period from 1991 to 2003, but it should have been pointed out that the Packer-backed Challenger Financial Services first spent $25 million buying 25% of Jurlique in September 2002 and then the Packer family bought this stake for $36 million in late 2003 as part of a restructure.

Jurlique has enjoyed some nice free kicks in Packer-owned media properties, so surely the name should be mentioned when the business encounters its first ever bad publicity.

Then there was this story in The Age’s foreign pages from China correspondent Mary-Anne Toy, which began as follows:

Hong Kong is reeling after a prominent lawyer representing the estranged sister of Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho in a bitter feud was beaten by three men wielding baseball bats. Albert Ho Chun-yan, a Hong Kong legislator and Democratic Party vice-president, was attacked in a McDonald’s restaurant in daylight. He is in hospital suffering a broken nose and eye and head injuries. Pictures of him lying bloodied and bruised on the restaurant’s floor, and later in hospital, have been plastered in Hong Kong’s media in the past two days.

Surely Toy should have gone on to mention that Packer-controlled PBL is investing billions in Macau with the Ho family, although they’ve been using vehicles associated with Stanley’s son Lawrence Ho. Indeed, there has been speculation that a recent restructure was pursued to avoid Stanley having to face probity audits in Victoria and WA, where PBL owns the Crown and Burswood casinos.