After announcing that he will be a more humane, "caring-sharing" kind of prime minister, John Howard suggested to his big business mates that they follow his lead. Speaking to a room full of corporate heads recently, he urged them to dig a bit deeper into their pockets for charity.
The country's business chiefs and executives, Howard advised, need to be responsible members of the community by showing they care about the plight of those less fortunate than themselves.
To the unemployed, pensioners and low-income earners, Howard's speech seemed like that of a pompous lord in a Dickens tale.
Another term of Howard and his gang in office is bound to throw more people onto the scrap heap as once publicly owned utilities are corporatised, privatised and sold off.
After cutting huge chunks out of the welfare system and threatening to gut what remains, no amount of philanthropy by the wealthy will make a difference. It might make the moneybags feel a touch less guilty as they swill copious quantities of expensive champagne and clank their jewellery at society functions, but that's about it.
To end the rorts and privileges which Packer and Co enjoy — charity for the rich, funded from the cutbacks in government spending — will require an overhaul of the profits-first, capitalist system. It will require a big change in the way society operates, by placing political power into the hands of working people.
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