Once upon a time, perhaps when James Packer’s disastrous Las Vegas casino play was tanking, a journo trying to squeeze a word out of his mouth would have hit a permanently engaged signal. Not anymore.

Prominent business people including Gerry Harvey and James Packer, accounting firm PwC and banking giant Citibank have all expressed their outrage at being connected to a new negotiating service that is linked to convicted fraudster Jon McKenney.

Former editors of The Age have rubbished Gina Rinehart's provocative claim that Fairfax chairman Roger Corbett and his predecessor Ron Walker overrode the paper's charter of editorial independence by instructing an editor how to do his job.

James Packer certainly can't match his famous father for clout. But the war he's waging to build a second Sydney casino shows that he comes from the same powerful gene pool. And it proves the Packer name still rings loud with the nation's decision makers.

James Packer's campaign against former Echo Chairman John Story was personal, unrelenting, aggressive and successful.

If you want to see a pretty pack of pollies, you need look no further than James Packer's new political mates. The billionaire's offices in Sydney's Park Street are now becoming a stronghold for the Labor Party in exile.

Casino mogul James Packer has forked out almost half-a-million dollars on newspaper advertising in less than a week as part of his audacious bid to have Jeff Kennett installed as a director of Echo Entertainment, the owner of Sydney's Star casino.

The controversial attempt by Jeff Kennett to pole-vault his way onto the board of ASX-listed casino company, Echo Entertainment, demands an immediate response. High-profile mental health group beyondblue should move to defend its reputation.

HSU whistleblower Kathy Jackson is in demand on the speakers' circuit, footy blowhard Jason Akermanis has the PM's phone number and BOF is urged to hire an old Liberal flame.

Victoria's state budget has been handed down, Julia Gillard looks for friends in the business world and all eyes on the Big Four.

Nobody expected Barry O'Farrell, who swept to power a year ago Monday, to govern like Margaret Thatcher or Jeff Kennett. And he hasn't. O'Farrell's first year in office has been a largely ho-hum affair marked by neither great scandal nor great achievement.

In his youth, Neil Lawrence thought of marketing as little more than a pimple on the arse of capitalism; now, he's corporate Australia's favourite adman.

Kate Carnell, the newly appointed CEO of national depression initiative beyondblue, is renowned as a steely operator – which is just as well. Her predecessor, Dawn O'Neil, lasted only nine months, quitting after Chairman Jeff Kennett allegedly bullied and undermined her.

When The Power Index sat down with Melbourne's business, media and political elite to ask them how power works in the southern city, all shifted uneasily on the subject of Premier Ted Baillieu.

Power in Melbourne, as interviewee after interviewee tried to convince The Power Index, is quiet and amorphous, lurking behind every deal and decision but never fully revealing itself.

With controlling stakes in Australia's highest rating TV network, Channel Seven, the nation's second-biggest magazine group, Pacific Magazines and The West Australian, the 71-year old tycoon should be a real power in the land.

When the powerful want to talk to Melbourne, there's one man they choose: Neil Mitchell.