Bell: You accept your conduct in these emails was shameful, do you?
Packer: I do.
Bell: And you were a director of Crown Resorts when you wrote these emails weren’t you?
Packer: I can't recall.
Bell: You accept that your conduct in these emails was disgraceful don’t you?
Packer: Yes.
Bell: And you didn't resign as a director of Crown Resorts until about the 21st of December 2015, some weeks after these emails. So you were a director of Crown Resorts at the time you engaged in this disgraceful behaviour?
Packer: Yes.
Bell: And you understood at the time of these emails you have an obligation to Crown Resorts to act ethically and with the highest standards of integrity, correct?
Packer: Correct.
Bell: At the time of these emails you understood you had an obligation not to bring discredit on Crown Resorts?
Packer: I’d clearly forgotten that.
Bell: You accept that your conduct in these emails reflect adversely on your character, don’t you?
Packer: I think my medical state is what it reflected most on.
Bell: How can the NSW regulator have any confidence in your character or integrity in light of your communications in these emails?
Packer: Because I’m being treated now for my bi-polar.
Bell: How can the nsw regulator have any confidence in your character or integrity in light of your communications in these emails?
Packer: Because I was sick at the time.
Packer had earlier told the inquiry he stood down from Crown’s board in December 2015 because of his mental illness, but he couldn’t recall if he told his fellow director this was the reason.
Bell asked Packer about Crown’s December 21 2015 ASX statement announcing he was stepping down as a director, which quoted Packer as saying: “Now is the right time for me to focus my endeavours on my new role with Crown as I outlined to shareholders when I stepped aside in August. I intend to devote my energies to a number of key development programs in Sydney, Melbourne and Las Vegas."
Bell: There’s no reference in your quoted comments to you resigning because you’re unwell, is there?
Packer: No.
Bell: Plainly you didn’t regard it to be truthful to the shareholders of Crown Resorts for your real reasons for resigning, would you agree?
Packer: I’d hoped it would stay a private matter.
Bell: And plainly you weren’t truthful to the shareholders of Crown Resorts about the real reason you were resigning, do you agree?
Packer: There should have been something mentioned in the release ,I agree.