Beirut child recovery specialist Adam Whittington speaks to Willesee

Illustration: Rod Clement

Nine boss Hugh Marks might have thought he’d ruled a line under the 60 Minutes Sally Faulkner child kidnapping saga, but child recovery specialist Adam Whittington has other ideas.

The former Scotland Yard detective has told Seven’s Mike Willesee that Nine still owes him $200,000 for a bill relating to the boat that the Tara Brown-led 60Minutes crew, Faulkner and her two children planned to escape to Cyprus on. He says the network still hasn’t paid.

Whittington, who lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and children, journeyed to the Gold Coast last weekend to meet with Willesee and his Sunday Night crew at Nine’s arch rival.

Veteran journalist Willesee told us that Kerry Stokes’s Seven had not paid Whittington or any third party close to him for his story. Apparently he’s just keen to tell his side of a saga that saw him spend three months in a Beirut jail after the botched kidnapping.

Brown and three of her colleagues spent two weeks in prison in the Middle East.

The saga has already cost Nine dearly.

At the end of the financial year Marks told the market that the group’s legal costs had blown out to $7 million, in part thanks to the Beirut affair.

Willesee said Whittington felt betrayed by Nine.

The security specialist said for him everything changed for the worse when Nine news and current affairs exec Darren Wick arrived in Beirut to help free the kidnap team.

The contracted Whittington and his colleagues were abandoned while Wick worked to free his Nine team.

Willesee said the reputation of sacked 60 Minutes producer Stephen Rice — who has just settled his legal action with the network for an undisclosed sum after being made the scapegoat for the affair — had been ­“trashed”.

“No amount of money can fix that,” Willesee said.

Is Rice’s brand so damaged that he won’t end up at Seven, as has been suggested? Stay tuned.

Ball in ARM’s court

Yes, billionaire James Packer has donated $250,000 to the Australian Republican Movement, which is chaired by the human bandana, Peter FitzSimons.

Australian Republican Movement chair Peter FitzSimons. Picture: Ken Butti, Yahoo7.

Now what?

ARM national director Tim Mayfield wrote to his members to applaud the “game changer”. It’s the republic spruiking organisation’s largest donation since Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, then its chairman, and his wife Lucy shelled out about $3m for the cause ahead of the failed 1999 referendum.

Earlier in the year, Mayfield — who used to work for Gareth Evans, the former Labor foreign minister, ANU chancellor and noted republican — was able to go full time in the role, in part due to contributions drummed up by FitzSimons, a persuasive former Wallaby forward.

Packer’s money means the ARM can add to its ranks, as it attempts to heighten support for a plebiscite on the republic in 2020 — one it hopes is closely followed by a referendum.

Towards that end they have hired Sandy Biar as their new campaign director. A former consultant to the Liberal and National parties, he joins at the end of September — once the patriot has completed Army Reserve officer training. Biar will be based in Sydney.

Another hire may follow. All of which fits well with what the ARM’s founding chairman, Turnbull, yesterday urged.

“The critical thing with the republic debate is, it’s got to be one driven by strong popular support,” Turnbull said on the sidelines of the Pacific leaders’ forum in Micronesia.

“That’s why it is really up to the ARM to drive that agenda.”

There will be further change at the ARM later in the year, as its new board is elected.

The democratic approach to its directorships is a legacy of the legal eagle Turnbull, who drafted the constitution the ARM has used since 2000.

It’s another reason why the then communications minister Turnbull almost got into fisticuffs with FitzSimons in August 2015 in the Brisbane Qantas Chairman’s Club, as his republican credentials appeared to be questioned by his bandana-wearing successor.

Ancient history now, as their professional relationship has much improved.

Serving the republic

The paperwork of our nation’s republican movement reveals the broad range of prominent Australians eager for systemic change.

Malcolm Turnbull in his days as chairman of the Australian Republican Movement. Picture: Michael Perini.

Along with Turnbull and fellow former chairman Greg Barns, who was Turnbull’s political campaign director for the failed 1999 referendum, those to have served as ARM directors include Liberal Party pollster and strategist Mark Textor (now helping the Reconciliation Australia and same-sex marriage campaigns) and Australia’s Ambassador for Women and Girls and former Democrats senator Natasha Stott Despoja.

Turnbull’s Defence Minister Marise Payne has done her time on the ARM board, as has the ALP’s Victorian MP Frank McGuire (Eddie McGuire’s brother).

Others who served are former NSW Liberal Party leader Peter Collins, former WA premier Geoff Gallop (an ARM chair), ABC broadcaster Richard Fidler (the FitzSimons of his day), former South Australian Labor senator Chris Schacht, Age Discrimination Commissioner and former Labor senator for the ACT Susan Ryan and World Vision Australia chief Tim Costello (brother of Nine and Future Fund chair, and fellow republican Peter Costello).

Cost of freedom

It’s no wonder Australian Republican Movement head Peter FitzSimons is so excited about Packer’s $250,000 gift. Just look at the ARM’s recent bank balance.

Billionaire James Packer. Picture: Scott Barbour/Getty Images.

In the year to June 30 last year — just before the Red Bandana joined — the ARM recorded pledged donations of just $35,000 and received actual donations of a mere $20,000. It held just $23,000 in cash and was operating a negative cashflow position.

But, since the FitzSimons drive — and now Packer’s handsome addition — things are in better shape.

Still, the campaign continues.

Last night, FitzSimons organised a $100-a-head drinks and canapes function at Sydney’s Machiavelli — the power diner on which his portrait hangs alongside prime ministers and billionaires.

The target was the Fairfax old guard of the 80s and 90s. To be clear, it wasn’t a fundraiser — but another opportunity to continue the recruitment drive.

Former Labor PM Kevin Rudd. Picture: Steve Pohlner.

The China connection

Sydney-based Yuhu property billionaire Huang Xiangmo has become an object of fascination as his expansive links to Australia’s political class have been studied.

Sydney-based Yuhu property billionaire Huang Xiangmo.

He’s the money behind Bob Carr’s Australia China Relations Institute, the think tank based at university chancellor (and FIRB chairman) Brian Wilson’s UTS.

In a recent interview, Huang revealed that before he established the institute, “someone recommended an even more influential figure from politics to me, but I decided to invite Bob Carr because I consider him to be a very good academic”.

The word swirling around Chancellor Wilson’s university — which, aptly, sits on the edge of Sydney’s Chinatown — is that the “more influential figure” was former prime minister Paul Keating.

We’ve heard another former Labor PM, Kevin Rudd, was also in the ACRI mix — but his campaign for the UN meant that was never going to happen.