Optus goes silent on Tesla deal; Former Labor minister’s MinRes pitch

The suspicion is that Optus might have tripped on Tesla’s fine print. Picture: Getty Images

Looks like Optus has been brought to heel by Elon Musk.

Well, not by the billionaire per se, but by an army of lawyers affiliated with his corporate baby, Tesla.

The suspicion is that Optus might have tripped itself up on the fine print of a nondisclosure agreement, the electric car company being utterly notorious for deploying NDAs in its contractual negotiations.

Well, that’s the talk of the town given that Optus’ parent company, Singtel, was all giddy about a partnership ahead of its annual meeting on July 30, where boasts were made of “marquee deals” signed with “Services Australia and Tesla” during the financial year. A written statement confirming as much was published on the Singtel website.

No doubt an exciting development for Optus, a company battered by outages and data breaches and nasty political maelstroms. Who could blame it for championing a badly needed win with a prestige brand? And yet one month later, Optus suddenly became extremely shy about any mention of it.

Did Optus jump the gun or perhaps fall foul of an Elon Musk NDA? No one is talking. Picture: AFP

The first hint of this came during Singtel’s annual investor day. Shout-outs were given to the six-year deal with Services Australia – much pride over that – but literally no mention at all of any venture with Tesla.

Clue No. 2 was a statement posted to Singtel’s website, trumpeting the deal, which was quietly taken down in the weeks following.

Much harder, we note, to scrub company releases that are published by the Singapore stock exchange, where the mention of Tesla remains untouched.

And the AGM itself? The minutes of that meeting contained no reference at all to any deal with Musk’s company. What gives?

There’s no great mystery to these events. Yes, perhaps Optus should be embarrassed by its backdown on the name-dropping, but Tesla does remain a customer – that much is true.

Turns out the telco just never had permission to mention it in its materials.

MinRes mates

Australia’s ambassador to Ireland, Gary Gray, has been busy working the phones trying to line up his next gig. Notso discreetly, either.

The former Western Australian Labor MP has ended his four-year term and returned to Australia, and from what we hear, the Albanese government isn’t in a rush to provide him an extension.

Which explains why Gray seems to have his shingle out. Last week he was appointed as a non-executive director of Cooper Energy, an Adelaide-based producer where his ex-girlfriend, Bindi Gove, happens to run external affairs.

Mineral Resources boss Chris Ellison.

Gary Gray during his Canberra days. Picture: AAP

But what’s this we hear of Gray trying his luck with MinRes, too? Weshouldn’t be shocked, given he once worked at the miner as its general manager for external affairs.

Word around town is that Gray called managing director Chris Ellison about a job, which makes sense because they’re old mates.

Should Gray end up at MinRes it would certainly put him in the orbit of another former ALP operative, Tim Picton, a former WA Labor state secretary and director of MinRes’ corporate strategy.

One might even end up answering to the other. Wouldn’t that be something?

And here we thought there was room for only one Labor apparatchik at MinRes.

Meeting of minds

A few rogue sightings of pub owner and former KPMG hotshot Jon Adgemis, who’s in the midst of stitching together a deal to save a handful of his venues. Our spies caught sight of him in discussion with, ah, former nightclub owner John Ibrahim. Was this a bailout afoot? Not quite, unfortunately – apparently they ran into each other on Bayswater Road in Kings Cross, where Adgemis owns a hotel.

But that aside, some of Adgemis’ staff certainly remain miffed about not being paid their superannuation entitlements. And they’re even unhappier about learning of Adgemis’s trip to Brisbane two weekends ago, where he stayed at the famed Calile Hotel with fiancee Megan MacKenzie.

Ex-banker Jon Adgemis. Picture: David Swift

From what we hear, Adgemis was in town for a weekend of luxury but mainly to watch his beloved Carlton football club get knocked out of the finals by the Brisbane Lions.

Accompanying Adgemis was ex-Carlton captain Marc Murphy and wife Jessie Murphy, who helpfully posted a few snaps to Instagram. You bet these were picked up by staff and suppliers, who were said to have been aghast at the sight of all the indulgence.

Flights of fancy

Has the cold war between Gina Rinehart and Andrew Forrest finally broken out into open hostilities? That’s been the joke of the week in WA mining circles after the RAAF dispatched two F-35A Lightning combat aircraft to visit iron ore mines controlled by the two billionaires who, historically, have made no secret of their mutual dislike.

Was it a peacekeeping force? Is the federal government finally heeding Rinehart’s calls to beef up the ADF presence in the Pilbara before an unnamed threat (China) gets sick of paying for iron ore and swings by to take it by force?

The Defence Department wasn’t talking yesterday, but the reality is a bit more prosaic. The massive runways built by the mining majors are considered key strategic assets for the ADF in the north of Australia, if the worst should happen.

The airstrip at Rinehart’s Roy Hill mine is long enough to allow a Boeing 737 to land, and that means it is long enough be used by combat or supply aircraft. But you have to test that capability every so often.

Roy Hill’s Ginbata Airport also hosted an RAAF Hercules transport aircraft earlier this year, on a training mission in case the airstrip is ever needed as a staging post for relief missions in the region.