Witnesses amputate Nine’s case; Oil and gas peak body’s rebranding manoeuvre

Dr Munjed Al Muderis is suing Nine newspapers and 60 Minutes. Picture: AAP

Nine newspapers sensationally revealed last week that it was ready to lay down its arms and move to mediation over that case brought by Dr Munjed Al Muderis, an osseointegration specialist who’s suing the papers and 60 Minutes for defamation. Nine’s was an unexpected retreat, but what was truly stunning was that their lawyers lost heart only days after the trial started. Sad!

But even as we brace for mediation to commence, Nine’s case is still eroding before its eyes in the Federal Court, where witnesses are either contradicting the fundamentals of what was reported about Al Muderis or rejecting entirely the quotes attributed to them.

Nine’s reporting made a mighty big deal about the supposed level of sales-pressure Al Muderis applied to his patients, including Sydney barrister Donald Grieve KC, who happens to be the father of the journalist being sued. Grieve’s account, published by Nine, was that Al Muderis told him he would be in a wheelchair without immediate surgery, a claim the surgeon’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, swatted as an untruth. That’s not to say Chrysanthou is necessarily right, to be sure, and Nine’s barrister, Matt Collins KC, has already hit back with a spirited defence of Grieve’s account by presenting some documentary evidence to the court.

As to the alleged pressure, refuting evidence was heard on Tuesday from Dr Tim O’Carrigan, an orthopaedic surgeon who routinely consults with Al Muderis whenever this type of procedure is being considered by a patient (it allows amputees to have a prosthetic limb fitted to their body so they can attain greater function and mobility).

On O’Carrigan’s telling, he and Al Muderis expressly told Grieve that he didn’t need osseointegration surgery, with at least two other specialists involved providing that advice.

“The main advantage of osseointegration is increased mobility, and Mr Grieve already had good mobility and function with his socket prosthesis,” O’Carrigan’s affidavit said. “For this reason, we did not recommend osseointegration for Mr Grieve. This was the unanimous view of the group.”

By the afternoon it was Dr Qutaiba Al-Maawi, a resident orthopaedic surgeon in Baghdad, Iraq, who expressed great displeasure with how he’d been quoted in an article. Giving evidence via video-link, Al-Maawi said he was “shocked at what was said on my behalf” and “very unhappy with what was published”, resulting in the piece being amended online.

Not only were statements published “that I never made”, Al-Maawi told the court “words were selectively taken out of context to create a negative impression” of Al Muderis.

The witness pointed to reporting in one article that said a patient had died from a heart attack following surgery; Al-Maawai contended the individual had died “more than a year after his osseointegration and that it was not in any way related to the surgery”.

Is it true, too, what Margin Call hears, that Nine’s series of reports on Al Muderis have been entered for a Walkley Award? Odd timing when the matter’s backlit by the glare of a defamation action, allegations of severe factual shortfalls, and Nine is scrambling to make it all stop with a back-channel deal.

Surely no one wants another Laming situation.

Marvellous makeover

Well, well, well, it seems the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association is ready to concede what Margin Call has been reporting for weeks about its cynical rebranding and greenwashing manoeuvres.

Yes, as expected, the APPEA will shortly be known as Australian Energy Producers, a tactical downplay of its immense interests in the oil and gas sectors. This from the so-called “peak body” representing their industries.

APPEA chief executive Samantha McCulloch has put so much topspin on the selling of this pivot that you could feed her official statement into a centrifuge and still not separate the chicanery from the facts.

APPEA chief executive Samantha McCulloch. Picture: Tom Huntley

“The world is changing, the energy system is changing and our industry has already expanded its focus beyond oil and gas exploration and development to also cover low-carbon fuels and net zero technologies,” she said, as though, yes, APPEA’s remit has always so much vaster than the profit and pragmatism of oil and gas.

Just look at APPEA’s membership: BP, Shell, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Santos, Halliburton, INPEX corporation, Tamboran Resources.

And now look at the board! There isn’t a renewables rep at the table, not one person carrying a tote bag or wearing sustainable boho sneakers made of textile scraps and recycled water bottles.

It’s wall-to-wall carbon villains: Frank Calabria from Origin Energy, Mark Hatfield from Chevron Australia, Noel Newell from 3D Oil.

Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill is the chair, for god’s sake!

Age won’t weary her

Anyone thinking that Gina Rinehart might be toying with the idea of taking a hand off the wheel as she reaches 70 better think again.

At Bannister Downs Dairy, of which she has been a partner for almost a decade, Rinehart is ramping up her involvement, appointing herself an alternate director of the operation’s holding company, Future Fields Pty Ltd.

Gina Rinehart. Picture: Getty Images

That’s just in case her trusted hands – Hancock Prospecting’s head of strategy, Dan Wade, and her dear international friend Johan Dyrnes, former captain of luxury cruise ship The World (on which Rinehart owns an apartment) – are called upon elsewhere.

The West Australian billionaire half-owns Bannister Downs with its founders, Suzanne and Mat Daubney.

Australia’s richest person has left the board decisions to others since back in 2014, but we hear she now wants a piece of the ­action.