July 9, 2025 • 16 mins
A former radio host is taking legal action against his former employer over a 2012 prank call controversy that made global headlines. Michael Christian is suing Southern Cross Austereo, claiming he wasn't supported through the fallout from an on-air segment that led to tragic consequences. Today we're explaining what happened in 2012, the legal action that's now underway, and what Christian is alleging about his treatment by the radio network.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Just a heads up. Today's episode contains discussion of suicide
and distressing themes. It might not be for you, so
feel free to skip ahead. Or if you or anyone
you know needs help, Lifeline is available for twenty four
to seven support on thirteen eleven fourteen.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Already, and this is the DAILYA.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
This is the dalyi OS.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday,
the tenth of July. I'm Emma Gillespie.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm Sam Kazlowski, a former.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Radio host, is taking legal action against his ex employer
over a twenty twelve pranc call controversy that made global headlines.
Michael Christian is suing Southern Cross Ostereo, claiming he wasn't
supported through the fallout of an on air segment that
led to tragic consequences. Today, we're going to explain what
(00:56):
happened in twenty twelve, everything about this prank phone call
and the fallout, as well as the legal action that
is now underway, and what Christian is alleging about his
treatment at sea.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Emma, it's hard to believe that this story goes back
more than a decade, thirteen years before we get into
the specifics of what happened and why we're talking about
it this week. Give us a sense of the broader
commercial radio landscape back then in twenty twelve. Yeah, you
and I are in near twelve.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
We were in near twelve, ging.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
A sense of what the radio sounded like and felt
like at that time.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, this was really a time of shock jock culture.
And if it feels like Australian commercial radio is still
in that place, trust me when I say it is
a vastly different world now and largely because of the
case we're going to talk about today, but particularly on
breakfast radio and commercial drive, prank calls were a staple
(01:55):
of programming, really really common. You would hear prank calls
on every major network all the time. They were designed
to kind of generate controversy and buzz, and the early
twenty tens twenty twelve included, really represented this kind of
peak period for controversial radio contents. So shock jock culture
hosts trying to push the boundaries, and networks like Southern
(02:19):
Cross Ostereo were kind of often focused or you could
often hear them trying to carry out these high profile stunts.
So the regulatory environment as well, at the time was
less stringent, and in fact, the prank call we're discussing
today never would have happened in other places where regulations
were tighter, like the US, where actually anyone is required
(02:41):
to give their consent before their voice is broadcast. But
that gives you a little bit of a sense of
what things were like here in Australia.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I think the other really interesting element about this time
period was the rapid rise of Facebook and this growing
idea and this growing sense that these stuff could actually
have a life of their own on social media after
they were broadcast.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Really nascent social media stages.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, yeah, I can almost kind of picture the news
feed of when these stunts really went viral. So that
was the environment when the twenty twelve incident occurred. Take
me through the incident itself now, yeap.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
So where in December twenty twenty twelve, when Michael Christian
and his co host mel Greg were working on todayfm's
Summer thirty program. So it was a summer broadcast, it
was going through the biggest hits of the day and
the radio station in question, TODAYFM, that we're talking about,
was specifically a Sydney broadcaster, but it's part of the
(03:39):
Southern Cross Austereo Network.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Which is a publicly listed company. It's a serious.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Player, massive company, and we'll refer to it as SEA
throughout the rest of the episode. But on the fourth
of December, this radio duo made a prank call to
a London hospital. Now important context for the time is
that Princess Catherine Kate Middleton you might know her as,
was receiving treatment for her first pregnancy. So there was
(04:05):
all this kind of global media interest in what was
happening with her pregnancy. The child that she would have
eventually was George, but she had been hospitalized and was unwell.
This radio duo, Michael Christian and mel greg impersonated Prince
Charles and Queen Elizabeth on a phone call to the hospital.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So these two hosts put on these broad British accents
call up the hospital, and the hospital staff actually believed
they were speaking two members of the royal family, right, yes.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
So what we know from the hosts leading up to
and after this is that they never expected that they
would get past the switchboard of the hospital, that their accents,
in their opinions, were not convincing, and that it was
all just a bit of silliness, but it went wrong
very very quickly, so two hospital members ended up being
(04:54):
deceived by the call. So the person who answered it
and then transferred to a nurse, and and that nurse,
the second nurse, revealed private details about Princess Catherine's condition.
The call, importantly was not broadcast live, but it was
later aired by sea, so the network did decide to
go ahead with running it. Very tragically, just three days later,
(05:18):
one of those nurses, her name is Jacintha Saldana, she
died by suicide. Now Saldana is not the nurse who
disclosed the patient information to the hosts, but she is
the nurse that transferred the call to an on duty
nurse on the Duchess's hospital ward and.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So very quickly this event had a global audience and
was making news all over the world. Let's go to
the reaction from the Royal family and the UK media.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yes, so two very very different responses here. Will start
with the Royal family. It was notably very restrained in
its response. Its response was centered around compassion. A statement
from the Royal family at the time said their Royal
Highnesses were looked after so wonderfully well at all times
by everyone at the King Edward the Seventh Hospital, the
(06:09):
hospital where Kate was being treated. Their thoughts and prayers
are with Jacyntha's family, friends and colleagues at this very
sad time. So that response was really focused on the
care that the duchess received. The UK media reaction, though,
was markedly different. I'm sure our listeners are very familiar
with the tabloid culture over there. It is cutthroat, completely
(06:31):
different worlds to here. In Australia. The Telegraph one of
the tabloids. They're essentially accused the Aussie radio hosts of
scamming the hospital. The Mail Online wrote of this palace
fury at the Australian radio pranksters. It described them as
and The Sun suggested that the hosts had quote flirted
with a charge of high treason by posing as the Queen.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
So you have this situation where a prank call goes
horribly wrong yep, and then a massive fallout both for
staff at the hospital and then the broader media landscape
all around the world. What was the response like as
that was unfolding from the two hosts and their employer.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
In a word, shattered, Christian and Greg did a series
of interviews at the time after the death of the nurse,
and you can see it on their faces. They were
incredibly distressed by what came to happen from what was
meant to be a silly prank. They said, they were shattered, gutted, heartbroken.
The duo apologized, but they did maintain and they have
(07:38):
continued to maintain over the years since, that the decision
to air the call was not up to them, that
senior decision makers at SEA were the ones that pushed
for the segment two go to air. The incident, as
you said, made global headlines. There was significant backlash and
most of that, it should be said, was directed at
the hosts.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And it's pretty fair to say that neither host has
worked in professional radio since. Right.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Well, it might surprise you actually to know that one
of them continued to work for SCA right up until
this year.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Okay, well, I want to talk about that in a
sec Why don't we go to the regulators now. So
you did say at the top that it was a
different regulatory landscape than it is on commercial radio today,
but there was still some investigation and reporting based on
what happened.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, there were a series of investigations from the regulatory
perspective and to see if there was any criminal wrongdoing.
So the media watchdog, that's the Australian Communications and Media
Authority or AKMA, it found that the station Today FM
breached its broadcasting license by airing the call. Now these
findings might sound quite firm or serious, but they didn't
(08:48):
actually lead to any kind of tangible penalties. For SCA,
it was confronting the threat of losing its broadcast license,
so that can zone did loom large over these inquiries,
but ultimately AKMAR ruled that it would not take away
its broadcast license. But the aftermath of this that is
(09:09):
not written in a black and white regulation is that
broadcasters changed their approach because they were so rattled, jarred,
scarred by what had happened from this call. So immediately
kind of prank calls became a massive taboo in commercial radio.
There was a coronial inquest in the UK into Saldana's
(09:30):
death right. It heard that she was left very upset
by the call, that she blamed herself in those days afterwards,
and her husband told the UK in quest that the
forty six year old mother of two did not have
a history of mental ill health before her death.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
So that's quite a serious ton of events.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Why are we talking about it this week?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
So there is current legal action the cases back in
the headlines because Michael Christian, one of the radio duo
involved in the prank call, filed action in the federal court. Now,
as I mentioned earlier, that one of the hosts continued
working for SEA, So that's him. That was him. He
worked there until February this year. Mel greg actually left
(10:11):
the network shortly after the twenty twelve incident. Christian, though,
has now launched this legal action, alleging that he was
pressured into the prank call by the network. He claims
he became a scapegoat for the incident and that SCA
failed to support him during the intense period of backlash
that followed after Saldana's death and in the years of
(10:33):
inquiries and investigations that were subsequent. He also says that
this led to severe mental health issues and damaged his career.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
So is this happening in the context of like an
unfair dismissal case?
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Essentially, yes, So it's an action in the federal court
under a fair work claim. So Christian was made redundant
in February of this year, but he argues that the
termination was not genuine. He says that Southern crossholl Stereo
still requires someone to perform his role, that it's being backfilled,
(11:06):
and so his lawyers claim that that dismissal is in
breach of the Fair Work Act because redundancies are meant
to be in place if the role someone's performing is
no longer required. That Christian says is not the case
with his dismissal, And.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
There's a lot of complicated law around how long the
position has to be empty for before a similar position
can be filled by the employer. Redundancy law takes up
a lot of the time of the Fair Work kind
of legal experts what specifically those Christian arguing about the
network's handling of the situation. Back in twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
So, according to court documents seen by the Australian Associated Press,
Southern crosshold Stereo promised that it would support its hosts
through any controversies related to on air content. And I
suppose this speaks to the culture of twenty twelve radio
that a lot of stations were going for the kind
of shock value in their segments in the face of
(12:03):
kind of this uprising social media threat and people young
listeners especially kind of becoming disengaged. So hosts were made
to believe that they had the support of the network,
but Christian said, even though he really did believe SAA
would protect him, it instead let its presenters take the blame.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
So that's really interesting because it's this sense of like
the executives, according to Christians, kind of saying to the hosts,
we know you're going to try some stuff on air
that's a bit red hot. Yeah, but we've got your back.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, but go for it. And Christian says basically he
had no choice about the call going to air, that
it was not his decision to do the segment or
run the segment, but that the broadcaster wanted to do that,
and he thought that that meant that they would stand
by him. According to the AAP reporting on the court documents,
Christians lawyers have told the court that Southern Cross OS
(12:54):
Stereo Quote did not immediately take public accountability for the incident,
but rather allowed mister Christian and miss greg to be
left exposed to relentless public vitriol, harassment, and abuse, including
death threats.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
It's worth noting at the moment, those are all allegations
being leveled at the network. Have we heard from the
network in response to these? And also, I wonder if
we've heard from Mel Greg.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah, well I can answer both of those questions for you, Sam,
We have actually heard from SCA. I reached out and
a spokesperson got back to me and said, as the
matter is currently before the courts, and out of respect
for the legal process and the privacy of those involved,
it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time,
so kind of what we expect from a corporation during
(13:39):
ongoing legal proceedings. The matters are before the courts, so
there's not too much they can say right now. But
as for Mel Greg, we have also heard from her.
So she posted to her Instagram stories with a statement
saying she understands why her former colleague has chosen to
go down this path, and she said that she hopes
the continued attention on this tragic incident will lead to
(14:02):
quote substantial reforms in the way media produce content and
support their staff. She's been really candid over the last
decade about the impact this incident had on her mental health.
She has not really worked in radio or in the
media industry in the same way since and really this
changed the course of her life.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Listeners to this podcast are very familiar with the fact
that these court cases can take some time. What happens
next here.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Well, the matter is yet to appear before the court.
We're in our very early stages of proceedings. Basically, all
we know is that Michael Christian and his team have
lodged a submission to sue SCA to the federal court.
He is expected to seek compensation for economic loss and damages.
Now that will be relating to the twenty twelve prank
(14:49):
call incident. That will be also relating to Sea's handling
of the fallout, and now this fair work claim of
unfair dismissal. It is worth noting that Melgreg filed similar
proceedings against the network in twenty thirteen, but she agreed
to a private settlement following mediation talks led by the
Fair Work Commission. So there is some precedent of fair
(15:12):
work negotiations between these two parties, the host and the network.
We will never really know what happened in that settlement,
and even Melgreg, in her statement earlier this week, said
that she'll never really be able to talk about what happened,
but she does hope that some good comes from this
continued attention.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
A really tragic case that's had lasting impacts, and despite
wins or losses in the court, I don't think there
really are any winners from this situation. I just want
to reiterate that helpline number one more time. If you
or anyone you know needs some help, you can contact
Lifeline anytime on thirteen eleven fourteen at thirteen eleven fourteen.
(15:51):
That's all we've got for you for today's deep dive.
Thank you so much for joining us. We're going to
be back in the afternoon with your headlines. Until then,
have a great day. My name is Lily Maddon and
I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Kalkadoon woman from Gadighl Country.
The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on
(16:12):
the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to
all Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations. We pay
our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both
past and present.
Just a heads up. Today's episode contains discussion of suicide
and distressing themes. It might not be for you, so
feel free to skip ahead. Or if you or anyone
you know needs help, Lifeline is available for twenty four
to seven support on thirteen eleven fourteen.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Already, and this is the DAILYA.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
This is the dalyi OS.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday,
the tenth of July. I'm Emma Gillespie.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm Sam Kazlowski, a former.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Radio host, is taking legal action against his ex employer
over a twenty twelve pranc call controversy that made global headlines.
Michael Christian is suing Southern Cross Ostereo, claiming he wasn't
supported through the fallout of an on air segment that
led to tragic consequences. Today, we're going to explain what
(00:56):
happened in twenty twelve, everything about this prank phone call
and the fallout, as well as the legal action that
is now underway, and what Christian is alleging about his
treatment at sea.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Emma, it's hard to believe that this story goes back
more than a decade, thirteen years before we get into
the specifics of what happened and why we're talking about
it this week. Give us a sense of the broader
commercial radio landscape back then in twenty twelve. Yeah, you
and I are in near twelve.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
We were in near twelve, ging.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
A sense of what the radio sounded like and felt
like at that time.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, this was really a time of shock jock culture.
And if it feels like Australian commercial radio is still
in that place, trust me when I say it is
a vastly different world now and largely because of the
case we're going to talk about today, but particularly on
breakfast radio and commercial drive, prank calls were a staple
(01:55):
of programming, really really common. You would hear prank calls
on every major network all the time. They were designed
to kind of generate controversy and buzz, and the early
twenty tens twenty twelve included, really represented this kind of
peak period for controversial radio contents. So shock jock culture
hosts trying to push the boundaries, and networks like Southern
(02:19):
Cross Ostereo were kind of often focused or you could
often hear them trying to carry out these high profile stunts.
So the regulatory environment as well, at the time was
less stringent, and in fact, the prank call we're discussing
today never would have happened in other places where regulations
were tighter, like the US, where actually anyone is required
(02:41):
to give their consent before their voice is broadcast. But
that gives you a little bit of a sense of
what things were like here in Australia.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I think the other really interesting element about this time
period was the rapid rise of Facebook and this growing
idea and this growing sense that these stuff could actually
have a life of their own on social media after
they were broadcast.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Really nascent social media stages.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, yeah, I can almost kind of picture the news
feed of when these stunts really went viral. So that
was the environment when the twenty twelve incident occurred. Take
me through the incident itself now, yeap.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
So where in December twenty twenty twelve, when Michael Christian
and his co host mel Greg were working on todayfm's
Summer thirty program. So it was a summer broadcast, it
was going through the biggest hits of the day and
the radio station in question, TODAYFM, that we're talking about,
was specifically a Sydney broadcaster, but it's part of the
(03:39):
Southern Cross Austereo Network.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Which is a publicly listed company. It's a serious.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Player, massive company, and we'll refer to it as SEA
throughout the rest of the episode. But on the fourth
of December, this radio duo made a prank call to
a London hospital. Now important context for the time is
that Princess Catherine Kate Middleton you might know her as,
was receiving treatment for her first pregnancy. So there was
(04:05):
all this kind of global media interest in what was
happening with her pregnancy. The child that she would have
eventually was George, but she had been hospitalized and was unwell.
This radio duo, Michael Christian and mel greg impersonated Prince
Charles and Queen Elizabeth on a phone call to the hospital.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So these two hosts put on these broad British accents
call up the hospital, and the hospital staff actually believed
they were speaking two members of the royal family, right, yes.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
So what we know from the hosts leading up to
and after this is that they never expected that they
would get past the switchboard of the hospital, that their accents,
in their opinions, were not convincing, and that it was
all just a bit of silliness, but it went wrong
very very quickly, so two hospital members ended up being
(04:54):
deceived by the call. So the person who answered it
and then transferred to a nurse, and and that nurse,
the second nurse, revealed private details about Princess Catherine's condition.
The call, importantly was not broadcast live, but it was
later aired by sea, so the network did decide to
go ahead with running it. Very tragically, just three days later,
(05:18):
one of those nurses, her name is Jacintha Saldana, she
died by suicide. Now Saldana is not the nurse who
disclosed the patient information to the hosts, but she is
the nurse that transferred the call to an on duty
nurse on the Duchess's hospital ward and.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So very quickly this event had a global audience and
was making news all over the world. Let's go to
the reaction from the Royal family and the UK media.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yes, so two very very different responses here. Will start
with the Royal family. It was notably very restrained in
its response. Its response was centered around compassion. A statement
from the Royal family at the time said their Royal
Highnesses were looked after so wonderfully well at all times
by everyone at the King Edward the Seventh Hospital, the
(06:09):
hospital where Kate was being treated. Their thoughts and prayers
are with Jacyntha's family, friends and colleagues at this very
sad time. So that response was really focused on the
care that the duchess received. The UK media reaction, though,
was markedly different. I'm sure our listeners are very familiar
with the tabloid culture over there. It is cutthroat, completely
(06:31):
different worlds to here. In Australia. The Telegraph one of
the tabloids. They're essentially accused the Aussie radio hosts of
scamming the hospital. The Mail Online wrote of this palace
fury at the Australian radio pranksters. It described them as
and The Sun suggested that the hosts had quote flirted
with a charge of high treason by posing as the Queen.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
So you have this situation where a prank call goes
horribly wrong yep, and then a massive fallout both for
staff at the hospital and then the broader media landscape
all around the world. What was the response like as
that was unfolding from the two hosts and their employer.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
In a word, shattered, Christian and Greg did a series
of interviews at the time after the death of the nurse,
and you can see it on their faces. They were
incredibly distressed by what came to happen from what was
meant to be a silly prank. They said, they were shattered, gutted, heartbroken.
The duo apologized, but they did maintain and they have
(07:38):
continued to maintain over the years since, that the decision
to air the call was not up to them, that
senior decision makers at SEA were the ones that pushed
for the segment two go to air. The incident, as
you said, made global headlines. There was significant backlash and
most of that, it should be said, was directed at
the hosts.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And it's pretty fair to say that neither host has
worked in professional radio since. Right.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Well, it might surprise you actually to know that one
of them continued to work for SCA right up until
this year.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Okay, well, I want to talk about that in a
sec Why don't we go to the regulators now. So
you did say at the top that it was a
different regulatory landscape than it is on commercial radio today,
but there was still some investigation and reporting based on
what happened.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, there were a series of investigations from the regulatory
perspective and to see if there was any criminal wrongdoing.
So the media watchdog, that's the Australian Communications and Media
Authority or AKMA, it found that the station Today FM
breached its broadcasting license by airing the call. Now these
findings might sound quite firm or serious, but they didn't
(08:48):
actually lead to any kind of tangible penalties. For SCA,
it was confronting the threat of losing its broadcast license,
so that can zone did loom large over these inquiries,
but ultimately AKMAR ruled that it would not take away
its broadcast license. But the aftermath of this that is
(09:09):
not written in a black and white regulation is that
broadcasters changed their approach because they were so rattled, jarred,
scarred by what had happened from this call. So immediately
kind of prank calls became a massive taboo in commercial radio.
There was a coronial inquest in the UK into Saldana's
(09:30):
death right. It heard that she was left very upset
by the call, that she blamed herself in those days afterwards,
and her husband told the UK in quest that the
forty six year old mother of two did not have
a history of mental ill health before her death.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
So that's quite a serious ton of events.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Why are we talking about it this week?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
So there is current legal action the cases back in
the headlines because Michael Christian, one of the radio duo
involved in the prank call, filed action in the federal court. Now,
as I mentioned earlier, that one of the hosts continued
working for SEA, So that's him. That was him. He
worked there until February this year. Mel greg actually left
(10:11):
the network shortly after the twenty twelve incident. Christian, though,
has now launched this legal action, alleging that he was
pressured into the prank call by the network. He claims
he became a scapegoat for the incident and that SCA
failed to support him during the intense period of backlash
that followed after Saldana's death and in the years of
(10:33):
inquiries and investigations that were subsequent. He also says that
this led to severe mental health issues and damaged his career.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
So is this happening in the context of like an
unfair dismissal case?
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Essentially, yes, So it's an action in the federal court
under a fair work claim. So Christian was made redundant
in February of this year, but he argues that the
termination was not genuine. He says that Southern crossholl Stereo
still requires someone to perform his role, that it's being backfilled,
(11:06):
and so his lawyers claim that that dismissal is in
breach of the Fair Work Act because redundancies are meant
to be in place if the role someone's performing is
no longer required. That Christian says is not the case
with his dismissal, And.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
There's a lot of complicated law around how long the
position has to be empty for before a similar position
can be filled by the employer. Redundancy law takes up
a lot of the time of the Fair Work kind
of legal experts what specifically those Christian arguing about the
network's handling of the situation. Back in twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
So, according to court documents seen by the Australian Associated Press,
Southern crosshold Stereo promised that it would support its hosts
through any controversies related to on air content. And I
suppose this speaks to the culture of twenty twelve radio
that a lot of stations were going for the kind
of shock value in their segments in the face of
(12:03):
kind of this uprising social media threat and people young
listeners especially kind of becoming disengaged. So hosts were made
to believe that they had the support of the network,
but Christian said, even though he really did believe SAA
would protect him, it instead let its presenters take the blame.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
So that's really interesting because it's this sense of like
the executives, according to Christians, kind of saying to the hosts,
we know you're going to try some stuff on air
that's a bit red hot. Yeah, but we've got your back.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, but go for it. And Christian says basically he
had no choice about the call going to air, that
it was not his decision to do the segment or
run the segment, but that the broadcaster wanted to do that,
and he thought that that meant that they would stand
by him. According to the AAP reporting on the court documents,
Christians lawyers have told the court that Southern Cross OS
(12:54):
Stereo Quote did not immediately take public accountability for the incident,
but rather allowed mister Christian and miss greg to be
left exposed to relentless public vitriol, harassment, and abuse, including
death threats.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
It's worth noting at the moment, those are all allegations
being leveled at the network. Have we heard from the
network in response to these? And also, I wonder if
we've heard from Mel Greg.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah, well I can answer both of those questions for you, Sam,
We have actually heard from SCA. I reached out and
a spokesperson got back to me and said, as the
matter is currently before the courts, and out of respect
for the legal process and the privacy of those involved,
it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time,
so kind of what we expect from a corporation during
(13:39):
ongoing legal proceedings. The matters are before the courts, so
there's not too much they can say right now. But
as for Mel Greg, we have also heard from her.
So she posted to her Instagram stories with a statement
saying she understands why her former colleague has chosen to
go down this path, and she said that she hopes
the continued attention on this tragic incident will lead to
(14:02):
quote substantial reforms in the way media produce content and
support their staff. She's been really candid over the last
decade about the impact this incident had on her mental health.
She has not really worked in radio or in the
media industry in the same way since and really this
changed the course of her life.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Listeners to this podcast are very familiar with the fact
that these court cases can take some time. What happens
next here.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Well, the matter is yet to appear before the court.
We're in our very early stages of proceedings. Basically, all
we know is that Michael Christian and his team have
lodged a submission to sue SCA to the federal court.
He is expected to seek compensation for economic loss and damages.
Now that will be relating to the twenty twelve prank
(14:49):
call incident. That will be also relating to Sea's handling
of the fallout, and now this fair work claim of
unfair dismissal. It is worth noting that Melgreg filed similar
proceedings against the network in twenty thirteen, but she agreed
to a private settlement following mediation talks led by the
Fair Work Commission. So there is some precedent of fair
(15:12):
work negotiations between these two parties, the host and the network.
We will never really know what happened in that settlement,
and even Melgreg, in her statement earlier this week, said
that she'll never really be able to talk about what happened,
but she does hope that some good comes from this
continued attention.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
A really tragic case that's had lasting impacts, and despite
wins or losses in the court, I don't think there
really are any winners from this situation. I just want
to reiterate that helpline number one more time. If you
or anyone you know needs some help, you can contact
Lifeline anytime on thirteen eleven fourteen at thirteen eleven fourteen.
(15:51):
That's all we've got for you for today's deep dive.
Thank you so much for joining us. We're going to
be back in the afternoon with your headlines. Until then,
have a great day. My name is Lily Maddon and
I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Kalkadoon woman from Gadighl Country.
The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on
(16:12):
the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to
all Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations. We pay
our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both
past and present.
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