Interesting article Romulus, but I can assure you that the only spin doctors at work here are Qantas' and I would assume let off the leash by G.D. to cover the @rse of his Exec General Manager Engineering D.Cox.
The facts are that during a maintenance visit to SIAEC a Qantas 747-400 had wiring stapled. Qantas have admitted this in an internal audit of the check. David Cox himself admitted that it had occured on another a/c at the same MRO prior to this occurence. He said that SIAEC had been told to "cease this practice". Anecdotal evidence points to SIAEC also, and I can assure you that Mr Crikey this time is way off beam. The only time the entire aircrafts floor mounted emergency exit lighting strips are required to be "pulled up" and then re-layed back on the floor is during a D check, the check undertaken at SIAEC.