The ABC has pushed back against a request for documents regarding the dismissal of former presenter Antoinette Lattouf, including correspondence from ABC chair Ita Buttrose and managing director David Anderson, saying claims by her lawyers were “legally incoherent”.
Lattouf has lodged an unlawful termination application with the Fair Work Commission claiming she was sacked from a casual presenting role on Sydney’s Mornings radio program over her political views and her race.
Lawyers for Lattouf sought a court order to force the ABC to hand over documents relating to the dispute, including communications between a barrister they claim “agitated for M Lattouf’s dismissal” and ABC employees.
The application was also seeking correspondence between employees of the ABC and a journalist at the Australian, after claims the newspaper published reports of Lattouf’s dismissal within hours of her termination, and any communication from Buttrose and Anderson with others concerning the event.
Chris Parkin, a lawyer for Lattouf, said these documents could provide probative evidence to the commission as it seeks to determine what happened in a meeting that resulted in the ending of Lattouf’s time at the broadcaster late last year.
Ian Neil, representing the ABC, rejected this, saying the broadcaster should not have to hand over the documents as what was relevant to the commission was what occurred in a meeting between Lattouf and ABC management ending her time there, and not what was said or thought about the actions.
Lattouf was contracted as a casual presenter for five shifts in December. She maintains she was terminated after three shifts, despite management telling her the audience was responding well to her, after she reposted a video from Human Rights Watch on her personal Instagram page that said: “The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a weapon of war in Gaza.”
Lattouf has made a claim of unlawful termination on the grounds of “political opinion or a reason that included political opinion”. She later expanded the claim to include race due to her Lebanese heritage.
The ABC denies this. In its submission to the Fair Work Commission, it wrote it decided “not to require” Lattouf to perform the last two of her five shifts as a casual presenter of Sydney’s Mornings because she had “failed or refused to comply with directions that she not post on social media about matters of controversy during the short period she was presenting”.
It has since claimed that it did not terminate her employment and the application should be thrown out.
Speaking outside the FWC offices in Sydney after the hearing, Lattouf said: “The ABC seeks the facts and the airing of the facts, except for today because it’s trying to suppress it. The truth, transparency, independence is part of the [ABC] charter but what we’ve seen today is instead the ABC spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars trying to hide the truth.”
The deputy president of the FWC has adjourned to consider the matter, with a ruling expected later this week.
