Peter van Onselen, the political editor of Network Ten, has denied undermining and humiliating the network’s federal political reporter Tegan George and says a federal court case will show he is a strong advocate for wiping out sexual harassment in the workplace.
“No, no, absolutely not,” he said when asked by the ABC’s Virginia Trioli on Melbourne radio whether he bullied George, who reported to him in the Canberra bureau. “And when process plays out, I’ll be able to respond to it all through Channel 10. But I just can’t talk about it publicly. Now that it’s a court proceeding.”
Van Onselen denied he had a “woman problem” and said the case would show his behaviour in the workplace was the “exact opposite”.
While saying he couldn’t talk about the details in the statement of claim revealed by Guardian Australia on Tuesday, Van Onselen claimed a key matter raised by George would show that he does not tolerate sexual harassment in the workplace.
“Well, actually on this one, the statement, which has been leaked publicly, one of the complaints is that I didn’t tolerate, if you like, non-cooperation with an incident that involved alleged sexual harassment within the office … which I wanted to be dealt with,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to Channel 10 defending [the claim], which they are doing but I just can’t speak publicly about it, unfortunately.”
Van Onselen was referencing a claim by George that she was threatened with disciplinary action by Network Ten management when she resisted making a formal statement about an alleged sexist remark that she had overheard.
The statement of claim said she was pressured into making a formal statement after she “overheard a conversation in Network Ten’s parliament house bureau between a Network Ten employee and a freelance camera operator in which a sexist remark was made about another employee”.
George’s legal counsel, Maurice Blackburn principal Josh Bornstein, said his client “overheard snippets of a conversation between two colleagues which contained sexist remarks and reported it to a manager”.
“Any suggestion that Ms George refused or failed to report an incident of sexual harassment is false,” Bornstein said on Wednesday after the ABC interview.
George claims Van Onselen backgrounded journalists against her and tweeted about “employees who witness” sexual harassment but did not report it, a tweet she believed was directed at her.
“I’m talking about witnesses not victims,” Van Onselen said in another tweet, quoted in the claim. “Especially when an employer makes clear they want to stamp it out, but a witness covers up for a colleague they are close to, for example”.
Well said @latingle on the need for positive obligations on employers to deal with workplace sexual harassment. When it happens it must be called out. There should also be obligations on employees who witness it to report it, not cover it up.
— Peter van Onselen (@vanOnselenP) September 5, 2021
A columnist for the Australian and an academic, Van Onselen has been one of George’s bosses in the Canberra bureau since 2019 and she alleges she suffered “hurt, humiliation and distress” in the workplace and has been on sick leave since June last year. She names a number of senior executives at the network in her claim, including Van Onselen.
Trioli also quizzed him regarding his headline making question to Scott Morrison at the National Press Club about text messages between Gladys Berejiklian and an unnamed senior Liberal.
The prime minister was blindsided by a claim that leaked texts between a party colleague and the former New South Wales premier included her calling the prime minister a “horrible person” who was untrustworthy.
In his question to Morrison on Tuesday, Van Onselen said: “In one, she described you as a horrible, horrible person, going on to say she did not trust you, and you are more concerned with politics than people.”
Trioli: “According to those text messages, he’s a psycho, but according to a statement of claim that’s been filed in court you’re batshit crazy. So do you and the prime minister have this in common?”
“I can’t talk about that. As much as I would love to,” Van Onselen said. “Because it is not public.”
In her lawsuit, George claims Van Onselen variously used Twitter, Ten group emails and WhatsApp messages to undermine her.
The federal court released the originating application to the media on Wednesday but held back the statement of claim.
The originating application says George is claiming that Ten contravened the Fair Work Act and should “pay a pecuniary penalty for each contravention”.
Ten, which is the only respondent, is yet to file its defence in the federal court.
