Antoinette Lattouf was unlawfully terminated by the ABC. What happens now?

Australia Broadcast Center

12 hours ago

A judge has ruled journalist Antoinette Lattouf was unlawfully terminated when the ABC took her off the air over 18 months ago — but the high-profile legal saga is not over yet.
In his Federal Court judgment on Wednesday Justice Darryl Rangiah also foreshadowed possible further penalties against the national broadcaster.
Ms Lattouf was taken off air three days into a five-day stint as an ABC Radio Sydney presenter in December 2023 after sharing a post by Human Rights Watch about the war in Gaza.
Justice Rangiah found the ABC contravened the Fair Work Act by terminating her employment, for reasons "including that she held a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza".
He also concluded external pressure from "pro-Israel lobbyists" played a role in the decision.
The judge has concluded that the ABC breached two sections of the Fair Work Act.
The first protects employees from discrimination due to their political opinions, and the second entitles them to due process when facing termination.
He ordered the ABC to pay Ms Lattouf $70,000 in compensation for non-economic loss, including psychological distress.
The judge found that former ABC chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor was the sole decision-maker and former ABC managing director David Anderson made a "material contribution" to the decision.
In the wake of the court decision, the ABC's new managing director Hugh Marks acknowledged the court's ruling, describing the matter as "regrettable" and "not handled in line with our values and expectations".
Justice Rangiah also ordered that the matter be heard to determine whether the ABC should pay any financial penalty under the Fair Work Act.
Speaking outside the court after the judgement, Ms Lattouf's lawyer Josh Bornstein said her team wanted to now ensure this never happens again.
"There are multiple contraventions of the Fair Work Act that the ABC's engaged in and we will be seeking significant penalties," Mr Bornstein said.
"The ABC's conduct since it illegally sacked Antoinette Lattouf raises real concerns about whether this will happen again if similar bad faith actors make complaints about ABC journalists."
Labour law academic Joellen Riley, from the University of Technology Sydney, said pecuniary penalties were common in matters where employers were found to have breached the Fair Work Act.
She said the maximum penalty that can be applied to a corporation for unlawful termination was $99,000.
"Whenever you find a contravention, some penalty is likely," Professor Riley said.
"How much that will be depends on whether it's considered to be an egregious breach or whether people did in fact think they were acting within their rights."
She said the judge could decide for a penalty to be paid to either the Commonwealth, or the applicant directly.
"Since the Fair Work Act is a no cost jurisdiction the payment of any penalties can help defray the cost that they've covered in bringing the action," she said.
She said there was some grounds for costs to be granted if one side had "caused the matter to proceed inefficiently" during the litigation, but that was a high bar.
She said pecuniary penalties were in place to deter organisations from breaching their legal obligations.
"Having the threat of a penalty being attached … that's the incentive for people to do the right thing," Professor Riley said.
She said the act also opens the door for penalties to be applied to individual decision makers in these cases.
"You could find that in this case one particular person was decided to be the relevant decision-maker here, maybe there will be some consideration as to whether that individual person also will be subject to penalties."
The matter will now be set down for a pecuniary penalty hearing at a later date.