The ABC has been ordered by the federal court to pay Antoinette Lattouf a total of $150,000 in pecuniary penalties for breaching the Fair Work Act and the ABC’s enterprise agreement when it unlawfully terminated the casual presenter for holding a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
The pecuniary penalty is on top of a previous order to pay Lattouf compensation of $70,000.
The decision on penalties brings to an end a highly-charged dispute which began in December 2023 when the journalist’s on-air shifts were cut short three days into a five-day stint hosting ABC Radio’s Sydney Mornings.
In June Justice Darryl Rangiah found the ABC contravened section 772 of the Fair Work Act and breached five clauses of the ABC’s enterprise agreement.
The amount is three times as much as the ABC submitted it should pay, but far short of the $350,000 Lattouf wanted.
The ABC had admitted it acted unlawfully and said the total penalty imposed should be between $37,560 and $56,340.
At a hearing earlier this month Lattouf’s lawyers argued for the maximum penalty because of “significant pressure” put on senior management by Ita Buttrose, the broadcaster’s former chair, to sack Lattouf.
The trigger for Lattouf’s sudden removal on the Wednesday after her shift was an Instagram post she shared from Human Rights Watch that said Israel had used starvation as a “weapon of war” in Gaza.
The broadcaster asked the court to take into consideration the finding by Rangiah that...
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