Highly charged 18-month dispute over casual radio presenter’s Gaza social media post to end on Wednesday
A highly charged 18-month dispute over whether the ABC acted unlawfully when casual radio presenter Antoinette Lattouf was abruptly taken off air in 2023 will end on Wednesday when Justice Darryl Rangiah hands down his judgment in the federal court.
Lattouf began hosting the ABC Sydney Mornings radio program on Monday, 18 December 2023. The next day she reposted a Human Rights Watch post reporting the Israeli military using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.
After the program aired on Wednesday, Lattouf was called into a meeting and told she would not be hosting the final two mornings set out in her contract because of the post.
The refusal of the ABC to allow Lattouf to finish her on air shifts sparked a legal fight which damaged the ABC’s reputation and has already cost taxpayers more than $1m in external legal fees.
The ABC’s position was, and still is, that Lattouf’s employment was not actually terminated as she was paid for the full five days – or, in their words, that “her employment … ended by effluxion of time at the conclusion of the applicant’s rostered shift on 22 December 2023.”
Last June, the Fair Work Commission found she was sacked, paving the way for the unlawful termination case in the federal court.
Lattouf’s case is that the ABC dismissed her for reasons that included her race and political opinion. The court heard those opinions included her...
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