Cricket lawyers pessimistic over mediation in sex harassment lawsuit

The woman at the centre of the Tim Paine sexting saga has accused more former Cricket Tasmania employees of sexual harassment as the case hits court.

Cricket Tasmania has been ordered to go to mediation with the woman at the centre of Tim Paine’s sexting scandal as it can be revealed she has made sexual harassment allegations against more of its staff.

Federal Court judge Mordy Bromberg on Thursday urged Cricket Tasmania and its former employee, Renee Ferguson, to attempt to settle the case to avoid a costly court battle.

“That would obviously be conducive. It would save a lot of costs and expense, a lot of resources,” Justice Bromberg said.

Greg Barns, SC, on behalf of Ms Ferguson, agreed the matter was “capable of mediation”.

But Cricket Tasmania initially had a strong stance against it.

Bruce McTaggart, SC, for Cricket Tasmania, said his client’s “firm instructions are that there’s no utility in mediation”, adding there were “little prospects of resolving the matter”.

Before adjourning the court for five minutes to allow him to speak to his client to see if they would reconsider their position, Justice Bromberg remarked how he had seen many cases in the past settled at mediation “despite that kind of pessimistic observation” beforehand saying they couldn’t.

The woman at the centre of Tim Paine’s sexting scandal has has made sexual harassment allegations against more of Cricket Tasmania staff. Picture: Getty Images

“I should say this to you, Mr McTaggart, we’ve got some very talented registrars who conduct these mediations and their success rates are pretty impressive,” Justice Bromberg said.

When court resumed, Mr McTaggart said: “My client will agree to mediation.”

The court heard any mediation would not happen until after March 3.

It was the first case management hearing since Ms Ferguson, 47, filed the sexual harassment claim with the court in November.

The Herald Sun had previously revealed the allegations were against Paine and his brother-in-law Shannon Tubb, a former Tasmanian Shield cricketer, and involved graphic “sexting” conversations with Ms Ferguson.

But the court heard claims have also been made about two other Cricket Tasmania staff.

The two other individuals were in manager roles at the time.

Mr McTaggart said the four individuals who have had allegations made against them no longer work for Cricket Tasmania.

He said they did not know the whereabouts of one of them so it could make it difficult to track them down to be part of the proceedings.

Paine last year resigned as captain of the Australian cricket team and made a public apology about what he called “consensual” texts, which included sending a photo of his penis, in 2017.

Ms Ferguson left Cricket Tasmania in 2017 after she was accused of stealing, in which she was charged and is due to face Hobart Magistrates’ Court next month.