Lucia Losinno: Brett Sutton’s former assistant faces govt in court over false accusations

The Andrews govt tried to end the employment of a woman wrongly accused of leaking the state government’s Covid road map, a court has heard.

Brett Sutton’s former executive assistant Lucia Losinno. Picture: David Caird

A Victorian woman wrongly accused of leaking the state’s road map out of Covid lockdown is suing the Andrews government to prevent her from being fired, it can be revealed.

The Federal Court has heard new details about the case between Lucy Lossino, a former executive assistant to Brett Sutton, and the state of Victoria.

In 2020, she was accused of leaking Victoria’s Covid road map and police raided her home as part of their investigation.

Ms Losinno has lodged action with Fair Work over her treatment by the DHHS. Picture: Supplied

Ms Losinno was later cleared of these allegations but the investigation led to her being charged for trying to get a nail technician to visit her at home, in breach of lockdown rules.

On Friday, it was revealed that the Department of Health has since sought to end her employment and Ms Losinno’s argued that she was never found guilty of any actions that warranted her being fired.

They are also expected to claim she was denied “fair and reasonable treatment” and that this went against the terms of her enterprise agreement and public administration laws.

Ms Losinno remains an employee of the department while the case is underway.

Justice Michael Wheelahan ordered that both sides prepare documents pleading their case and scheduled the matter to return on May 26.

The case is also expected to focus on the sharing of other confidential documents across the department.

Barrister Chris O’Grady KC, representing the state of Victoria, said there was “no real contest” that Ms Losinno had sent “a number of confidential documents to her and to others”.

“The applicant in effect says that she did not realise that dealing with the documents that she dealt with … was wrong because everybody was doing it,” he said.

“We would want some real detail as to who it is she says was doing what.”

Charges were laid after police investigating the road map leak discovered text messages sent to beauticians on Ms Losinno’s phone.

She accepted responsibility for the offending and was fined $2500.

Lucia Losinno was a former executive assistant to Brett Sutton. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

In a statement to the Herald Sun, Ms Losinno confirmed that she had taken legal action and attacked the way she was accused of leaking the road map.

“As is publicly known, both my home and my in-law’s homes were raided by armed police officers after the department wrongly suspected that I had leaked the “road map” out of Victoria’s second lockdown to the media,” she said.

“As is also publicly known, I have since been cleared of that.

“Despite this, the Department has continued to pursue me in the same heavy-handed way in which it began.

“The decision to sue is not one I took lightly but I feel I have been forced to take such action to defend my right to fair and reasonable treatment, as every person deserves.”

More than 40,000 fines were issued for Covid breaches in Victoria but in November 2022 it was reported just 8.6 per cent had been paid.

At the time the Herald Sun released the draft road map, Premier Daniel Andrews said the document had “no status” and “out of date”.

However it was proved to be nearly identical to the final product when the road map was released days later.