Ten’s political journalist Tegan George has denied not reporting an incident of sexual harassment

Tegan George has denied she refused to comply with a sexual harassment incident at her workplace as she pursues legal action against Ten.

Network Ten journalist Tegan George speaking with The Project co-host Lisa Wilkinson in March 2021. Picture: Twitter.

Ten Network political reporter Tegan George has denied that she ­refused to report an incident of sexual harassment concerning fellow staff members as she ­pursues legal action against her employer.

Just one day after her legal ­action against Ten was made public, George’s lawyer, Maurice Blackburn principal Josh Bornstein, issued a statement refuting claims made by the network’s political editor Peter van Onselen during an interview on ABC radio in Melbourne with host Virginia Trioli.

He told Trioli he was criticised by George in the court documents over her reporting of an alleged sexual harassment complaint that she overheard among Ten staff in Canberra.

“One of the complaints was that I didn’t tolerate, if you like, a non-co-operation of an incident that involved alleged sexual harassment,” van Onselen said on air. But in Bornstein’s statement on Wednesday he refuted these claims and said: “When Ms George overheard snippets of a ­conversation between two colleagues which contained sexist remarks about a third colleague and reported it to a manager, she was threatened with disciplinary action if she refused to make a formal written statement about it. Any suggestion that Ms George refused or failed to report an incident of sexual harassment is false”.

George, who was working in the network’s Canberra bureau from 2019, has launched legal action against Network Ten in the Federal Court and has named multiple staff members in relation to claims of bullying.

In the statement of claim, ­George claimed van Onselen refused to have coffee with her, take her phone calls, praise her tweets which received large viewing numbers and he also ­relocated her office desk.

In a tense few minutes, Prime Minister @ScottMorrisonMP was confronted on his response to Brittany Higgins' rape allegations by 10 News First's Tegan George who asked the PM how he should feel as a human being #auspol | @tegangeorgepic.twitter.com/FqbIlKvLNO

— 10 News First (@10NewsFirst) February 16, 2021

The documents state van ­Onselen – who is a co-host on The Project and also contributing editor at The Australian – from February 2020, “regularly had informal coffee meetings outside the office (with) other Network Ten journalists but did not do so with Ms George”.

The documents also claimed in the same period van Onselen “avoided talking with Ms George as much as possible and principally communicated with her by text message”.

While outlining issues of mistreatment by colleagues during her time in the Canberra bureau George said van Onselen also ­arranged she move desks so hers could be given to a “more junior journalist”.

George had a funding page set up to help pay for her legal costs on Wednesday, attracting tens of thousands of dollars in donations within hours.

In the court documents it also stated van Onselen refused to “acknowledge that a video of Ms George questioning the Prime Minister about Brittany Higgins received almost 500,000 views on Twitter … (but) Mr van Onselen sent an office-wide email commending Stela Todorovic on a story receiving 90,000 views on Twitter”.