ABC boss says claim ‘Australia is racist’ is ‘based in fact’

ABC boss David Anderson has conceded that several high-profile ABC presenters were not taken off air - like Antoinette Lattouf.

ABC managing director David Anderson said claims “Australia is a racist country” is based in “fact” as he told a court other high-profile journalists haven’t been pulled from air for making “impartial statements” on “contentious” issues similar to Antoinette Lattouf.

Ms Lattouf’s high-profile trial returned to the Federal Court for a third day on Wednesday, with the ABC opening its case after she sued the national broadcaster claiming unfair dismissal.

Ms Lattouf launched legal action after she was sent home for the final two days of a five-day fill-in stint on ABC Radio’s Sydney Mornings program in December 2023.

She is suing under the Fair Work Act and has claimed her sacking was motivated by complaints made during a campaign by the “pro-Israel lobby” because of her political beliefs and social media posts on the Gaza war.

She claimed she was unlawfully sacked after sharing a post on Instagram by Human Rights Watch reading “HRW reporting starvation as a tool of war”.

“The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a weapon of war in Gaza,” the post also read.

Journalist Antoinette Lattouf is suing for unfair dismissal. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

ABC managing director David Anderson outside the Federal Court on Wednesday. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short.

“RACIST”

Mr Anderson told the court that he said there was a “step missing” in Ms Lattouf being taken off air, saying with hindsight she should have been provided with a right of reply.

He told the court that a manager, ABC chief content officer Christopher Oliver-Taylor, made the decision because Ms Lattouf had disobeyed a direction not to post to social media about the war several days earlier.

He was then asked by Mr Fagir about whether he considered a series of statements “contentious”.

“Do you regard this as an impartial statement ‘Australia is a racist country’,” Ms Lattouf’s barrister Oshie Fagir asked.

“I have no problem with that statement, because it is based in fact that we have a history of racism,” Mr Anderson told the court.

“Do you say it is an impartial statement: ‘Australia is a racist country’,” Mr Fagir asked.

“It is an impartial statement based in fact,” Mr Anderson said.

“You say ‘Australia is a racist country’ is an impartial statement,” Mr Fagir said.

“Based in fact. I don’t know how you can deny racism in this country,” Mr Anderson replied.

He said there was “further evidence” there was “racism in this country”.

His questions were directed towards statements made by ABC political reporter Laura Tingle at a writer’s festival that Australia was a “racist country”.

Laura Tingle. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman.

Paul Barry. Picture: Supplied.

Mr Anderson said that Ms Tingle had not been taken off air but was sanctioned for other statements about opposition leader Peter Dutton.

“Ms Tingle’s statements soon after that were problematic, but that statement was not what I had a problem with,” Mr Anderson said.

He was later asked by Mr Fagir: “Can you tell me this - do you regard the making of the statement that ‘Australia is a racist country and always has been’ as conduct which is capable of reasonably being perceived as not to be impartial?”

“It could be perceived that way, yes,” Mr Anderson replied.

ABC barrister Ian Neil SC told the court on Monday that Mr Anderson was concerned about “impartiality and perceptions of impartiality” when he personally inspected Ms Lattouf’s social media accounts.

Mr Anderson was also asked about a tweet by former Media Watch presenter Paul Barry who said: “Israel is killing journalists again.”

“No I didn’t know that actually,” Mr Anderson replied.

“No one told you that?” Mr Fagir asked.

“I do not recall anyone telling me that,” Mr Anderson said.

“You haven’t spent an evening reviewing Paul Barry’s tweets?” Mr Fagir asked.

“No I haven’t,” Mr Anderson said.

Mr Anderson told the court that Mr Barry was neither taken off air nor sanctioned.

He said the statement could be perceived to be “impartial”.

ABC managing director David Anderson. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

‘NEGLIGENT’

Documents filed with the court show Ms Lattouf was paid $2900 for the five shifts despite only completing two of them.

ABC barrister Ian Neil SC told the court during his opening statement that the decision to pull Ms Lattouf from the air wasn’t made until Wednesday, December 20 – the day she was called into a meeting and told she wouldn’t complete her final two shifts.

He told the court that during a meeting on Tuesday, December 19, Mr Anderson said to then ABC chair Ita Buttrose: “Our assessment is that she hasn’t done anything wrong, she’s a casual employee whose engagement will come to an end on the Friday. The decision is that she will stay on air until then.”

On the morning of December 20, Mr Anderson sent Ms Buttrose an email saying: “We’re absolutely in damage control. Local radio management, specifically (ABC head of capital city networks) Steven Ahern has put us in an unacceptable position.

“Mr Ahern made a negligent error of judgment by employing Ms Lattouf without assessing her prior media and social activity.”

Mr Anderson further said by hiring her, the ABC had suffered “reputational” damage.

He said they “weighed up pulling Ms Lattouf off air” but concluded it was best to “manage” her exit and ensure she didn’t discuss the Gaza war on air, the court was told.

Ms Lattouf says she was unfairly dismissed by the ABC. Picture: NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard.

“Where in any of this does one see any trace, even a bat squeak, of antipathy on the part of Mr Anderson, Mr Oliver-Taylor, Ms Buttrose or anyone who looked at this for the actual content of any opinions that Ms Lattouf might have had,” Mr Neil said.

He said their “whole focus” was on “reputational damage” to the ABC.

Mr Neil said Ms Buttrose did not have any further part in Ms Lattouf being taken off air.

He told the court that on the morning of Wednesday, December 20, the ABC’s head of audio content Benjamin Latimer discovered Ms Lattouf had shared a Human Rights Watch post about the war on Instagram.

It prompted an investigation and led to a meeting involving Mr Latimer, Mr Ahern, ABC acting editorial director Simon Melkman, ABC content director Elizabeth Green and ABC chief content officer Christopher Oliver-Taylor.

Ms Lattouf was told in a meeting later that afternoon that she was being taken off air.

The court was told Mr Oliver-Taylor sent Mr Anderson a text message saying that The Australian was publishing a story and a statement was being issued.

“I’ve requested a full review as to how she was hired in the first place,” Mr Oliver-Taylor further wrote to Mr Anderson.

ABC managing director David Anderson said Ms Lattouf should never have been hired, the court was told. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

‘IMPARTIALITY’

The court was told the ABC began receiving complaints via email at 12.35pm on Monday, December 18 – just more than 90 minutes after Ms Lattouf completed her first shift.

The court was told that Mr Anderson asked management to “look into the matter”.

Ms Lattouf claims the decision to sack her was made by Mr Anderson, Ms Buttrose and Mr Oliver-Taylor, her barrister Oshie Fagir has previously told the court.

Mr Neil told the court on Wednesday that Mr Oliver-Taylor decided exclusively to take Ms Lattouf off air.

And, Mr Neil said, after reviewing the complaints on Monday, the ABC decided that Ms Lattouf would stay on air.

“That was the end of the influence of those complaints,” Mr Neil said.

However, he said, ABC management began to look at Ms Lattouf again on Monday evening when Mr Anderson discovered her social media accounts.

The court was told that Mr Anderson then wrote to Mr Oliver-Taylor saying: “I think we have an Antoinette issue.”

Mr Neil told the court that Mr Anderson was concerned about “impartiality and perceptions of impartiality”.

“That was the focus of the thinking on the part of Mr Anderson,” Mr Neil said.

The court was told that Ms Lattouf was hired under the ABC’s “diversity policy” given she was a Lebanese-Christian from western Sydney.

The court was told that in an email, Mr Ahern said that several years earlier Ms Lattouf was identified among “potential future presenters for ABC Radio” under its diversity policy.

The Instagram post Ms Lattouf says she was sacked over. Picture: Supplied

On Tuesday, Ms Lattouf detailed in court the toll her sacking had wrought on her mental health and how she was trolled and abused online.

She said the ABC alleged she had breached its editorial and social media policy in a meeting on December 20.

Ms Lattouf on Tuesday afternoon became tearful as she explained the psychological effects of the saga, saying it had caused her to drink more and rely on sleeping pills.

She said she told her psychiatrist that she was a “social drinker” but had become a “heavier drinker” and sometimes drank until she passed out.

She also said she experienced “paranoia” of being followed, including one occasion when she went into a cafe because she feared she was being tailed.

Her psychiatrist Nigel Strauss told the court that Ms Lattouf had been diagnosed with a depressive disorder with high levels of anxiety.

In a video she posted to social media, and which was played to the court on Tuesday, Ms Lattouf said that every time she was put up as the “poster girl” for “justice” and a “free and fair press” she was struck by a “suffocating” heaviness and sadness.

She told the court that she contacted police in October last year after receiving an abusive email on her private account and had been told in January that police had identified the person responsible.

“I don’t know why I reported this one and not some of the others,” Ms Lattouf told the court.

“On that particular day I was like ‘I shouldn’t have to put up with this’.

“I don’t know how they got my private email. I made a statement to police and they’ve identified the man.”

She was told not to come in for her final two shifts. Picture: Instagram

Ms Lattouf claims ABC chair Ita Buttrose played a role in her sacking. Picture: Supplied

In a statement to NewsWire, NSW Police said it was investigating a complaint made by Ms Lattouf about an alleged online threat.

She told the court she had been “rendered unemployable” as a result of the national broadcaster accusing her of being “insubordinate” and “breaching editorial and social media policy”.

The court was told that at the December 20 meeting, Mr Ahern told Ms Lattouf that she was being taken off air and wouldn’t complete her final two shifts.

She said she was told: “You were told not to post on your social media.”

The court was told that Ms Lattouf had a phone conversation with ABC content director Elizabeth Green on Monday, December 18 – the first day of her five-day stint.

She said she was given a “heads up” that the “the ABC had been flooded with complaints from pro-Israel lobbyists because we have put you on air” and asked to keep a “low profile”.

But she told the court that she came to an agreement with Ms Green to only post from “reputable” sources.

The hearing continues.

Originally published as ABC boss says claim ‘Australia is racist’ is ‘based in fact’