Premier denies lying to parliament over role in cricket staffer’s sacking
PREMIER Will Hodgman has denied misleading State Parliament over his role in the sacking of Cricket Tasmania staff member Angela Williamson.
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PREMIER Will Hodgman has denied misleading State Parliament over his role in the sacking of Cricket Tasmania staff member Angela Williamson.
Ms Williamson’s lawyers on Thursday lodged documents with the Federal Court of Australia in support of her wrongful dismissal case.
They claim Mr Hodgman was “lying” when he denied raising concerns about Ms Williamson’s social media criticisms of the Government with Cricket Tasmania before she was sacked.
Mr Hodgman has repeatedly told Parliament neither he, nor Health Minister Michael Ferguson played a role in Ms Williamson’s sacking.
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Documents filed on Thursday revealed Ms Williamson claims Cricket Tasmania boss Nick Cummins told her the Premier “was lying” when he assured her he had not raised concerns because the CEO had also had text conversations with the Premier suggesting he was not happy about her social media posts on abortion.
Ms Williamson is suing Cricket Australia in the Federal Court over her dismissal from a $100,000-a-year government relations role over a “social media breach” relating to her posts on a private account calling for abortion reform in Tasmania.
Ms Williamson also claims in the documents that Mr Ferguson, who is pro-life, had also complained to Cricket Tasmania that it was “difficult” because Ms Williamson was asking favours for the sport while posting about abortion on her private social media accounts. Soon afterwards, she was sacked.
According to the statement of claim lodged with the Federal Court on Thursday, Ms Williamson confronted Cricket Tasmania with a text exchange she had with Mr Hodgman in the meeting on June 19.
Mr Hodgman’s text to Ms Williamson states: “Angela, I have absolutely not spoken to anyone at Cricket Australia about your employment there. Will.”
After Ms Williamson read out the text from the Premier to Mr Cummins in a meeting over her abortion tweets, he replied “the Premier must be lying to you”, according to the legal documents. The statement of claim alleges “Mr Cummins said he also received messages from the Premier, which were different to the ones Ms Williamson received”.
Mr Hodgman said the claims made in the Federal Court documents were not true. He told Parliament he rejected every allegation.
“The allegations made today are untrue and are a complete misrepresentation of what took place,” he said.
“At no stage has any member of the Government asked anyone to take action with regard to Ms Williamson’s employment.”
Mr Hodgman said it was also untrue that anyone had accused him of lying.
Opposition Leader Rebecca White called on Mr Hodgman and Mr Ferguson to stand aside until after the Federal Court case determined the truth.
“Documents have been filed in the Federal Court today that could contradict everything the Premier and the Health Minister have said,’’ Ms White said.
“How many lies have been told here in relation to the Angela Williamson case and the abuse of power. This is an appalling display by the Government.
“The only thing that can happen now is that the Minister for Health has to step aside as does the Premier until the matter is resolved by the Federal Court.”
Cricket Australia also rejected the claims raised in the lawsuit. “We have chosen to withhold comment in the media concerning this issue to date out of respect for Angela and the legal process,” Cricket Tasmania said in a statement.
“However, these recent allegations cannot go unchallenged. Angela’s statement of claim is her version of events, a version we dispute.”
The statement said Mr Cummins also refuted the allegations. “The cessation of Angela’s employment is not because of her personal views, free speech, political speech or government interference.
“We reaffirm the necessity to administer social media policy while respecting people’s rights to publish personal views.
“We stand firm that Angela neglected key requirements of her role as government relations manager to facilitate a strong relationship with the Tasmanian Government.”
At the June 19 meeting, Mr Cummins also claimed that:
THE Board of Cricket Tasmania had unanimously decided that Ms Williamson could no longer perform her role for Cricket Australia.
MR CUMMINS told Ms Williamson she had damaged her relationship with the Tasmanian Government.
MR CUMMINS indicated he had spoken with the Premier by SMS.
MR CUMMINS revealed he had spoken with Michael Ferguson by phone.
MR CUMMINS said Mr Ferguson and the Premier were “disappointed in her behaviour”.
The Federal Court documents also reveal that Mr Ferguson said Ms Williamson was “difficult to work with because she asked for favours from the Government on the one hand (for Cricket Australia) and posted tweets pressuring the Government in relation to a personal matter on the other” relating to abortion reform.
However, the documents also claim the Health Minister was not aware of the June 14 tweet on abortion, until Cricket Tasmania informed the Government of the tweet.
Ms Williamson has previously accused the Health Minister of revealing her abortion to her boss Mr Cummins during this conversation, a claim that he denies, arguing that her termination was “on the public record” after she spoke to media outlets under the condition of anonymity.
Ms Williamson’s lawyers Maurice Blackburn argue Ms Williamson was sacked because of a political opinion using a personal social media account, and that it was a breach of the Fair Work Act.
The statement of claim alleges Ms Williamson has suffered loss of income, damage to reputation, humiliation, distress and anxiety and is claiming relief under the Fair Work Act. The maximum penalty for the two breaches outlined alone would be $126,000.
Earlier this year, Ms Williamson became one of the first women forced to travel to the mainland for an abortion after the state’s only low-cost private provider of surgical abortions closed its doors.
Documents lodged with the Federal Court on Thursday assert that Cricket Tasmania formed the view that Ms Williamson’s position was “no longer tenable” because of “due to the views of Mr Ferguson, Tasmanian Minister for Health, and William Hodgman, Premier of Tasmania” about Ms Williamson’s June 14 tweet.
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