What Ita Buttrose said about Antoinette Lattouf in her emails revealed

Former ABC chair Ita Buttrose’s emails about Antoinette Lattouf have played a big role in the presenter’s unlawful termination case in the Federal Court.

A week before Christmas in 2023, then ABC chair Ita Buttrose opened up her email and fired off a message to her managing director.

At that point, just days out from Christmas, ABC broad had been bombarded with complaints about Antoinette Lattouf.

“Has Antoinette been replaced? I am over getting emails about her,” she wrote.

Ms Lattouf has sued the ABC, arguing she was unlawfully terminated when she was dumped from the air the following day.

In the Federal Court her legal team has alleged that Ms Buttrose, managing director David Anderson and head of content Chris Oliver-Taylor made the decision to axe her after receiving a host of complaints about her pro-Palestinian politics.

Ms Buttrose was the ABC’s star witness during a blockbuster trial in the Federal Court in Sydney over the last two weeks and when she was wheeled into courtroom 16A on Tuesday, she was brimming with main character energy.

Antoinette Lattouf says she was unlawfully terminated by the ABC. Picture: NewsWire/Gaye Gerard.

Ita Buttrose appeared as a star witness for the ABC. Picture: NewsWire/Nikki Short.

‘I’D BE FRANKER THAN THAT’

Her email to managing editor David Anderson on Tuesday, December 19 played an important part in the Lattouf case.

Ms Lattouf’s barrister Philip Boncardo suggested to her it was proof that at that stage, she wanted the journalist and presenter fired.

It’s an allegation Ms Buttrose denied.

“If I wanted somebody removed, I’d be franker than that,” Ms Buttrose replied.

“You were pretty frank in those emails Ms Buttrose,” Mr Boncardo said.

“That’s not frank. That’s just saying ‘Have we resolved the matter? Has she been replaced? What’s going on?’”

Ms Lattouf’s legal team also latched onto another email which Ms Buttrose sent off later that evening.

Mr Anderson told her Ms Lattouf would be given a “managed exit”, effectively meaning she would complete her remaining shifts and finish up on the Friday, as per her contract.

Ms Buttrose replied asking if they could use the pretext of illness to take her off air.

“I have a whole clutch more complaints,” Ms Buttrose asked.

“Why can’t she come down with flu? Or Covid. Or a stomach upset? We owe her nothing, we are copping criticism because she wasn’t honest when she was appointed. Managed exit. Really.”

The Instagram post by Antoinette Lattouf which led to her sacking. Picture: Supplied.

Ms Buttrose denied this was proof that she wanted Ms Lattouf sacked. Instead, she told the court, it was a suggestion which would allow Ms Lattouf to “save face”.

“Was it your practice in 2023 to wish that ABC employees come down with respiratory illnesses?” Mr Boncardo asked.

Ms Buttrose laughed at the question.

“That was just a face-saving idea,” she said.

“I thought it might have been an idea for Antoinette to save face, it’s an easy way to save face. David didn’t pick up on the suggestion, so we didn’t continue the discussion.”

She was asked why Ms Lattouf would need to save face? Why was it clear, in Ms Buttrose’s mind, that Ms Lattouf was going to lose her job?

Mr Boncardo asked: “Why did it appear to you that Ms Lattouf might lose her job?”

Buttrose replied: “It didn’t look like her prospects were going to be very good.”

Boncardo asked: “What had she done wrong, Ms Buttrose?”

Buttrose replied: “I don’t know yet. But because she obviously upset the listeners of the ABC. And we were looking into it.”

Ms Lattouf’s manager Elizabeth Green. Picture: NewsWire/Gaye Gerard.

‘BEST NOT TO POST ANYTHING’

Much of the case centres on what Ms Lattouf was told in a phone call with her boss, ABC Radio Sydney content director Elizabeth Green on the afternoon of Monday December 18, the day of the first of her five shifts.

The court heard that Ms Green told Ms Lattouf that the ABC had fielded a number of complaints about her being on air.

Ms Green says she advised Ms Lattouf to be “mindful” of what she was posting on social media during her stint on ABC Radio and to “keep a low profile”.

Ms Green said she “believed” she told her not to post about the Israel-Gaza war.

This was at odds with Ms Lattouf’s version of events.

The ABC has claimed she disobeyed a direction not to post on social media about the war when she re-posted a Human Rights Watch post.

Ms Lattouf told the court was told by Ms Green: “Well, maybe keep a low profile on Twitter and maybe don’t post while you’re with us’.”

Ms Lattouf said: “To that, I respectfully, gently pushed back and said that I don’t think it’s fair to suggest that I don’t post.”

She says she told Ms Green that she would “stick to facts” and avoid “conjecture or misinformation”.

Ms Lattouf denied that she was ever given a direction and says they came to an agreement that she could post from “reputable sources”.

ABC managing director David Anderson. Picture: NewsWire/Nikki Short.

‘RACIST’

Ms Lattouf’s legal team has accused the ABC of having double standards over their reasoning for taking her off air.

Under cross examination, managing director David Anderson, was questioned why other high-profile ABC personalities were not taken off air for making contentious statements.

“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.

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

Mr Anderson said that Ms Tingle was not taken off air for that statement, but was counselled for other statements about opposition leader Peter Dutton.

Mr Fagir told the court it was “plain as day” that there was “no such rule” requiring impartiality from ABC presenters.

“There are… ABC broadcasters who every day make public statements and conduct themselves in a way that would contravene the alleged rule without ever being removed off air, without ever being subject to any sanction even where the opinions relate directly to their work,” Mr Fagir told the court.

The trial will return to court on February 27 and 28 for closing submissions from both sides.

Originally published as What Ita Buttrose said about Antoinette Lattouf in her emails revealed