{"id":286518,"date":"2025-10-08T12:39:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T12:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/286518\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T12:39:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T12:39:13","slug":"abc-spent-more-than-2-5m-defending-legal-action-from-antoinette-lattouf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/286518\/","title":{"rendered":"ABC spent more than $2.5m defending legal action from Antoinette Lattouf"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ABC has already spent more than $2.5 million on external costs defending legal action from journalist and broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf, managing director Hugh Marks has told Senate estimates.<\/p>\n

A Federal Court judge last month ordered the ABC to pay $150,000 to Lattouf, finding it breached the Fair Work Act by terminating her employment<\/a> after she shared a Human Rights Watch post about the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

She had already been awarded another $70,000 in compensation for non-economic loss.<\/p>\n

Under questioning from Liberal senator Dean Smith, Mr Marks told Senate estimates that the external costs spent by the ABC could keep rising.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

A Federal Court judge last month ordered the ABC to pay $150,000 to Antoinette Lattouf.\u00a0 (ABC News: Abubakr Sajid)<\/p>\n

“My estimate was, at the time of the trial, that it was going to be many millions of dollars,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There are still some final accounts to come in, I understand that we may or may not have a costs hearing to go through, so I don’t think it’s a matter that we can draw a line under, unfortunately, as much as I’d like to at this point.<\/p>\n

“I know our external costs at this point, of all of the components of that, are now more than $2.5 million.”<\/p>\n

The previous estimate of the ABC’s costs on defending the case was provided in February, when the national broadcaster estimated it at $1.1 million.<\/p>\n

ABC ordered to pay $150,000 fine for unlawfully sacking Lattouf<\/a><\/p>\n

The judge ordered ABC to pay a fine of $150,000 for unlawfully sacking journalist and presenter Antoinette Lattouf for reasons including her political opinions.<\/p>\n

Mr Marks said it was hard to estimate the internal costs, but said “extensive time and effort” was put in by many people at the national broadcaster.<\/p>\n

“This was all there to be avoided; it is not a good reflection on the organisation,” he said.<\/p>\n

Asked by Senator Smith what the ABC had learnt from Lattouf’s illegal dismissal, Mr Marks said it was to be “calm under pressure” and “follow our processes”.<\/p>\n

“Ensure that we meet our standards, just an understanding as well of who has the power to make decisions in the organisation,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There seemed to be many failings in the Lattouf matter.<\/p>\n

“They should not have been lessons to the organisation, but they’re a good reminder of the expectations and responsibilities \u2026 to act appropriately in all environments. It should have been done better, and it wasn’t.”<\/p>\n

\"Protestor<\/p>\n

Federal Court Justice Darryl Rangiah found the ABC breached the Fair Work Act by removing Antoinette Lattouf from air.\u00a0 (ABC News: Keana Naughton)<\/p>\n

Federal Court Justice Darryl Rangiah found the ABC breached the Fair Work Act by removing Lattouf from the air during a five-day radio presenting contract on Sydney radio in December 2023.<\/p>\n

Justice Rangiah found the decision was made to appease pro-Israel lobbyists behind a campaign of complaints, and the ABC had unlawfully terminated Lattouf’s employment for reasons “including that she held a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza”.<\/p>\n

After the punishment was handed down, Lattouf posted on social media that the case had never been about money for her, and claimed the ABC had spent “well over $2 million of taxpayer money” fighting her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ABC has already spent more than $2.5 million on external costs defending legal action from journalist and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":286519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8811,147464,4740,90196,53534,147466,147467,50,147465],"class_list":{"0":"post-286518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-abc","9":"tag-antoinette-lattouf","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-fair-work-act","12":"tag-federal-court","13":"tag-hugh-marks","14":"tag-human-rights-watch","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-senate-estimates"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115338593528906675","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}