ABC has been ordered to pay journalist Antoinette Lattouf $150,000 after the Federal Court ruled the national broadcaster unlawfully terminated her back in 2023 when she shared a post about Gaza.
The penalty, handed down on Wednesday by Justice Darryl Rangiah in Brisbane, comes on top of the $70,000 in compensation Lattouf was already awarded earlier this year. It closes a long-running legal battle that began in December 2023 when her five-day stint hosting ABC Radio Sydney’s Mornings program was cut short just three days in.
Rangiah ruled in June that the ABC had breached section 772 of the Fair Work Act and multiple clauses of its enterprise agreement. At the time, he found the broadcaster acted unlawfully by dismissing Lattouf because of her political opinion opposing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
The dispute stemmed from an Instagram story Lattouf shared quoting Human Rights Watch, which said Israel had used starvation as a “weapon of war” in Gaza.
In his penalty decision, Rangiah described how the ABC “surrendered to the lobbyists’ political campaign by sacrificing” Lattouf. He also found that then-chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor “blithely ignored the risk” of breaching the enterprise agreement by pushing ahead with the termination.
“He did not bother to consult the human relations and legal experts within the ABC,” Rangiah wrote in his judgment, per Sydney Morning Herald.
“That was, I infer, because he was keen to ‘beat the story’ that The Australian intended to publish. I accept Ms Lattouf’s submission that the ABC acted with disdain for her legal rights under the enterprise agreement.”
The judge said ABC was ultimately exposed to a potential maximum penalty of $375,600, but he settled on $150,000 — three times the penalty the ABC argued it should face, though still far less than the $350,000 maximum sought by her lawyers.
Ahead of the ruling, Lattouf released a statement criticising the broadcaster’s handling of the case.
“Whatever the penalty, for me this was never about money – it’s always been about accountability and the integrity of the information our public broadcaster gives us,” she said.
She added that the ABC had already spent “well over $2 million of taxpayer money fighting me” and urged the organisation to “restore credibility, regain trust, and re-establish integrity, because our democracy depends on a strong fourth estate”.
The broadcaster had admitted it acted unlawfully but argued the penalty should be between $37,560 and $56,340, describing Lattouf’s initial Instagram post as “ill advised and inconsiderate of her employer”.
The decision officially wraps up one of the most closely-watched legal fights between a journalist and the ABC in years.
Lead image: 9News
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