Former SBS reporter Scott McIntyre has been granted permission to sue the broadcaster for unfair dismissal at the Fair Work Commission after he lost his job for tweeting controversial views about Anzac Day.
At the Fair Work Commission on Thursday, commissioner Ian Cambridge referred to the freedoms the Anzacs fought for, saying McIntyre deserved a fair hearing and his “day in court”.
“It is perhaps sadly ironic that many members of the Australian defence force lost their lives in the earnest pursuit of the protection of rights and freedoms such as the access to a fair hearing which the applicant is entitled to obtain,” Cambridge said.
The experienced football reporter was sacked by SBS after he questioned the Anzac legend and the jingoism associated with the centenary of the Gallipoli landing.
SBS’s managing director, Michael Ebeid, dumped him the morning after he posted the series of tweets, which the then-communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, described as “despicable”.
McIntyre began his tweets by criticising what he said was the “cultification [sic] of an imperialist invasion”.
“Remembering the summary execution, widespread rape and theft committed by these brave Anzacs in Egypt, Palestine and Japan,” he said.
McIntyre was asked by SBS management to delete the posts but he refused to do so.
Turnbull criticised him, posting on Twitter: “Difficult to think of more offensive or inappropriate comments than those by @mcintinhos. Despicable remarks which deserve to be condemned.”
In May his lawyers, Maurice Blackburn, said the case would focus on whether the views expressed by McIntyre constituted political opinion and whether SBS terminated his employment for expressing those views.
SBS challenged the application for unlawful termination of employment but Cambridge said under the exceptional circumstances of the case the application should proceed.
“McIntyre had been wrongfully advised to pursue a case of discrimination based on political opinion because the anti-discrimination law in NSW does not make it unlawful to discriminate against a person on the basis of their political opinion,” the commission heard.
“In the circumstances of this case the applicant does not seek multiple proceedings or remedies but simply seeks to have his day in court,” Cambridge said. “The circumstances surrounding this matter are unusual.
“The public controversy regarding the applicant’s social media comments on Anzac Day and his subsequent dismissal have understandably introduced an elevated level of tension between the parties in respect to the litigation involving challenge to that dismissal. Unfortunately, that litigation has now generated some unusual circumstances of its own making.”
Turnbull has admitted that he contacted Ebeid “as soon as I was made aware of the tweets by Mr McIntyre”.
“Mr McIntyre, as a private citizen, is entitled to express his political views, but in his capacity as a reporter employed by SBS he has to comply with, and face the consequences of ignoring, the SBS social media protocol, a number of provisions of which were breached by him with his offensive tweets,” Turnbull wrote on his blog.
“The management of SBS, however, not the government, is responsible for staffing decisions at SBS,” he said.
