ABC managing director agrees process of removing Lattouf ‘completely abnormal from start to finish’, court hears | Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, has conceded the process of removing Antoinette Lattouf from the broadcaster in December 2023 was “completely abnormal from start to finish”.

Giving evidence on Thursday at the federal court to the unlawful termination case brought by the former radio presenter, Anderson agreed with Lattouf’s barrister, Oshie Fagir, that the process had not been conducted in the usual manner.

He also said the ABC’s processes for dealing with employee misconduct were not followed “to the letter” in Lattouf’s case.

“My understanding is that the allegations were not put to Miss Lattouf,” he said, agreeing that she was also not invited to respond to allegations against her.

Anderson said he did not know if Lattouf had been offered a support person or if an independent investigator had been appointed by the ABC.

“The whole enterprise was completely abnormal from start to finish, would you agree?” asked Fagir.

“Yes,” said Anderson.

Lattouf was hired as a casual host on ABC Radio Sydney’s Mornings program for one week in December 2023. She was taken off air three days into a five-day contract after she posted on social media about the Israel-Gaza war.

Anderson told the court he believed Lattouf should never have been appointed as a casual radio host on Mornings because of her “partisan view on Israel-Gaza”, but that he was surprised when she was taken off air, saying he thought the issues had been dealt with earlier in the week.

“I think her appointment to being host of Mornings was a mistake,” he said. “My worry is … having somebody on air hosting conversations that matter to the community on live radio who holds a particular view and how they are able to be impartial when they have publicly stated something else.”

Anderson said he had been alerted to concerns about Lattouf after her first day in the casual job, when he received a large number of nearly identical complaints from listeners, which he said appeared to have been part of a coordinated campaign.

“What I assessed was that Ms Lattouf had been appointed somewhere, and I thought it was either news or radio … and had a partisan view on Israel-Gaza, and was considered to be of concern to these people,” said Anderson.

Anderson said he was not very familiar with Lattouf prior to this incident, but remembered she was involved with the organisation Media Diversity Australia and had appeared on the ABC’s flagship panel discussion program, Q&A.

Anderson told the court he had spent time on the Monday evening of the week Lattouf was on air looking through her social media accounts. “I came to the view that Ms Lattouf had made – well, there was antisemitic content on her social feeds.”

In text messages sent by Anderson to the ABC’s chief content officer, Chris Oliver-Taylor, on that Monday evening, Anderson wrote: “I think we have an Antoinette issue. Her socials are full of antisemitic hatred.”

Pressed in court about which posts contained “antisemitic hatred”, he said: “I have a recollection of her … challenging the existence of Israel, which I do believe to be antisemitic, but certainly her social feeds had antisemitic messages based within them.”

He added he couldn’t recall specifics of the messages, or if the posts had come from Lattouf, other people posting replies to her, or her replies to them, “but that, to me, added up to antisemitism that was sitting on her social feeds”, he said.

Anderson said that steps had been taken after the complaints were received to minimise the risk of partisan commentary on Gaza on air, including instructing Lattouf not to editorially engage in the Middle East conflict while on air, introducing a delay, so the content was not broadcast live, and a “dump button” that allowed producers to dump content they believed to be problematic.

Anderson referred to these as “mitigants” put in place, and said once they were introduced he “expected [Lattouf] to be on air for the rest of the week” and had been surprised when he learned from Oliver-Taylor that she had been removed from the program.

“Frankly, that decision was a surprise to me. I didn’t expect that at all. It was my understanding that Ms Lattouf was on air to the end of the week,” he said.

Anderson’s cross-examination continues.