Antoinette Lattouf v ABC hearing live: Ita Buttrose arrives at federal court to give evidence in unlawful termination claim | Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Court adjourned

The court has adjourned until 2.15pm after a full morning of evidence from Steve Ahern, who told the court he did not use the word “direction” when he told a manager to speak to Lattouf about her social media posting.

Ahern will return briefly to the witness box to complete his cross-examination.

Ita Buttrose is in the building and will begin giving evidence after lunch. The court has scheduled her for two hours.

Buttrose entered the federal court in a wheelchair after undergoing a back operation in 2023.

‘I don’t think I phrased it as a direction’: court hears how Lattouf was advised about social media posts

Ahern has told the court that he did not think he used the word “direct” when asking Lattouf’s line manager, Elizabeth Green, to instruct the presenter to restrict her social media activity while on air.

A key part of the case is whether Lattouf breached a direction by the ABC not to post on Israel-Gaza at all.

“I don’t think I phrased it as a direction because it was clear from Chris Oliver-Taylor’s first email what was involved,” Ahern says.

Boncardo: “So your evidence now is you didn’t phrase it as a direction?”

Ahern: “Yeah, that’s true. I don’t think I used the word directed to [mean]: I direct you to tell her not to post.”

Asked about management’s criticism of his appointment of Lattouf, Ahern says he was not surprised but was “disappointed by the characterisation” he had made an ill-informed decision, “but that’s the way these things go”.

Boncardo: “You had never been told by Mr Latimer, Mr Oliver-Taylor, or anyone else to tell Ms Green, or someone else from your area, to tell Ms Lattouf not to post to socials at all?”

Ahern: “In that wording, I had not been told in that way.”

Boncardo: “So Mr Latimer was plainly wrong when he said the clear instructions were to direct Antoinette not to post to socials for the rest of this week?”

Ahern said not in those words, “as a direction”, but the understanding for him and Green was “very clear”.

The former chair of the ABC Ita Buttrose has arrived at the federal court in Sydney ahead of giving evidence in the Antoinette Lattouf unlawful termination case.

Buttrose is a key witness in the hearing, which is on its sixth day of hearing evidence.

She is due to give evidence next, after Steve Ahern, the former head of ABC Sydney local radio. Ahern hired Lattouf for five days in December 2023.

Here we go again: suggestion v direction

Steve Ahern is back in the witness box after a short recess. His cross-examination is undertaken by Lattouf’s junior counsel Philip Boncardo.

Boncardo is asking Ahern about what instructions Lattouf was given by her line manager at Radio Sydney, Elizabeth Green, after concern was raised about her social media activity before she started as a presenter.

“I was asked by Chris Oliver-Taylor to make sure that she didn’t post anything about Israel-Gaza that was not impartial,” Ahern said.

Boncardo: “I suggest to you that it makes absolutely no sense for [editorial director Simon] Melkman to be suggesting you asked Ms Lattouf to keep a low profile on social media if you already told her not to post anything on Israel.”

Ahern disagrees.

The parties disagree about whether Lattouf was given a direction about her social media activity. Lattouf’s evidence was that Green suggested she keep a low profile on social media but it is the ABC’s case that she was “directed” not to post about Israel-Gaza at all.

Ahern agrees that he understands the difference between a suggestion and a direction.

Day six of the unlawful termination claim

Redacted version of Chris Oliver-Taylor’s affidavit released

The federal court has published the redacted version of Chris Oliver-Taylor’s affidavit after an unredacted version was hastily taken down from the public file yesterday.

Justice Rangiah opened proceedings by stating he is “deeply unhappy” that the ABC filed an unredacted version of the affidavit despite a federal court order that the names of the people who complained to the ABC about Lattouf should remain private.

The version of the document which was submitted to the court was labelled “redacted” by the ABC’s legal team but was not redacted. It contained the names and details of some of the complainants who were subject to a suppression order.

The people who are the subject of the suppression order are “entitled to expect that the confidentiality of their identification and contact details will be maintained by the parties”, the judge said earlier this morning.

The ABC is in damage control after infuriating staff and community groups with an element of its legal defence which said Lattouf had to prove her race.

The ABC will file an amended defence statement, counsel told the court this morning.

After the ABC’s backflip on its race defence in court this morning, Deena Amorelli, the chief people officer, people & culture, emailed staff to apologise for mounting the defence.

In an all-staff email, she wrote:

As part of these proceedings, a proposition was made in the ABC’s legal submission relating to race and matters that needed to be established by Ms Lattouf in her case against the ABC,.

This proposition was intended to state the legal elements that must be established, it was not to make a statement about any aspect of Ms Lattouf’s race or national extraction.

The ABC recognises that, regrettably, this legal argument has caused distress in some sections of the community and our workforce. This was not the ABC’s intention.

Today, the ABC has made clear to the court that it does not dispute or contest Ms Lattouf’s race or national extraction being Lebanese, Middle Eastern or Arab.

The ABC does, however, deny that any action was taken against Ms Lattouf because of her political opinion, race or national extraction.

The ABC’s commitment to diversity remains an important part of the ABC’s workplace culture and we will continue to work to foster inclusion for all staff.

Checking Lattouf’s social media

The ABC executive who hired Lattouf, Steve Ahern, is the first witness on the stand. An employee of the broadcaster for some 40 years, Ahern was the acting ABC local radio manager at the time Lattouf was removed from air.

Ahern is being taken through the processes he followed when questions were raised by management about Lattouf’s casual employment.

He agreed that after management asked him for information about Lattouf and why she had been hired he had looked at her social media activity.

He says he agreed that she was supportive of the plight of the Palestinian people and she was critical of the way that Israel was conducting the war.

The ABC has withdrawn an element of its defence which said Antoinette Lattouf’s race needed to be established, with Ian Neil telling the court the broadcaster now admits that Lattouf is “a person of Lebanese and Arab and Middle Eastern descent”.

The ABC will file an amended defence.

Neil says:

We are now instructed as follows.The ABC does not put in issue, that is, it does not dispute or contest that the Lebanese, Middle Eastern or Arab races exist, or that Ms Lattouf is one or more of those races.

Separately to what we just heard in court, the ABC has put out a statement about its amended defence.

Remember, the ABC faced a wall of criticism about the legal tactic last week, including from its own staff, as reported by Guardian Australia.

Here is some of that ABC statement:

As part of the proceedings, a proposition was made in the ABC’s legal submission relating to race and matters that needed to be established by Ms Lattouf in her case against the ABC.

This proposition was intended to state the legal elements that must be established, it was not to make a statement about any aspect of Ms Lattouf’s race.

The ABC recognises that, regrettably, this legal argument has caused distress in some sections of the community and our workforce. This was not the ABC’s intention.

Today, the ABC made clear to the Court that it does not dispute or contest Ms Lattouf’s race or national extraction being Lebanese, Middle Eastern or Arab.

The ABC does, however, deny that any action was taken against Ms Lattouf because of her political opinion, race or national extraction.

Justice Darryl Rangiah has opened proceedings by stating he is “deeply unhappy” that the ABC filed an unredacted version of Chris Oliver-Taylor’s affidavit despite a federal court order that the names of the people who complained to the ABC about Antoinette Lattouf should remain private.

On Monday the court uploaded an affidavit that was not redacted and the names and details of the Jewish people were made public, before the mistake was realised and the document was taken down.

Rangiah says:

The court is entitled to expect that the information provided to the court by the parties is accurate.

The people who are the subject of the suppression order are entitled to expect that the confidentiality of their identification and contact details will be maintained by the parties.

ABC barrister Ian Neil SC apologises for what he says was “human error”:

As leading counsel responsible for the presentation of the respondent’s case, I stand before you this morning to tender my personal apology for what has happened.

Former ABC chair Ita Buttrose will be today’s star witness

There are still five witnesses to give evidence after two days were added to last week’s original five-day schedule.

The star witness today is former ABC chair Ita Buttrose. The court has previously heard details of emails in which it appears she was urging management to remove Lattouf from air after receiving dozens of complaints about her employment.

But first up today is the former head of ABC Sydney local radio Steve Ahern, the man who hired Lattouf for five days in December 2023, a decision described as “a negligent error of judgement” by the managing director, David Anderson.

Last week Anderson told the court he believed Lattouf should never have been appointed as a casual radio host because of her “partisan view on Israel-Gaza”.

On Friday the court heard Chris Oliver-Taylor, the ABC executive who sacked Lattouf for sharing a Human Rights Watch post, felt “pressure from above” after Buttrose sent him all the complaints she was receiving.

“The pressure was now building, the concerns were rising,” Oliver-Taylor said of the situation on 19 December 2023 after Buttrose wrote to him directly and said she would be forwarding on all complaints she received about Lattouf.

To catch up on how things wrapped on Friday, here’s our report:

Lattouf trial reveals an ABC so paralysed by process even its managers can’t keep up

In case you missed it, Hugh Riminton on Saturday wrote about the first week of the federal court hearing:

If one thing has emerged from journalist Antoinette Lattouf’s quixotic battle with the ABC over her sacking 14 months ago, it is that the public broadcaster appears to be so weighed down by procedures, policy codes and guidelines that even senior management can’t keep up.

Read Riminton’s take on events here:

Hi, I’m Amanda Meade, media correspondent at Guardian Australia, and I’ll be watching day six of the Antoinette Lattouf v ABC unlawful termination claim.

We will bring you all the evidence as it unfolds from 10.15am.

Over today and Wednesday we will hear evidence from the remaining five witnesses, all from the ABC: Ita Buttrose, Steve Ahern, Simon Melkman, Ben Latimer and Elizabeth Green.