The ABC spent $3.42 million in authorized charges within the 2023-24 monetary yr, new paperwork obtained by Crikey below freedom of data (FOI) legal guidelines reveal.
The paperwork additionally present that the ABC handled two unfair dismissal or Honest Work issues within the 2023-24 monetary yr. The prices related to a kind of issues was $0; the opposite matter is that of sacked presenter Antoinette Lattouf’s ongoing unfair dismissal case in opposition to the broadcaster.
Lattouf commenced authorized proceedings in December 2023 after being dismissed from a five-day informal contract on ABC Radio Sydney. It adopted an Instagram put up by Lattouf of a Human Rights Watch report alleging Israel was utilizing hunger as a device of struggle, and a subsequent marketing campaign by pro-Israel lobbyists that focused then ABC chair Ita Buttrose and managing director David Anderson.
What portion of the $3.42 million was spent on the authorized battle with Lattouf is unclear. Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi put inquiries to the broadcaster in Senate estimates in Might, asking how a lot the ABC had spent on the case. In August, the ABC responded, declining to offer the determine to keep away from “prejudice [to] the ABC’s place in these authorized proceedings”. The ABC confirmed that it was being represented by main employment legislation agency Seyfarth Shaw, with a accomplice and two associates engaged on the case. The ABC has additionally engaged two barristers for the proceedings, together with main silk Ian Neil SC.
Faruqi stated in August that “the general public has a proper to understand how a lot the ABC is spending to defend their sacking of journalist Antoinette Lattouf”.
A spokesperson for the ABC declined to substantiate how a lot had been spent particularly on the Lattouf matter.
A Sydney barrister specialising in employment legislation, chatting with Crikey on the situation of anonymity, stated it wasn’t unreasonable to assume the price of the Lattouf case might be within the a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars}.
“Realistically, a really small matter in say, the Honest Work Fee or the Industrial Court docket, only a small form of [discrimination] matter or one thing, these are about $200,000,” the barrister stated.
They estimated a one-week trial within the Federal Court docket with “a silk of that eminence” would price round $10,000 to $15,000 a day.
“And you then’ve acquired a junior as nicely who could be charging $5,000 a day. That’s the barristers, plus the preparation upfront. After which solicitors … a accomplice at a big legislation agency today prices most likely across the $800 an hour mark,” they stated.
They went on to clarify that the workload for attorneys in a case could be “not less than three weeks [worth of work] for a one week listening to … a silk wouldn’t be doing all of that although,” and confirmed that the weeks in query had been considerably longer than the usual 40-hour work week.
Data regarding the prices of defamation instances on the ABC was additionally faraway from the scope of Crikey’s FOI request, however in October 2023 the ABC was ordered to pay $412,315 plus prices to former Particular Forces commando Heston Russell in a high-profile defamation loss. Russell had engaged the companies of eminent defamation silk Sue Chrysanthou SC, who was instructed by the high-profile Rebekah Giles.
