Former ABC Chair Ita Buttrose will be on the witness stand in the Federal Court next Tuesday or Wednesday and she’ll need to either perjure herself like no tomorrow or admit to having journalist Antoinette Lattouf unlawfully sacked to keep supporters of Israel happy.
Ita Buttrose was basically thrown under a bus on Friday after ABC content chief, Chris Oliver-Taylor, gave evidence that I reported on Twitter as,
“ABC’s Chris Oliver-Taylor, witness in the Antoinette Lattouf v ABC matter, has in effect admitted he decided to sack Lattouf after he started getting emails from ABC Chair Ita Buttrose and she named him in emails to the Lawyers for Israel group” (Click here to see on Twitter)
The Gaudian reported on the same issue,
“Oliver-Taylor said he was put between a “rock and a hard place” when it came to Lattouf’s position as a casual presenter on ABC Radio Sydney. He detailed “pressure from above” from colleagues, including the then chair, Ita Buttrose, over Lattouf’s appointment. He said: “The chair [Buttrose] was directly writing to me, the chair’s office and the chair were directly forwarding me more and more and more concerns and naming me as a respondent in the claims … There was pressure from above, I accept that.” (Click here to read more)
This story is a lot more than “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.”
It is also a story of how a WhatsApp group called “Lawyers for Israel” conspired with News Corp journalist The Australian’s Sophie Elsworth and an insider at the ABC to destroy the career of Antoinette Lattouf and that is all being exposed in court now. (Click here to read more)
This article is a follow-up from my article a few days ago titled “ABC play the race card against Antoinette Lattouf in her unlawful termination case”. (Click here to read the article)
Antoinette Lattouf’s unlawful termination case against the ABC started on Monday (3/2/25) and her sacking because of pressure by the “Lawyers for Israel” WhatsApp group is well documented because someone in the group leaked screenshots of the posts by the various members.
Antoinette Lattouf was sacked on the 20th of December 2023 and The SMH reported on the 16th of January 2024:
The ABC sacked broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf after a high-level and co-ordinated letter-writing campaign from pro-Israel lobbyists that directly targeted the corporation’s chair, Ita Buttrose, and managing director David Anderson.
Dozens of leaked messages from a WhatsApp group called Lawyers for Israel show how members of the group repeatedly wrote to the ABC demanding Lattouf be sacked, and threatened legal action if she was not.
An ABC manager told Lattouf in the early afternoon of December 20 that she had been dismissed. Hours earlier, the WhatsApp group shared a letter from Buttrose saying she noted their concerns, and adding: “I have forwarded your email on to Chris Oliver-Taylor, the ABC’s chief content officer, who is dealing with this matter.”
The messages also reveal members of the group calling Lattouf’s lawyer, Josh Bornstein, who is Jewish, a “traiter” (sic), and that the deputy president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Robert Goot, was actively involved in a discussion about having Lattouf dismissed.
The WhatsApp messages, obtained by this masthead, give an insight into how Lawyers for Israel used aggressive lobbying to try to exert influence at the ABC. A source with knowledge of events says the group was also involved in a campaign against the Sydney Theatre Company over a pro-Palestinian protest by some actors, but those messages had since been deleted. (Click here to read more)
Ita Buttrose’s big problem on the witness stand
Why did Ita Buttrose communicate directly with ABC content chief, Chris Oliver-Taylor? Once Buttrose did that she was overriding the Managing Director in a day-to-day operational matter and both Managing Director David Anderson and Chris Oliver-Taylor would have been aware of that and felt pressured to act.
The chairperson of any company or organisation should only be dealing with the CEO / Managing Director with the exception of when lower-level managers present to the board on various issues.
Ita Buttrose also should not have been anywhere near the complaints from the Lawyers for Israel WhatsApp group and if they emailed her complaints directly she should have emailed them back with a link to the ABC’s website page for making complaints and that is all she should have done.
Once Ita Buttrose started emailing Chris Oliver-Taylor directly with the complaints from the “Lawyers for Israel” WhatsApp group and telling the group that Oliver-Taylor was dealing with it she was also in effect telling Oliver-Taylor to do what the “Lawyers for Israel” WhatsApp group want.
Below is a screenshot from the “Lawyers for Israel” WhatsApp group as reported by the SMH in January 2024:
Ita Buttrose responds on the day Lattouf is sacked
December 20, 2023
Earlier in the week the court heard evidence that in one email Ita Buttrose sent to ABC Managing Director David Anderson she said in relation to Antoinette Lattouf,
“I have a whole clutch of complaints. Can’t she come down with flu, or COVID or a stomach upset? We owe her nothing,”
Chris Oliver-Taylor says he is the one who decided to sack Antoinette Lattouf but as per the above it is blatantly obvious he only did that after pressure from Ita Buttrose and that she was the real decision maker.
When ABC Managing Director David Anderson gave evidence earlier in the week it was obvious to me he was the decision maker until Chris Oliver-Taylor gave his smoking gun evidence on Friday and pointed the finger at Ita Buttrose.
The ABC has recent form for sacking journalists after pressure from outside forces but this is the first time that documented evidence of why and how has leaked to the media and the first time senior management at the ABC have been forced to answer for their actions in court.
The leaked screenshots from the “Lawyers for Israel” WhatsApp group exposed a lot but by going to court the ABC has been forced to hand over numerous incriminating emails and leave their management open to cross examination which they have failed badly to justify why they sacked Antoinette Lattouf.
Ita Buttrose will also have to answer for why she never settled the matter instead allowing it to go to court and costing the ABC $millions in legal fees and likely a large compensation payment. And then there is the damage to the ABC’s reputation.
The judge hearing the matter is Queensland based Justice Darryl Rangiah who has travelled to Sydney to hear the matter. Based on the evidence I watched during the week the ABC and their witnesses will get destroyed in his judgement and they only have themselves to blame.
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Categories: ABC
Thank you KCA. This was a very bigoted event. The ABC has failed again
Not an ounce of empathy for the welfare or the rights of a fellow human being. Pressure from a Zionist lobby seemingly more important than an employee’s rights. Is Ita a Zionist? Nothing would surprise me. Nobody should be sacked for their opinions on social media. What right has any employer to prevent people expressing their views on social media? A person’s work and private life are separate. Lattouff’s only obligation was to remain neutral in her work. I don’t know if she did this. But I do know that the ABC is biased TOWARDS a genocide inflicting state which makes no earthly sense to me. Our ABC has become their ZBC. But are hosts who express these views sacked also? No.
I’m glad that Antoinette Lattouf had the courage to take this further. She has unwittingly exposed, so it seems, the attempt by the Jewish society to manipulate the ABC. Personally, I hope she wins. And Morrisons’ appointment of Buttrose has proven, more than once, to be a terrible choice.
The ABC is playing fast & loose with our tax dollars. Rather than face down the Jewish lobby they risk a massive payout & bad publicity. Why didn’t they just wait the 2 more days until Lattouf’s contract was finished? Your ABC,your taxes at work!
Well, what can we say, without also being “Harassed, tormented and terrorised” like Buttrose? Another Morrison Captains pick failure, the poor taxpayers are still paying for. It’s never ending isn’t it, will these Morrison stuff ups, be going on for decades like all the Howard Govt failures. Buttrose whom many believe should never have been put in this position, has as predicted stuffed up royally.
The question most people have, is just what were these “Lawyers for Israel operatives” actually threatening, tormenting, terrorising Buttrose with? So intense and menacing, we hear it required Buttrose to get protective security. Why isn’t this kind of menace dealt with by the proper authorities and will these “Lawyers for Israel operatives”, ever actually be charged with any crimes against the “Harassed, tormented and terrorised” ABC chair? “Using menaces on a carriageway”, were there actually any menaces? Or has this simply been blown out of all proportion by Buttrose’s and the ABC management own failures, along with the rest of what seems an alway compliant “Harassed, tormented and terrorised Media”, jumping at shadows, that they all will immediately kow tow to each and every threat from these Israeli operatives?
Compare what actual facts from the World Health Authority Lattouf wrote on her social media compared with the disgusting diatribe ABC viewers received from Fauziah Ibrahim, which I will not repeat here and whom should have been removed from air immediately and permanently!
Buttrose demonstrates, in her naivety, that she has no understanding of how a public corporation works. A Morrison captain’s pick indeed!
Good questions, Tweed. I think the answers are very telling about what kind of country we now reside in.
“Lawyers for Israel”, could read “Thieves for Theives”.
I have no time for the Israeli’s, the Palestinians or the ABC. What is dyeing here is the the right to express ones opinion freely and without prejudice.
Following this debacle, I hope Ms Lattouf is publically recognised for her outstanding bravery. She had the guts to take on both conservatives in this country who control the media and the powerful zionist lobby. I also hope her compensation payout is very significant. The only sad thing about that is that it will be paid by taxpayers, not the sycophants who caused the problem.
Is this what their abc spend my 8 cents a day on ?
I reckon I could write a book on this matter, BUT I will refrain.
In my honest opinion, that Ita Buttrose is headed to court, not as a media icon but as a spineless enforcer for pro-Israel lobbyists, exhibits a moral vacuum in human form. She has bypassed protocol, bullied ABC execs, and orchestrated Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking like a coward pulling strings from the shadows, in my opinion.
Not an envious position by any stretch of the imagination, but exposed with nowhere to hide, she will either lie under oath or confess to selling out the ABC to external forces. Are there any other alternatives?
Oh yes, I know, she might come down with flu or Covid or a stomach upset.
Ultimately, her legacy? A disgraceful betrayal of journalism, free speech, and every principle she once pretended to stand for.
Someone should call the Lawyers for Israel’s bluff. This is not the first and definitely not the last time this group has bullied and threatened to take legal action for posts or comments condemning Israel all for calling out Israel’s genocide, war crimes, apartheid and crimes against humanity.
The ABC should have told the Lawyers for Israel to go and jump in the lake. The foreign influence by Israel, the US and others in this country is rife. Governments and the media need to take a strong stand against it and stamp it out altogether.
Lawyers for Israel WhatsApp group? Those bastards are in the wrong country! They need to be told to leave and go back to Israel.
There needs to be an enquiry into Israeli interference in our government and on other external interference on the ABC’s independence be it through political parties, or other external interests. It appears there is a lot of fear of challenging the political entity The Israeli Government and associates such as Lawyers for Israel (and this is not about Jews). Board members and key executive staff must be selected through an independent skilled and knowledgeable committee and not at the whim of political parties
I also published a video of the above article which is on the Kangaroo Court of Australia YouTube channel – Click here: https://youtu.be/ADzWX7svnuE
The ABC have just buckled in court and are no longer playing the race card in the Antoinette Lattouf v ABC case. Too much public criticism I suspect.
We owe Buttrose nothing either!
In my humble opinion, despite making up just 0.39% of Australia’s population – 99,956 people out of 25.4 million, according to the 2021 Census – the Jewish community appears to have established a disproportionately powerful and highly organised presence, with a well-coordinated lobbying system in both Australian Parliament and civic life.
As a student of history, I would genuinely like to know:
How this has occurred.
What factors have contributed to the community’s ability to organise so effectively?
How has the Jewish community built such strong political connections and advocacy networks?
What role do international links play in this influence?
Has it been a matter of strategic engagement over time, or are there specific historical events that have catalysed this level of involvement in Australian politics?
I would welcome thoughtful engagement and insights in response to these questions, as understanding this phenomenon could shed light on broader patterns of influence in democratic societies and the ways in which communities shape their political environments.
Just asking!
Israel are world leaders in military tech,espionage tech and intelligence. You don’t want them on the other side. They blackmail the world with pogromic guilt, their capabilities and their nuclear weapons. Hannibal directives, Masada complexes, theocracy, apartheid, revenge culture and imperialism are not generally hallmarks of a civilised society.
Also the rise of christian evangelism has reinvigorated support for Israel in the last few decades. The Israelis are masters of propaganda and we are the masters of swallowing it as far as international affairs are concerned. We also don’t listen to advice from intelligence services hence the Iraqi invasion. Pollies don’t want to hear the truth. Remember, we live in a post truth world.
P.S. three basic requirements for a civilised society. One is that politics and religion are separate. Two, it is not a vendetta culture. Three, it is a meritocracy. Very few countries have all three. It’s not what you know………
Organising ability is called fascism. This is why the right is so effective. They acknowledge that they are fascists and work together. The left has many fascists that think they aren’t. As a result they are a loose collective of individual fascists while the right is a fairly solid block. Israel’s effectiveness is based on that fascism. Almost half of Israel does not support what is going and without an external threat there would be internal conflict and assassinations. Israel needs a continuous external threat to maintain unity. Hence the situation of the last forty years. Peace is an anathema to Israel.
Seems to me that people can’t see the wood for the trees. Having read some of the reporting and having watched some of the legal proceedings, it seems the focus of the complaints which allegedly resulted in Antoinette’s dismissal/sacking were based solely upon X posts and not on the content of her “on air” program.
Antoinette is entitled to her personal opinions and until it can be shown that they conflict or influence her “on air” performance to the extent that she contravenes ABC rules or guidelines then she has nothing to answer for.
‘Onya KCA. Ever since Ita chose to promote Covid Jabs I lost trust in her. How much was she paid as an agent of the big global puppeteers? And guess who they are? She has conflicts of interest from my perspective. Thoughts?