Antoinette Lattouf won her case against the ABC for being unlawfully terminated because “she held a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza” and “failing to give her an opportunity to respond to allegations of misconduct made against her”.
Ms Lattouf was sacked for sharing an article titled, “The Israeli Government is using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza”, which the ABC had also reported on hours before Ms Lattouf.
The judge’s orders and first 11 paragraphs of his judgement which tell the story are below and in the video below that there is Antoinette Lattouf with her statement after the court judgement. At the end I will discuss the contempt matter.
Judgment – (Click here for the full judgement)
THE COURT DECLARES THAT:
- The respondent, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC) contravened s 772(1) of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the FWA) by terminating the employment of the applicant, Antoinette Lattouf, for reasons including that she held a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
- The ABC contravened s 50 of the FWA by contravening cll 55.2.1(a), (b), (c), (f), 55.2.2 and 55.4.1(f) of the ABC Enterprise Agreement 2022–2025.
THE COURT ORDERS THAT:
- The ABC pay Ms Lattouf compensation of $70,000.
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
1. On 7 October 2023, the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, launched a major attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Israel responded by bombing and launching an invasion of the Gaza Strip, causing massive destruction and killing many thousands of people.
2. The applicant, Antoinette Lattouf, made numerous social media posts expressing her views about the Israel/Gaza war. The major theme of her posts was condemnation of the mass killing of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces, although some of her posts also condemned the killing of Israeli civilians by Hamas.
3. The Israel/Gaza war quickly became the most covered, contested and controversial news story in the world, with each side claiming that coverage by mainstream media was inaccurate and biased. A state of hostility developed between supporters of each side. In Australia, heated rallies and protests were held and widespread campaigns of vilification, including doxxing and cancelling, were conducted.
4. It was in the midst of this maelstrom that Ms Lattouf came to be employed by the respondent, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC), to present the Sydney Mornings radio program for five days from Monday, 18 December to Friday, 22 December 2023.
5. Soon after Ms Lattouf presented her first program, the ABC began to receive complaints from members of the public. The complaints asserted she had expressed anti-Semitic views, lacked impartiality and was unsuitable to present any program for the ABC. It became clear that the complaints were an orchestrated campaign by pro-Israel lobbyists to have Ms Lattouf taken off air.
6. The complaints caused great consternation amongst the senior management of the ABC. Ms Lattouf was given what has been characterised by the ABC as a “direction” not to post anything on social media that would suggest she was not impartial in relation to the Israel/Gaza war. However, I find Ms Lattouf was merely provided with advice that it would be best not to post anything controversial about the war. That advice was also qualified by an indication that posting fact-based material from a verified source would be fine.
7. The campaign to have the ABC remove Ms Lattouf continued. At the same time, pro-Palestinian activists organised a protest outside the ABC’s Melbourne offices, presumably because they too were asserting that the ABC was biased.
8. On Wednesday, 20 December 2023, ABC managers became aware that on the previous day, Ms Lattouf had reposted a Human Rights Watch (HRW) video report entitled, “The Israeli Government is using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza”, on her Instagram account, adding the words, “HRW reporting starvation as a tool of war” (the HRW Post). The HRW report had already been the subject of a story on ABC News. The consternation of senior managers of the ABC turned into what can be described as a state of panic.
9. Within the hour, a decision was made that Ms Lattouf would be taken off air. She was called into an office and informed she had shared a post that could be considered controversial and had breached the ABC’s policies. She was told that she would not be required for her two remaining shifts and to leave the premises. The policies she was alleged to have breached were not identified, nor was she given any opportunity to defend herself against the allegations. That was the end of Ms Lattouf’s employment with the ABC.
10. Section 772(1)(f) of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the FWA) provides an employer must not terminate an employee’s employment for reasons which include political opinion, race or national extraction. Ms Lattouf claims the ABC terminated her employment for reasons that included her political opinions, race and national extraction.
11. Section 50 of the FWA provides a person must not contravene a term of an enterprise agreement. Ms Lattouf also claims the ABC failed to comply with its obligations under the ABC Enterprise Agreement 2022–2025 (the Enterprise Agreement), including by failing to give her an opportunity to respond to allegations of misconduct made against her.
Below is the video I published on Wednesday the 25th of June 2025 on this matter:
(Click here to watch the above video on the Kangaroo Court of Australia YouTube channel)
Contempt application against journalists at The SMH and The Age
After the judgement on Wednesday (25/6/25) the judge started hearing an application by a group of unknown supporters of Israel, who made complaints against Antoinette Lattouf to the ABC which led to her sacking, and who were granted suppression orders in the case because they claim their safety was in danger.
The application is because the group of unknown supporters of Israel now want The Age, The SMH and journalists charged with contempt of court for breaching those suppression orders.
The hearing was only part-heard and will be set down for another day to finish the hearing, but it’s not looking good for the “unknown supporters of Israel” applicants.
What we did learn about the “unknown supporters of Israel” at the hearing is that they are 8 female lawyers.
Given they are all lawyers they should have known better than making false complaints to the ABC about Antoinette Lattouf to have her sacked and that is probably what they really want to hide.
The 8 Israel supporting lawyers are all in breach of the solicitors rules for making false complaints to the ABC and should be disciplined by the NSW Law Society or their relevant state Law Society.
Please use Facebook, “X”, email and the other buttons below and help promote this article.
Kangaroo Court of Australia is independent media and is 100% crowdfunded by readers like yourself so please support on the links below. Click on the PayPal button below to donate or for other donation options click here to go to the Donations page.
Thank you for your support.
For the KCA t-shirt shop click here.
For the Fugitive Clothing t-shirt shop click here
Join the free email subscription below and you will be notified immediately I publish new articles which is normally twice a week.
Discover more from Kangaroo Court of Australia
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Categories: ABC
Good old aunty, fearless unbiased reporting, well that was twenty years previously that ABC could make that suggestion, PM Hon J. Howard, the same former PM described by his own AG Hon G.Brandis as ‘the lying little rodent’ commenced the independent reporting by ABC a fantasy with political interference and blatant stacking of the ABC board with LNP cronies, one Liberal appointee was a dismal failure of the Liberals when he made an error of judgement and stuck up for the independence of ABC, after that shock, successive Liberals have stacked the board and openly diminished the ABC independence to the pathetic state of Aunties health, so sick poor auntie is, that she’s in the Murdoch hospital bed, under Labor the ABC has been adopted by Sky as a refugee and pushed into a vetted corner to do as instructed, board appointees as spineless as Albonese and completely subservient to outsiders with a barrow to push, only cousin worth its salt is SBS but sadly it’s once independent news department is slightly above ABC pretend news department, the days of fearless journalists like Emma Alberechi, Kerry O’Brien and Barry Cassidy are distant memories, so refreshing to read a Federal Court judge has handed down a ruling that really highlights the pathetic state of weak spineless ABC board members, past and present who should take early retirement and sail off into the sunset with their grossly over generous cwth pensions, and finish their lives watching Sky and it’s clowns reporting on behalf of Murdoch..propaganda, lies lies and more lies…RIP old aunty..
Well said 😊
No Tonym
Get rid of the “installed rot” and restore Aunty to her former top levels of competence, and the buck does stop from the top down.
That Aunty is NEEDED by Australia MORE THAN EVER before,
Uplifting to see a Judge who is being fair. balanced and dealing with THE FACTS,
Also a “contempt of Court” Hearing is most appropriate from what one reads here.
Uplifting News, thank you Shane,
Very glad she won but what a pathetic payout for what they put her through 🤨
Disagree! there are multitudes of people in Australia who have not been able to even get to Court for far more all consuming life crushing matters that have been done to them. Plenty of Evidence in many of those cases, but…
I think the Judge has been very sensible and practical.
This was the best news this week. Very happy to see any complicit media charged. A decent payout would have been good but alas there is no real justice in Australia.
It seems, for Antionette, it was all about the right for people to post facts on social media without interference by their employer. I feel we need legislation to prevent employers trying to stop people from posting facts, and their views, on social media. We are not owned by our employers, yet.
Lattouf and Bornstein, whom the whole of Australia should admire and congratulate for having the sheer guts and principles of taking the huge personal risk to expose what has been going on in Australia by jewish operatives for decades, that has been inflicted at will, on so many others. Let’s hope there will be substantial penalties against the ABC for what they have done here and deter them from ever doing it again.
It would also be beneficial for this “Secretive cabal”, the list of names of all of those that made the contrived complaints to also be exposed and prosecuted. Otherwise how will they ever be stopped from simply doing this again and again, as they so often do, along with the usual suspects, in what can only be called our suspect media. Who will be their next victim?
Also we should compare what Lattouf said, which were verifiable facts that were previously reported by the ABC and other news service world wide, from and what was orchestrated by unknown entities and inflicted on her. In comparison to another news reader and host Fauziah Ibrahim whom posted on social media that ABC viewers that had made complaints about her, were “lobotomised shitheads” and she’s unbelievably still working there after an avalanche of continual complaints from real actual ABC viewers with their names and addresses and members of “Friends of the ABC?” That are still making complaints. Sort of gives the entire phoney ABC game away doesn’t it?
As a lifelong supporter of the ABC, I’m deeply ashamed of the organisation’s leadership. The Federal Court confirmed what many of us feared: ABC executives caved to political pressure and unlawfully sacked Antoinette Lattouf for expressing a political opinion – something they should have defended, not punished.
This wasn’t a lapse in judgment; it was a failure of integrity and independence. Those at the top who enabled this disgraceful response SHOULD RESIGN! The ABC’s role is to serve the public, not yield to orchestrated pressure campaigns or abandon staff at the first sign of controversy.
Minister for Communications Anika Wells must act – silence is complicity. And now that Michelle Rowland is Attorney-General, she should ensure any professional misconduct in this matter is formally investigated.
Let’s not dress this up: the ABC has been humiliated in court and exposed as weak, leaderless, and politically compromised. If those responsible don’t step down, then they should be removed. This is not just a turning point – it’s a line in the sand. Either the ABC fights to reclaim its independence, or it withers into irrelevance under the weight of cowardice.
Thank you to Kangaroo Court of Australia for publishing this important piece. I’m sure the contempt proceedings against journalists at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald are already earmarked for further coverage – and rightly so. The public deserves full transparency.
Who appointed these players to the ABC management? seems that Oz pays once more for Morrisons and others %/$(….
which shows the necessity for ALL individual Ozzies to become involved in so many areas of our communities and KNOWLEDGEABLE about same,.
Absolutely. What a disgrace. It’s not just the ABC which needs to stop interfering in the free speech of its employees, it’s all taxpayer-funded departments and agencies. Remember that case a while back when a Home Affairs employee dared to write something on Facebook about refugees?
This collection of research has a chapter devoted to the Ministry for Strategic Affairs created by Netanyahu in his first term as PM in 2013. Its aim was to ‘influence’ foreign governments and institutions to oppose the boycott movement, and to adopt the IRHA definition of antisemitism (which makes being against the Israel Government ‘antisemitic’. Great ‘success’ in Australia – thanks to poor politics – with both these in recent months – perhaps even anti-constitutional?
https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2024/10/suppressing-dissent-shrinking-civic-space-transnational-repression-and-palestine-israel?lang=en
I strongly advise all readers to have a look at the sample of complaints against Antoinette contained in a PDF attached to the court documents , well I hope they are still there now its concluded – but they should still be there unless more injunctions have been raised since, They are clearly full of repeated ‘form letter’ untruths and I for one find it hard to believe so many Oz Jewish lawyers all lost family members in the Oct 7 attacks – though that ‘text’ starts to drift a bit from the original form letter based complaints to “lost a family member in the war” which I assume means the 77 years of Genocidal war waged against Palestinians living on their own land.
Likewise most of the attached if not all , have the standard email disclaimer of the NSW Law Society clearly visible – so if your going to send a pack of lies as a Jewish lawyer for Israel you would at least think to make them compliant with the rules of said Law Society
Also note the example that thanks “Our Representative” on the sacking of Antoinette that is in the old ‘Style Guide” format when addressing a member of Parliament though in this case I suspect its not based on the old style guide for a reps member but is likely in fact part of an email to Ita that was CC’d to the minister for Communications given we know from elsewhere the Minister for Communications was included in many, and likely all, of the original complaints to Ita and others at the ABC
My memory may be failing me due to 18 months of Genocide affecting my long term pre existing PTSD so please check the facts for yourself
If I attempted to complain to Ita / the ABC like that I doubt I would even get a reply – or at best a form letter pointing me to the complaints web page – so why did Lawyers for Israel achieve such a instant level of engagement and the desired sacking ?
Let us also hope that somehow the judge can find some way of ordering massive damages from the ABC to Antoinette to make up for her costs and in particular her and her families lives being “Terrorised” by a pack of Zionists working as unregistered Foreign Agents / unlisted lobbyists
I know if I targeted “Lawyers for Israel” in the same way they targeted Antoinette that apart from the multiple libel cases I would be up for in several states its highly likely that I would be facing NSW ( Under Minns new ‘caravan lies’ Laws ? ) and or Federal criminal charges as well – yet we cant even know their names for at least 10 years ?
I think their behaviour in sacking Lattouf for posting facts on social media, under pressure from the Zionist Lobby, shows clearly, that the ABC has gone over to the dark side (as most of us have long believed.) So much for their much-lauded trust.
so when are these pro israeli lobbyists publicly identified, named and shamed? we deserve to know who they are so we can boycott their businesess!
And why are they given name suppression?
Well said but the court should not allow apparent perjury by witnesses to go unpunished.
Ita Butrose and Anderson and are willfully immoral and unethical individuals and this is how I will remember, and promote them in their life and death.