09/10/2025
The Antoinette Lattouf unlawful dismissal case had “many failings” and has cost the ABC more than $2.5m in external costs alone, ABC managing director Hugh Marks has told Senate estimates.
In his first appearance before parliament in the role, Marks said the public broadcaster failed to follow its own processes, resulting in the ABC breaching the law and accruing substantial external and in-house legal costs.
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The Antoinette Lattouf unlawful dismissal case had “many failings” and has cost the ABC more than $2.5m in external costs alone, ABC managing director Hugh Marks has told Senate estimates.
In his first appearance before parliament in the role, Marks said the public broadcaster failed to follow its own processes, resulting in the ABC breaching the law and accruing substantial external and in-house legal costs.
“What our internal costs are is hard to estimate, but obviously extensive time and effort on behalf of many people in the ABC,” he said on Wednesday night.
“I mean, you know, this was all there to be avoided. So, you know, it is not a good reflection on the organisation.”
Last month the ABC was ordered by the federal court to pay Lattouf $150,000 in pecuniary penalties for terminating her employment, with the judge saying the broadcaster had “abjectly surrendered” to pro-Israel lobbyists and “let down the Australian public badly”.
In June, Justice Darryl Rangiah found the ABC contravened section 772 of the Fair Work Act and breached five clauses of the ABC’s enterprise agreement, and awarded Lattouf $70,000 in compensation.
