The ABC's fight over flight
After a scathing court judgment, the ABC faces heat over its costly legal battles and a culture of fighting claims others would settle.
The judgment of Justice Darryl Rangiah in Antoinette Lattouf v ABC is the kind of hammering that makes a defendant want to crawl into a hole and hope it all goes away.
The problem for the national broadcaster is that it won’t.
The ABC will be pounded in conservative media. Media Watch will deliver another lecture to management on its failings. If Lattouf’s lawyers are right, the ABC could become an unlikely poster child for “corporate cancel culture”.
A penalty hearing before Rangiah will take place in the coming months, which will bring it all up again. Questions are also expected in Senate estimates over why the ABC spent more than $1 million contesting a case that resulted in a $70,000 payout.
One factor is the ABC’s reputation for taking cases to court that commercial outlets would typically settle.
