The ABC’s former chair Ita Buttrose has written to ABC lawyers disputing the key evidence provided by managing director David Anderson in the ongoing unlawful termination case brought against the public broadcaster by Antoinette Lattouf.
In a legal letter sent to Seyfarth Shaw, the firm acting for the ABC in its defence against Lattouf, Buttrose disputes Anderson’s version of two key conversations that he provided during this month’s Federal Court proceedings.
The first allegation refers to the conversation Anderson had with Buttrose on the day Lattouf was sacked, before the pair went to their end-of-year lunch.
Then-ABC chair Ita Buttrose with managing director David Anderson in 2020.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
The second allegation is about Anderson providing evidence about a conversation he had with the ABC’s former content chief, Chris Oliver-Taylor, on the way back from the end-of-year lunch, with Buttrose in the car.
Buttrose alleged in the letter that the evidence provided by the ABC’s managing director was inconsistent with her recollection of the said events.
Ita Buttrose leaves court after giving evidence in the Lattouf case on February 11.Credit: James Brickwood
In the letter, Buttrose also said she had an invoice from the car hire company to prove she had been picked up from her house in Redfern, which contradicts the evidence given by Anderson.
The invoice from Corporate Cars Australia, according to Buttrose, proves she was picked up from her house, and therefore could not have spoken with Anderson at the ABC’s offices before their lunch.
She said the invoice must be provided to Lattouf “in the interests of transparency and our legal obligations to do so”.
