SBS employee who tweeted anti-ANZAC rant on ANZAC day has won the right to sue the broadcaster in the Fair Work Commission, with the industrial umpire citing freedom of speech.
Scott McIntyre, a former football reporter for SBS, used the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli to launch into a somewhat bizarre and offensive vitriolic rant against Australia’s war history.
Yesterday, The Fair Work Commission rejected SBS’s bid to block McIntyre’s unfair dismissal case.
Wonder if the poorly-read, largely white, nationalist drinkers and gamblers pause today to consider the horror that all mankind suffered.
— Scott McIntyre (@mcintinhos) April 25, 2015
Remembering the summary execution, widespread rape and theft committed by these ‘brave’ Anzacs in Egypt, Palestine and Japan.
— Scott McIntyre (@mcintinhos) April 25, 2015
Fair Work Commissioner Ian Cambridge said the “public controversy” around McIntyre’s firing had “understandably introduced an elevated level of tension between the parties”.
“In simple terms, I believe that the [Fair Work] Act … should not be interpreted in a manner which would deprive an individual of access to a fair hearing or, as may be euphemistically described, a person’s ‘day in court’,” Mr Cambridge wrote.
“It is perhaps sadly ironic that many members of the Australian Defence Force lost their lives in the earnest pursuit of the protection of rights and freedoms such as the access to a fair hearing which the applicant is entitled to obtain.”
The case will be heard at a later date.
B&T contacted SBS who declined to comment
