EXCLUSIVE
Ousted Nine news director Amanda Paterson will fight ‘tooth and nail’ to reclaim her powerful position when her explosive unfair dismissal claim against the network is heard for the first time next week.
Paterson claims she was unceremoniously sacked by the broadcaster over the internet by the network’s national news director, Fiona Dear, in a matter of minutes last November despite clocking up more than three decades of loyal service.
She is now suing both Dear and the network for the damage the axing has done to her reputation, and demanding her role back running Nine’s Brisbane, Gold Coast and Queensland-wide operations.
The award-winning former A Current Affair star reporter hired celebrity workplace lawyer John Laxon almost immediately after she was sacked on November 7.
The termination came despite Nine News recording one of its most successful ratings years in Queensland in a decade under her leadership.
It is understood the news veteran took an extended overseas holiday over summer to clear her head and reflect on the way she had been treated by Nine and has since returned to Brisbane more incensed than ever.
Although she was still reeling from the ‘shock and humiliation’ of her unceremonious sacking, a source with knowledge of her claim said she was more determined than ever to win back her job.
On the day Paterson was sacked by Nine, she claims she was asked to attend a snap, seven-minute meeting with Dear, who appeared via videolink from Sydney, and told her employment had been terminated effective immediately.
She was then immediately escorted from the building without a chance to farewell staff or retrieve her puppy from her office, which had been there as part of Nine’s official pets-at-work policy.
Instead, she was forced to wait in the station’s car park while an HR staff member was sent to retrieve the pooch, along with some of her personal affects, and hand them back to her in front of shocked staffers.
She claims Dear cited a string of trivial workplace offences as the reason for her dismissal.
They included failing to complete her in-house online ‘training modules,’ botching the contract extension for one of her staff members, and an office incident in which she made a lighthearted reference to the recent removal of ‘d***heads’ from the company.
Paterson’s complaint is set down to be heard by the Fair Work Commission’s deputy president, Nicholas Lake, in Brisbane next Thursday. She did not respond to requests for comment.
It comes just two weeks after Nine reached a confidential settlement with former Today show reporter Airlie Walsh after she launched an explosive sex discrimination case against the network in the Federal Court last December.
The popular journalist, who has left the network as part of the settlement, said she had been inspired to take on her employers and ‘right a number of wrongs’ after seeing colleagues come forward during the network’s dire culture review.
‘After 15 years with Nine Entertainment, in October 2023 I made the difficult decision to engage lawyers and try to right a number of wrongs,’ Walsh said in a statement.
‘During this time, more women bravely came forward, Nine conducted a culture review, and many of my broadcast colleagues contributed their experiences. In doing so, I was buoyed. It turns out, courage is contagious.
‘While this isn’t the way I wanted to leave Nine, I’m filled with gratitude towards those who made me a better journalist and person, and I’m relieved the legal process has been resolved.’
Nine has pressed ahead with replacing Paterson even though she is suing the company and demanding she be reinstated in the role.
Dear informed staff popular Nine-lifer Brendan Hockings had been appointed as the channel’s new Queensland news director about a month ago.
Hockings, who started his career with Nine as a production assistant in its Brisbane newsroom in May 2005, has been working in the position in caretaker mode since Paterson was unceremoniously sacked last month.
The Queensland job is one of the most critical at the network, and Hockings will be responsible for not only overseeing Brisbane but also the channel’s Darwin news operation and Gold Coast newsroom, which services one of the country’s fastest growing cities.
However there has been no word on a full-time replacement for ousted Sydney news chief Simon Hobbs who unexpectedly parted ways with the company the week after Paterson was axed.
No reasons have been offered publicly for Hobbs departure, which Dear announced to staffers in Nine’s Sydney newsroom during a town hall meeting on November 13.
The chance to take on the powerful position has been fiercely contested both internally and externally, with leading candidates including Nine newsroom veterans Mark Burrows and Damian Ryan, A Current Affair reporter Neil Breen, 60 Minutes star Amelia Adams and former Perth news boss Michael Best.
Hobbs had been leading Nine’s Sydney operation for almost 13 years having rejoined the network in 2012 after working as a producer in the US for six years.
Staffers have been quick to point out that, although Dear sent out company-wide emails advising staff of both Paterson and Hobb’s depatures at the time, neither email thanked the departing news bosses for their time at the network or contribution to the company.
Although respective former news bosses’ exits came just weeks after the findings of an external investigation into the network’s toxic newsroom culture were made public, there has been no suggestion either of their departures were linked to the review.
Former Nine chief executive Mike Sneesby commissioned the independent inquiry last June before quitting the company for unrelated reasons just five weeks before the damning finding were made public last October.
The review, conducted by workplace culture firm Intersection, found Nine had ‘a systemic issue with abuse of power and authority; bullying, discrimination and harassment; and sexual harassment’.
The investigation revealed 57 per cent of staff in the media company’s broadcast division had experienced bullying, discrimination or harassment over the past five years, with a third saying they had been sexually harassed in that time frame.
The report said the company’s toxic culture had been enabled by ‘a lack of leadership accountability; power imbalances; gender inequality and a lack of diversity; and significant distrust in leaders at all levels of the business’.
Former chief financial officer Matt Stanton was appointed caretaker chief executive while a formal recruitment process for Sneesby’s replacement was underway, though insiders said he would almost certainly be appointed to the role full-time next month.