Ten political editor Peter van Onselen has stoked the flames of his TV station’s bitter legal row with press gallery reporter Tegan George with a provocative new tweet.
Ms George is suing Ten, claiming she was bullied in the ‘toxic workplace’ and her career sabotaged while working under van Onselen in the station’s Canberra bureau.
She hasn’t worked since June 2021 and is understood to have been in hospital receiving treatment for mental health issues in the three months since filing the bombshell lawsuit in February.
Her claims against the network include damning allegations van Onselen set up fellow reporter Stela Todorovic as a rival newsroom star to ‘get at’ Ms George.
Ms George also claimed van Onselen snubbed her by not inviting her to staff coffee meetings.
But on Sunday, ahead of the latest stage of the court proceedings in the case, van Onselen revived the row when he tweeted from the campaign trail in Brisbane ahead of Saturday’s federal election.
Tegan George hasn’t worked since last June and is understood to have been in hospital with mental health issues for the last three months
Ten’s political editor Peter van Onselen (pictured) stoked the flames of his TV station’s bitter legal row with press gallery reporter Tegan George in a new provocative tweet
‘Like ships in the night, I missed @Stela_Todorovic and @ChloeBouras in Brisbane today,’ he posted.
‘Would have been good to grab a coffee with less than a week to go on the campaign trail and catch up.’
He added pointedly: ‘Hopefully they don’t hold it against me!’
Ms George had previously complained she was excluded from coffee catch-ups with van Onselen in Canberra.
It’s understood Ms George’s coffee complaints in the lawsuit related to her trying to chat with van Onselen about her allegations that he would not engage with her.
However sources within the TV network say van Onselen was rarely in Canberra at that time, and even more rarely has coffee with anyone.
On Sunday, ahead of the latest stage of the court proceedings in the case, Peter van Onselen revived the Coffee-gate row when he tweeted from the election hustings
On Sunday, Ms George’s alleged newsroom rival Ms Todorovic replied: ‘Such a shame – the team has been apart for so long but big debrief post election is a must.’
The legal action is believed to be at a sensitive stage in the proceedings, with Ms George handling her legal affairs by video link from her hospital bedside.
Ironically, the Queenslander is also in Brisbane – where van Onselen was on Sunday – while she is being treated at a facility close to her parents’ home.
The latest row comes after allegations of the divided Canberra newsroom at war were revealed in court filings and a series of old tweets from both sides of the row.
In the Federal Court lawsuit, Ms George alleges a number of grievances including:
- Being told to apologise to van Onselen for complaining about having to write his stories
- Van Onselen refusing to talk to her and communicating by text message
- Being made to move desks so van Onselen could prove he was the boss
- And accuses him of being ‘rude, intemperate, condescending and patronising’
Ms George claims she was then effectively hounded out of Ten after overhearing sexist remarks in a conversation about Ms Todorovic.
The lawsuit alleges van Onselen and executive editor Anthony Murdoch set out to build up another reporter, Stela Todorovic, (pictured) into a star ahead Ms George
Ms George reported the conversation but refused to file a complaint, sparking a showdown with station management which ultimately led to the lawsuit.
The legal row has now opened a bitter rift between staff at the TV network, with some openly backing Ms George’s legal fight, both publicly and financially.
Van Onselen responded by refusing to do live crosses to Ms George’s supporters on air, including Narelda Jacobs and Lachlan Kennedy who made public donations to the ‘fighting fund’ set up to help Ms George.
Ms George joined Ten in 2011, and in November 2019 was appointed as a producer/journalist based in the Canberra bureau under van Onselen.
Tensions quickly arose when she complained about conflicting instructions and a lack of clear chain of command during her first eight weeks, her court documents allege.
The claim says she was expected to write many of the political editor’s packages for him, but when she pushed back, she was told van Onselen was the TV station’s ‘number one whose brand they were expected to build’.
The lawsuit alleges she was told by Murdoch ‘the bureau had always been toxic’ and she ‘needed to learn to deal with it’.
Ms George says in the lawsuit that she tried to resolve the problems directly with van Onselen, but he escalated it to senior management, and she was later allegedly told van Onselen ‘did not give a s***’ how she was feeling.
Murdoch later allegedly said van Onselen expected an apology from Ms George for ‘hurting his feelings’, according to the court papers.
The lawsuit says Murdoch added: ‘Peter is bats*** crazy but we just have to get used to it’.
Tegan George (pictured) has worked as a political reporter in the press gallery for Ten since 2019 but has been on leave since June 2021 suffering a ‘personal injury’ brought on by ‘stress to the point of incapacity’
The lawsuit claims the stress became too much to bear after she reported a sexist remark she overheard in a conversation between an un-named Network Ten employee – who was not van Onselen – and a freelance camera operator.
When executives repeatedly demanded she make a formal statement, she was threatened with disciplinary action, which pushed her over the edge, the lawsuit claims.
It says Ms George faced a two-hour showdown with bosses where she was told she would be in breach of her contract if she continued to refuse to make a statement.
She claims she was left feeling physically ill, unable to sleep, and so stressed she was ‘incapacitated’ and in need of medical treatment and family support.
Ms George was left ‘anxious and distressed’ to the point of ‘vomiting’ because of the stress, and has been on leave since June 2021, according to her lawsuit.
In the aftermath, van Onselen allegedly wrote a tweet she says was aimed at her on the topic of sexual harassment: ‘There should also be obligations on employees who witness it to report it, not cover it up.’
George claims The Project host directed these previous tweets towards her but didn’t mention her by name
After an emotional meeting between Ten management and the media union in September, the lawsuit claims van Onselen again tweeted about her, quoting a poem about ‘crying wolf’ and ‘looking for sympathy’.
Her lawsuit alleges the ‘toxic’, ‘bullying’ culture at Ten’s Canberra bureau ‘reduced Ms George’s standing and reputation as a journalist’.
‘Ms George was subjected to workplace gossip, Ms George’s standing in the workplace was reduced and Ms George was denied the quiet enjoyment of her profession,’ adds the lawsuit.
Ten deny the allegations and have requested 20 of the claims are struck out because they are ‘vague’ and ’embarrassing’.
The network denies senior editors, including van Onselen, ignored, undermined or humiliated her, and alleges Ms George took text messages out of context.
Their legal defence also alleges Ms George refused to be involved in the sexual harassment investigation, but denies threatening her with disciplinary action.
It also denies van Onselen’s 2021 tweets referred to Ms George, and said van Onselen had offered his support, with new working conditions outlined in text messages sent to her in 2020.
Ms George was approached for comment.
On Tuesday, van Onselen told Daily Mail Australia: ‘I very much look forward to fully ventilating the truth about these utterly vexatious claims as soon as I’m in a position to be able to do so.’