Cricket Australia is in hot water after their former employee Angela Williamson made public claims that the organisation unjustly fired her for campaigning for abortion reform in Tasmania on her personal social media.
The sport’s governing body is now facing a legal battle that includes the claims that a senior member of the Tasmanian government disclosed Williamson’s own pregnancy termination to Cricket Tasmania.
So her fight for abortion rights has now been escalated to a broader fight for women’s rights, human rights, rights to privacy, freedom of speech – you name it, it’s in there.
"For speaking up, I lost my job with Cricket Australia," she said. "I’m not a victim. I’m not seeking pity. And I’m not going to be quiet about reproductive health and surgical terminations." A shocking report from @samanthamaiden https://t.co/j357Kk2QAC
— Georgina Dent (@georgiedent) July 29, 2018
Williamson came forward in a report by Samantha Maiden for the Sydney Morning Herald, in which she discusses the aftermath of her tweets that accused the government of being “gutless” for failing to ensure women have access to reproductive health services.
“I was told the tweet had damaged my relationship with government.” Williamson says.
In the world of Cricket Australia, campaigning for women's health (and expressing frustrating about bad government decisions) is a fireable offence. Cheating in a test match, however, is not.
— Erin Riley (@erinrileyau) July 29, 2018
Williamson also discloses on the record that she was among the first forced to travel interstate in order to access abortion, after Tasmania’s only abortion provider was closed.
She has now engaged legal representation for her case against Cricket Australia for unfair dismissal from her role as manager of public policy and government relations.
Glad to represent Angela Williamson. She spoke out on a political issue which has deep personal importance to her. She should not have been sacked by Cricket Australia because of this @WeFightForFair https://t.co/rEdjJUg1I4
— Kamal Farouque (@kfarouque) July 30, 2018
Interestingly, Cricket Australia has previously positioned itself as a women-friendly workplace, with it’s CEO James Sutherland even listed as “Male Champion of Change”. Their profile on the Work 180 directory for employers with acceptable rights and treatment of women has now been removed.
Interesting to note @CAComms CEO James Sutherland is a “male champion of change”. Cricket Australia has just sacked Angela Williamson for fighting for the right of Tasmanian women to access abortion https://t.co/pnq76zCb5r
— ???????? ?????? (@samanthamaiden) July 30, 2018
Their jobs and profile page have been removed from the WORK180 while we look into this
— WORK180 (@WORK180_ANZ) July 30, 2018
Last time major controversy hit Cricket Australia, it was when Steve Smith was caught ball tampering during a test match. It’s important to note that that was met with empathy and forgiveness, and CA defended Smith’s mistake.
But speaking out about abortion reform is not a mistake, nor something that requires forgiveness, and it definitely doesn’t warrant dismissal.