This archive report was first published on 7 August 2019.
On August 7, 2019, Australia's High Court made a landmark ruling that a public servant was lawfully sacked for writing tweets criticizing government policies.
Michaela Banerji, a former Department of Immigration and Border Protection employee, was fired in 2013 for her criticisms of Australia's immigration programs, expressed under a pseudonym on Twitter.
Ms. Banerji's tweets, sent from a personal device and mostly during her own time, often criticized Australia's immigration policies and its overseas detention of asylum seekers.
Her employers sacked her for breaching the Australian Public Service Code of Conduct, which states bureaucrats cannot express political views.
Ms. Banerji later took her case to an appeals tribunal, which found her sacking had violated her right to freedom of political communication.
The government then challenged that decision in the High Court of Australia, which found that Ms. Banerji's dismissal had not breached the constitution.
The court cited rules that public servants must take reasonable steps to avoid any conflict of interest and be 'apolitical.'
Ms. Banerji's lawyer, Allan Anforth, argued that the implications of the decision could extend beyond public servants, allowing employers to sack employees for criticizing their positions on politically relevant issues.
