Public Servant Loses Job For Criticising Goverment Policy On Twitter

This week Michaela Banerji, a Canberra civil servant who wrote critical tweets about Australia’s asylum seeker policy, lodged an appeal with the Federal Court after losing her right to post her private opinions under an anonymous name. Her dispute is likely to become a test case for every civil servant in the country, as Damien Carrick writes.

Canberra civil servant Michaela Banerji works in the public affairs section of the Federal Department of Immigration. Banerji is an avid tweeter, and under a cloak of anonymity (she used the handle @LaLegale), she would often tweet her dismay about Australia’s asylum seeker policy.

Banerji admits she has a conscientious objection to what is happening to asylum seekers.

‘A lot of the tweets were simply information about the refugee convention,’ she says.

‘I didn’t ever defame anybody or I didn’t reveal confidential information. This is about being able to be free as a private citizen to make political comment in my own time.’

Continue Reading/ Credit: Damien Carrick, ABC Radio National