A Far North Queensland council has been ordered to pay a former staff member more than $2.3 million for a career-ending psychiatric injury she suffered after a fabricated email that falsely portrayed her as racist was tabled in state parliament.<\/p>\n
Ellana Habermann had worked for the Cook Shire Council for more than a decade when then-Cairns MP Rob Pyne tabled the fake email under parliamentary privilege in 2017.<\/p>\n
The email, purported to be from Mrs Habermann to the council’s then-chief executive, referred to Indigenous people as “dirty bastards” and made it appear as though she was involved in trying to prevent the Gungarde Community Centre Aboriginal Corporation from taking over a waterfront lease from a cruise business.<\/p>\n
The fabricated email was part of a dossier sent to Mr Pyne, an independent MP at the time, about alleged maladministration in the council.<\/p>\n
There is no suggestion Mr Pyne knew the email was fabricated.<\/p>\n
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Ellana Habermann worked for the Cooktown-based council for more than a decade. (ABC Far North: Christopher Testa)<\/p>\n
The council argued its duty of care to staff did not extend to guarding against the actions of third parties, “because such third parties cannot be controlled by council”.<\/p>\n
But after a Supreme Court trial in July Justice James Henry found the council “botched what should have been the simple task of demonstrating the email was a fabrication”.<\/p>\n
“The result of that public demolition of Mrs Habermann’s character was a lasting psychiatric injury and consequent inability to continue working,” Justice Henry found.<\/p>\n
The court heard Mrs Habermann was on track for a promotion and had “demonstrated professionalism and empathy towards the Indigenous community”.<\/p>\n
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Rob Pyne served in Queensland parliament as a Labor MP before becoming an independent. (AAP: Dan Peled)<\/p>\n
For her master’s thesis in 2012, she developed an inclusive land-use strategy for land handed back to traditional owners on Cape York.<\/p>\n
The council did not engage an independent IT expert to verify Mrs Habermann had not written the email, despite her repeated denials and a request that the council do so.<\/p>\n
“Council’s approach to this litigation verged upon an implicit assumption that because Mrs Habermann was a person who had a history of seeking assistance for psychiatric problems \u2014 sooner or later a stressor would have come along to diminish or destroy her income-earning capacity,” Justice Henry said in his judgement.<\/p>\n
The multimillion-dollar judgement includes special damages, loss of income, and loss of future earnings.<\/p>\n
Pyne called on to apologise<\/p>\n