Elizabeth Farrelly: Sydney Morning Herald columnist ousted

A high-profile opinion columnist has hit back at a newspaper company that sacked her after three decades of service with a five minute phone call. 

Architecture critic and writer Elizabeth Farrelly will no longer contribute her weekly column to the Sydney Morning Herald after incoming editor Bevan Shields terminated her employment. 

Ms Farrelly revealed she had been sacked in a furious post to Facebook on Sunday afternoon where she described the move as a ‘ruthless king-hit’ to her career. 

The publication said the decision was made by Mr Shields after the columnist failed to disclose she had registered as a Labor Party candidate at recent local council elections.

Ms Farrelly recently published a piece in which she blasted Liberal and independent councillors in the Strathfield electorate, where she had registered to run. 

An editor’s note that announced her registration was added to her weekly column on Saturday, however by then the journalist had opted not to run for a seat. 

On Sunday, Mr Shields phoned Ms Farrelly to inform her she had been let go from the newspaper, a decision she later blasted on social media. 

‘Today, after a working relationship lasting more than three decades, my time with the Sydney Morning Herald came to an abrupt end,’ she wrote. 

‘According to the five-minute out-of-the-blue phone call I received from the new editor on the other side of the world, this termination is due to an apparent lack of transparency on my part.’

Ms Farrelly said her failure to disclose her registration to the Labor Party was an oversight on her behalf and had not meant to intentionally mislead her readers. 

She said while she had been interested in taking a crack at a state or federal seat or joining the local council the final decision had been ‘unresolved’. 

While only ‘vaguely interested’ the columnist decided to register her interest online on the final day of registrations to keep the option open. 

The publication stated the decision was made by Mr Shields after the columnist (pictured) failed to disclose she had registered as a Labor Party candidate

‘I was not preselected for the Labor federal candidate, nor for the Labor Council ticket, so I did not run in the recent council election,’ she continued in the post. 

While Ms Farrelly did admit to campaigning for the Labor Party in the lead-up to the election she said it ‘did not cross her mind’ to notify her employer. 

She accepted it had been an oversight on her behalf but there was no ‘undisclosed conflict of interest of which my readers should have been made aware’. 

When contacted by the Herald the architecture critic described her termination as ‘grossly disproportionate’. 

‘It was a small, inadvertent misdemeanour that was met with an irreversible punishment and that is grossly unfair,’ the writer said. 

‘I can’t think of any other workplace with this kind of treatment of long-standing honourable service and where such treatment would be acceptable.’ 

In her late-night post to social media, Ms Farrelly said that while a change in direction ‘scared her to death’ she was up for the challenge. 

‘On the other hand, it’s time for a change and I am determined to transform the Herald’s ruthless king-hit into a new opportunity. Watch this space,’ she wrote.

In an article announcing her departure newly appointed editor Mr Shields, 36, thanked Ms Farrelly for her ‘longstanding contribution’ to the newspaper.