A former Seven Network news director has spoken out about a young reporter who was sacked after allegedly making a sexual harassment complaint against an older, male colleague.
Amy Taeuber was dismissed from the Adelaide newsroom last year, less than a year into her cadetship.
The Seven Network maintains her dismissal was unconnected to that complaint but instead related to her support for a satirical website mocking My Kitchen Rules, which amounted to a breach of contract.
Amy Taeuber’s former boss at Seven News in Adelaide says she was ‘treated very poorly’
Amy Taeuber (left with identical triplet sister Kate) lost her job less than a year into a cadetship
Amy Taeuber (right) with working with her sisters Sophie and Kate on a fad diet documentary
However Terry Plane, who hired Ms Taeuber in July 2015 when he was Seven Adelaide’s news director, has slammed his former employer.
‘She was treated very poorly,’ he told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday night.
Ms Taueber had filed a complaint with human resources after a male colleague in March 2016 asked other workmates, in the presence of her identical triplet sister Sophie, if she was a lesbian.
Amy, then aged 27, found out about those remarks and allegedly filed a complaint.
Amy Taeuber is now working with her sisters Sophie and Kate on a documentary on fad diets
Terry Plane, who hired Amy Taeuber in 2015 as Adelaide news director, has slammed Seven
Weeks later, she was accused of bullying fellow cadet Peter Fegan, who is based in Sydney, even though they remain friends.
Mr Plane, who started his television career during the 1970s, said he was upset at Amy Taeuber’s sacking.
‘I guess I wasn’t angry, it was more disappointment. I was sorry for her and I’ve been disappointed at a few things that have happened at Seven since I left,’ he said.
‘The structure and the values of the newsroom are slowly being dismantled.’
Amy Taueber (right) is now working with her identical triplet sister Kate in public relations
A Seven Network spokesman Simon Francis pointed out the television station employed 2,500 women across Australia but he declined to address Mr Plane’s remarks.
‘No need for our us to respond directly to Mr Plane’s observations,’ he said.
‘Mr Plane does not work at Seven.
‘There are two sides to every story and – because of a deed of confidentiality – only one side of this one is currently being heard.’
Mr Plane, who has been a news director with the Seven Network in Sydney and Adelaide since the mid-1990s, is now helping Amy Taeuber and her identical triplet sisters pitch a documentary series on fad diets.
The triplets, who are all vegetarians, will try out fad diets that are popular on Instagram.
The Seven Network says Amy Taeuber was dismissed for liking a satirical anti-Seven website
Kate Taeuber, who ran the satirical My Kitchen Rules website that got her sister Amy into trouble, said they wanted to expose how social media brainwashed young people into dangerous eating.
‘We haven’t started the diets yet, but someone will be doing the raw vegan diet, so basically cutting everything but fruit and vegetables,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘This will include trying to eat 20 bananas in one go.’
‘We’ll also be doing the paleo diet, which will be a little controversial because we’ve all been vegetarian for 15 years and only just started eating fish in the last few months.’
Triplet Taeuber sisters are working with former news director Terry Plane on a documentary
Mr Plane, who has experience as a documentary maker and television reporter, said he hoped the series would find a home on commercial free-to-air and subscription television next year.
‘They have some talents. They have some good ideas,’ he said.
‘Amy and Sophie and Kate have some good ideas and I’d like to see them come to fruition. That’s why I’m working with them.’
The sisters, who now also run a public relations company, approached Mr Plane for help earlier this year as Amy Taeuber reached a confidential settlement with the Seven Network.
This was several months after Seven sacked Mr Plane.