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The woman at the centre of the texting scandal that forced former Australian Test cricket captain Tim Paine to step down from the role has suffered a major blow in her legal battle with Cricket Tasmania.
Renee Ferguson alleges she was sexually harassed by four other employees while employed as a receptionist for the Cricket Tasmania (CT) from August 2015 to December 2017.
She claims that three CT employees made inappropriate sexual comments to her and two of the four accused had sent her explicit photos.
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Ms Ferguson was asking for $1m in compensation from Cricket Tasmania for the alleged sexual harassment in her workplace.
Cricket Tasmania and the four staff members deny any wrongdoing.
The claims were raised in a 2018 complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission but subsequently dismissed when it was found there was no reasonable prospect of the complaint being settled.
Ms Ferguson had a deadline of 60 days from the date of dismissal to escalate the complaint to the Federal Court, but the Federal Court was told she waited two years and 10 months to proceed.
The former Cricket Tasmania employee requested an extension of time to file an application, but Justice Mordy Bromberg refused the bid on Thursday in the Federal Court.
He said there was inadequate evidence to fortify Ms Ferguson’s claims that the nearly three-year delay was explained by her mental health conditions and her fear of revisiting the trauma of the alleged sexual harassment.
The court was told Ms Ferguson did not call on any medical professionals to testify or submit any supporting documentation about her health.
“Ms Ferguson is left with little more to explain her failure to make her application for nearly three years than her subjective fear of retraumatisation,” Justice Bromberg said.
While he did not lessen the “genuinely held fear”, he determined the evidence was ultimately insufficient to justify the delay in prosecuting the allegations.
Justice Bromberg resolved that Ms Ferguson did not adequately explain the lengthy delay, which was likely to have caused prejudice to Cricket Tasmania and the accused employees.
“I am not satisfied that it is in the interests of the administration of justice to permit Ms Ferguson to make her very late application,” he ruled.
The Federal Court Justice stressed the court ruling specifically related to the delay in making the allegations and did not determine the validity of Ms Ferguson’s sexual harassment allegations.
“I seek to emphasise that my decision is not a vindication of either Ms Ferguson or TCA’s version of events,” he said.
Ms Ferguson’s period of employment under Cricket Tasmania came under intense scrutiny in November 2021 when explicit texts sent to her by former Test captain Tim Paine became public.
Mr Paine resigned over the texts, which were sent in 2017 when Ms Ferguson was employed at Cricket Tasmania.
Despite the decision on Thursday, Ms Ferguson remains embroiled in another legal battle with Cricket Tasmania.
Ms Ferguson will return to Hobart Magistrates Court next year to fight allegations she stole thousands of dollars and memberships from the sporting association while she was employed as a receptionist.
She has pleaded not guilty to more than 60 counts of stealing and two counts of dishonestly acquiring a financial advantage.
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