"For speaking up, I lost my job with Cricket Australia," she said. “I was told the tweet had damaged my relationship with government. "I was in shock trying to understand the situation I’d found myself in, and how publicly expressing my political opinion in a tweet had led to this situation at work. I’m still in shock. "I’m not a victim. I’m not seeking pity. And I’m not going to be quiet about reproductive health and surgical terminations. “Bottom line? I should not have had to lose my job to deliver the change. Abortion is legal in Tasmania. But that system is broken and it made me feel ashamed."

It is understood that Cricket Tasmania contacted the Tasmanian government around June 19 to apologise for the tweets. It was during a conversation with a senior member of government that the "backstory" was disclosed. In a statement, the Tasmanian government declined to comment on the allegation that it had disclosed Ms Williamson's pregnancy termination to her employer. “This is a matter for Cricket Tasmania. The government is not responsible for HR decisions made by private employers,” a spokeswoman said. "The government does not involve itself in private employer matters and refutes any allegation that it has disclosed private information." Cricket Australia said a legal claim had now been lodged with Fair Work and it would continue to follow and respect the current process.

"We can confirm that Cricket Australia ended its employment arrangement with Ms Williamson in late June,'' a spokesman said. ''The circumstances surrounding that decision are now the subject of legal proceedings and it would be inappropriate for Cricket Australia to publicly comment on Ms Williamson's specific circumstances any further. “Cricket Australia respects an individual's right to their opinion. However, it expects that employees will refrain from making offensive comments that contravene the organisation’s policies.” Ms Williamson said it was her experience of being forced to travel to the mainland and spend thousands of dollars for an abortion galvanised her into action. “The doors were closed to me. There was no pathway for me to access a surgical termination in Tasmania,’’ she said. “The only option was to go to Melbourne and take time off work. At the time, it made me feel alone and scared.

"On my way home on the plane I was upset. But I decided I wasn’t going to allow anyone to go through this again.” Ms Williamson first used her Twitter account to argue for abortion rights in January 2018, declaring the situation a “disgrace”. What happened next shocked her. She was cyber-trolled by a government staffer who sent an email to Cricket Australia in Melbourne with a screenshot of the tweet that said “FYI”. The staffer subsequently resigned from the office after it was revealed she was using a fake account to target government critics in a scandal that was reported at the time by Tasmanian media. But at that stage, Cricket Australia did not raise any concerns with Ms Williamson about her social media accounts. Cricket Tasmania was not aware of the issue.

Less than a week before she was sacked, Ms Williamson met a senior member of government on June 7, to argue for the restoration of services in Tasmania. “He listened. I discussed what it was like to navigate the system,’’ she said. "During that discussion I explained I had withheld my name to protect my family and career. I said the Cricket Tasmania board would not understand this and I didn’t want them knowing about my termination.” Just nine days later, Cricket Australia first raised complaints about Ms Williamson’s social media accounts. She was told to report to a meeting on July 19. The concerns related to her tweets after the Tasmanian Parliament rejected a motion to re-establish services by providing abortions in public hospitals on June 13. She had tweeted "most irresponsible ... gutless and reckless''.

After being alerted by Cricket Tasmania about concerns about the tweets she then contacted the senior member of government to apologise if she had caused offence and to offer to delete the tweets. They replied: “Angela, I have absolutely not spoken to anyone at Cricket Tasmania at all about your employment there.” But documents obtained by Fairfax Media reveal that Cricket Australia was not satisfied. Angela Williamson's letter of termination. In her termination letter, Cricket Australia wrote on June 29 that the feedback from the Cricket Tasmania board was that they no longer had confidence in her ability to work as a government relations manager.

“Cricket Tasmania has now withdrawn its support [and] we have reached the conclusion that your continued employment with Cricket Australia is untenable,’’ it states. The second page of the letter of termination. Ms Williamson has engaged employment law firm Maurice Blackburn and her legal team includes Kamal Faroque, who represented the Australian Workers Union and the family of Larry Knight, who died in the rockfall at the Beaconsfield mining tragedy "Our client raised an important and personal view about the need to ensure that women in Tasmania have access to appropriate reproductive health services, and that she was disappointed in how the relevant government [official] had dealt with the issue in Parliament,'' Mr Faroque said. "Those views, and her raising them, have nothing to do with Cricket Australia or Cricket Tasmania, they have nothing to do with the work that she was performing and the question needs to be asked about why she has lost her job for this.