This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A former Cricket Australia employee alleges she was sacked because she campaigned for improved abortion rights in Tasmania and criticised the state Liberal government on social media.

Angela Williamson, 39, was sacked from her job as manager of public policy and government relations at Cricket Australia following a tweet in which she labelled the government “gutless” for failing to ensure women had access to reproductive health services in the state, Fairfax reported on Monday.

Her lawyer, Kamal Farouque of Maurice Blackburn, told Guardian Australia that following the tweet on 14 June, she was sacked on 29 June.

“We’re alleging that she was terminated because of her political opinions, which she expressed in that tweet and other tweets,” Farouque said.

“The Fair Work Act says you can’t be sacked for your political opinion. That’s what Angela did, she expressed her political opinion in her tweet, and then she subsequently found herself being sacked from her job at Cricket Australia.

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“It seems extraordinary that someone would be sacked from their job in those circumstances. Her job at Cricket Australia had nothing to do with the public debate around access to reproductive health services in Tasmania.”

In February, Williamson was one of the first Tasmanian women forced to fly to Melbourne for a termination after the state’s last abortion provider closed.

She criticised the government on Twitter after it blocked a push from the Labor opposition to provide pregnancy terminations in the public hospital system by 1 July.

Farouque said Williamson’s “activism around access to reproductive health services in Tasmania is driven by her own personal experience of that issue”.

In a statement on Monday, Cricket Australia confirmed it had ended Williamson’s contract in late June.

“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,” it said.

“We will continue to follow and respect the current process.

“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.”

Fairfax reported that despite an apology to the government from Cricket Tasmania and Williamson, she no longer had Cricket Australia’s confidence to maintain a positive relationship with the government.

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Throughout the March state election campaign, the Tasmanian Liberal government was under fire over its failure to ensure women had access to abortion services.

Williamson, who had previously worked for the Tasmanian premier, Will Hodgman, first began criticising the government over the issue in January.

She continued to use social media to campaign for improved reproductive health services in the state. Her tweets are now protected, meaning they cannot be read by the public.

Williamson is understood to be one of a number of women targeted by a former senior staffer of Hodgman’s. The staffer – who quit after she was exposed by the ABC as using a fake social media account to troll other women, forwarded Williamson’s tweets to her employer.

Fairfax also reported an allegation that a member of the Tasmanian government disclosed Williamson’s pregnancy termination to Cricket Tasmania. That claim is denied by the state government.

An initial hearing is listed at the Fair Work Commission for 17 August.