One of Tabcorp’s three female board members has been accused of boasting about her buxom bust during her formal interview for her influential non-executive director role.
The bookmaker’s former high-flying chief executive Adam Rytenskild made the explosive allegation after launching legal action against the firm for firing him for allegedly making a similar inappropriate comment during a work meeting last year.
Mr Rytenskild – who was effectively sacked from his $2million-a-year job just over 12 months ago – claimed Tabcorp Raelene Murphy made an ‘uncouth sexual comment’ during her job interview in 2022 and later joked about it, according to documents filed with the Federal Court.
The businessman – who had worked at the betting giant for almost a quarter of a century before being sacked last March – said Ms Murphy’s comments were indicative of a bawdy culture within the firm that often went unpunished.
‘The reasons provided by Tabcorp for determining that Mr Rytenskild’s employment should come to an end was inconsistent with the conduct of certain directors,’ the court documents said.
‘An example of such conduct is Ms Murphy making an uncouth sexual comment in her interview to become a director and her subsequent joking about it following her appointment.
‘(An example is) Ms Murphy stating, “I’ve got big t**s and was a publican’s daughter so it made me popular with the boys when I was growing up” during her interview to become a director.’
He claimed that Tabcorp’s former chair Bruce Akhurst, Ms Murphy’s fellow directors, and current chairman Brett Chenoweth all repeated Ms Murphy’s comments ‘in a jovial matter’.
Tabcorp director Raelene Murphy (pictured) has been accused of boasting that she was ‘popular with the boys’ while growing up because she had ‘big t**s and was a publican’s daughter’ during her formal interview to join the gambling giant’s board in 2022
The bookmaker’s former high-flying chief executive Adam Rytenskild made the explosive allegation after launching legal action against the firm in the Federal Court after he was effectively sacked for allegedly vulgar comments during a work meeting. (He is pictured attending the Sydney Everest Carnival in 2022 with Bernadette McLoughlin)
Mr Rytenskild said in the court documents that the fact Tabcorp’s chairs and board members repeatedly joked about the remark during social events gave him the impression that they thought the comment was amusing.
The directors included including former Football Australia chief executive David Gallop, former ABC chairman Justin Milne, former Twitter Australia managing director Karen Stocks, and Nine Entertainment director Janette Kendall.
He claimed Ms Kendall even said she realised ‘…Raelene was right for us when she heard her say this during the interview’.
The former chief executive also claimed Mr Milne had repeatedly ‘referred to women in disrespectful terms’ and made disparaging remarks about paying respect to Indigenous people during meetings.
‘Examples of such comments include Mr Milne referring to a senior female employee in Tabcorp’s human resources team as “the chick from HR” and a senior female audit manager as “the girl from audit”,’ he said in the court documents.
‘Mr Milne disrespectfully denigrated the practice of paying respects to Aboriginal peoples and elders in meetings and company documents.’
The allegation follows reports in the Sydney Morning Herald in 2018 that Mr Milne regularly referred to women as ‘chicks’ and ‘babes’ during his time as chair of the ABC – but he insisted he only used the word ‘chicks’ when referring to female friends.
‘I don’t do it all the time. I do it to try to relax people, but I certainly don’t use that word in a derisive or denigrating way,’ Mr Milne told the newspaper at the time. ‘If it’s caused offence to people, then I do apologise for that.’
Adam Rytenskild is pictured handing a trophy to trainer Annabel Neasham
Annette Kimmitt (left) is the CEO of the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission who was the subject of an allegedly offensive comment by Mr Rytenskild. ABC chair Justin Milne (right) has been accused of referring to female staff as ‘chicks’
Mr Rytenskild’s legal action comes after he was effectively sacked last March for making crass comments during a ‘closed door’ meeting with chief legal regulatory officer John Fitzgerald and general manager of regulatory affairs Joel Williams while preparing to meet with the Victorian Gambling Casino and Control Commission.
During the meeting, Mr Rytenskild allegedly told his colleagues he would do ‘whatever it takes’ to secure a Victorian gaming licence – even if it meant performing oral sex on a female regulatory official, later identified as Annette Kimmitt, CEO of the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission.
‘In response to a question from Mr Williams to the effect of “How far is Tabcorp willing to go?”, Mr Rytenskild said “I will lick her p***y, if I have to”,’ according to Tabcorp’s defence documents against his lawsuit.
The defence documents all claimed an investigation into the comments prompted the Tabcorp board to demand Mr Rytenskild’s resignation.
‘The members of the board…were satisfied that Mr Rytenskild had made the offending statement and his continuing employment as CEO in a highly-regulated industry was not tenable,’ the documents said.
Mr Rytenskild has denied making the vulgar comment and claimed he was not given the opportunity to be interviewed about the alleged remark as part of the investigation.
He has since won a legal challenge in the Fair Work Commission after it ruled the gambling firm left him with no choice but to resign after he was called into a meeting with Mr Akhurst, Ms Murphy and Mr Gallop to discuss the investigation’s findings without any notice on March 14 last year.
The commission heard that Mr Rystenskild’s enforced exit had been so ‘carefully stage-managed’ that members of the board had even reviewed two draft ASX announcements before he was hauled into the meeting.
One advised Mr Rytenskild had been terminated and the other that he had resigned.
Ms Murphy is an experienced board member and is also a director at Bega Cheese (pictured)
Mr Rytenskild was effectively sacked during a meeting with former Tabcorp chair Bruce Akhurst (left), director David Gallop (right) and Ms Murphy last March and confronted with the findings of an investigation into his alleged remarks
The former Tabcorp boss is now suing the bookmaker and its board for at least $750,00 in damages for loss of earnings and superannuation, plus millions in lost equity interests.
He also claims his former employer has defamed him, and that the handling of the scandal has made it almost impossible for him to ever run another ASX-listed company.
In Tabcorp’s defence papers, the sports betting giant categorically denied Mr Rytenskild’s allegations and insisted that his claims about the board were ’embarrassing and liable to be struck out’.
The firm claimed that Mr Rytenskild also initially conceded that if Mr Fitzgerald had alleged he had made the vulgar comments ‘…then he [must have] said it’.
According to the defence filing, Tabcorp said it had been ‘largely satisfied with Mr Rytenskild’s performance as CEO’ before the investigation found he had made the disputed comments.
However, they believed his alleged remark had the potential to jeopardise the company’s ability to retain its much-needed Victorian gambling licence.
‘Tabcorp would need to tell the VGCCC about it as there is a real risk that it could become public at any time, and Tabcorp could not risk the VGCCC finding out about it by those means,’ Tabcorp’s defence said.
