Major update for ‘suicidal’ Ten reporter Tegan George who sued TV bosses after being driven to drink and left traumatised by the horrors of the bushfires

Former Ten political reporter Tegan George has settled her case against the network after she claimed she was severely traumatised by her bushfire reporting.

Daily Mail Australia has learned that Ms George finally reached a settlement this month after being ill for more than two years.

The 39-year-old former Canberra reporter sued the network in the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory for negligence and breach of duty of care. She alleged she became suicidal and struggled with alcohol addiction after reporting on the deadly bushfires on the New South Wales south coast in 2019-20.

She said she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and nightmares and had been drinking alcohol after seeing images of dead cattle dying in the fire and families being forced to evacuate their homes, becoming so frightened.

George said the trauma of the Bega, Bermagui, Merimbula and Cobargo bushfires, which she covered between January 1 and 5, 2020, had destroyed her mental health and, in turn, her career.

She claimed she was “obliged” to write a disturbing report about a father and son who died while trying to protect their dairy farm from fire.

Court documents also show she witnessed a panicked local resident threatening to shoot others during an argument over fuel as they desperately tried to escape the flames.

George claimed that at the height of the crisis, TV bosses forced her to drive into danger zones as ash fell from the sky.

Tegan George says the trauma of the Bega, Bermagui, Merimbula and Cobargo bushfires, which she covered between January 1 and 5, 2020, has destroyed her mental health and career

George claimed TV bosses ordered her to drive into danger zones at the height of the fire crisis, despite safety concerns and ash falling from the black sky above her.

She claimed she and a colleague ignored orders from Canberra news chiefs to drive to Bermagui, which had already been evacuated due to the imminent danger.

But they still had to zigzag along remote back roads to find safety, never knowing if they would end up trapped by fire, she claimed.

She said Ten had failed in its duty of care by failing to provide her with adequate training before being sent to fight the fires, by failing to minimise the risk of injury and by failing to recognise the risks to her health and safety.

In her lawsuit, she alleged that after the assignment she was unable to sleep, had difficulty concentrating and focusing her attention elsewhere, suffered from “numbness on the left side of her body,” and at one point had to be admitted to a full-time psychiatric facility.

“A reasonable person would have seen that a person of normal strength could suffer from a recognized psychiatric illness if reasonable care were not exercised,” the lawsuit said.

But for the [trauma]she would not have developed the psychological response to subsequent events at work that she eventually did – culminating in her… According to George, the trauma left her ‘intermittently disabled from 27 February 2020 and then fully disabled since 7 June 2021’.

Ten’s defense in the civil case denied all allegations of negligence and argued that George’s claim is based on “the benefit of hindsight.”

It was added: ‘There were no concurrent “warning signals” reasonably apparent to the suspect.’

Ten news reporter Tegan George became suicidal and turned to drink after being traumatised by the devastating bushfires of 2019-20

She and a colleague had to dodge the flames by zigzagging along remote back roads to reach a safe spot – never knowing if they would be caught in a blaze

The settlement comes ahead of a civil lawsuit against the network over her allegations of sexual discrimination, which will now begin on February 3 next year, more than three years after she first filed her claim.

A sweeping summons filed in federal court alleged that the network violated the Sex Discrimination Act because the woman was required to work in an environment hostile to women.

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