One outcome of the ACT dropping the rape trial against Bruce Lehrmann is that, it not being sub judice any more, a great deal of material that was legally kept from the Australian public is suddenly allowed to be published. Brittany Higgins’ accusations and her actions in the lead-up to the trial are suddenly under even more scrutiny than ever.
And she’s not happy about it.
Of course, to a large extent you can hardly blame her. Even leaving aside the veracity (unproven) of her accusations, it can’t exactly be fun to see your diary entries splashed around in the national media.
Except that Higgins, on her own admission, assiduously sought media attention to maximise her story. Again, if any of us were also wronged as she claims, we might well do the same. The only problem is that the media is a notoriously indiscriminate attack dog. It’s all fun and games when they’re mauling your enemy — not so fun when they turn and take a chomp out of your own leg.
Politicians make the media look like cuddly poodles by comparison.
More importantly, Higgins trousered up to $3 million of taxpayers’ money. Taxpayers have a right to demand some accountability for that largesse.
Especially when there are a great many questions that, prima facie, demand answers.
Firstly, the very premise of the payout: that Higgins wasn’t adequately supported by her employer.
A previously secret email has raised further questions about the multimillion-dollar payout to Brittany Higgins in compensation for the alleged failure by former minister Linda Reynolds and others to support her in the wake of her rape allegations against fellow staffer Bruce Lehrmann […]
However, an internal departmental email obtained by The Weekend Australian reveals that six days after the alleged sexual assault, the federal agency responsible for overseeing parliamentary staff welfare concluded that all “appropriate” steps were being taken to protect Ms Higgins.
Senator Reynolds’s chief of staff, Fiona Brown had contacted the Department of Finance to ensure all necessary support was being given to Ms Higgins, although at that point, on her own evidence, she had not yet disclosed a sexual assault.
The Australian
But Higgins had some very influential friends in high places.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, whose department paid a multimillion-dollar settlement to Brittany Higgins, admitted she knew Ms Higgins’ boyfriend, David Sharaz, well before the former Liberal staffer went public with her rape allegations, Liberal senator Linda Reynolds claims. Senator Gallagher acknowledged her past association with Mr Sharaz in a private meeting with Senator Reynolds, attended by two other MPs in June 2021, and said he had warned her “something big” was going to happen, according to the former defence minister […]
Senator Gallagher’s links to Mr Sharaz would emerge again at the Lehrmann trial last October in a snippet of audio from a January 27 meeting between Ms Higgins, The Project host Lisa Wilkinson and Mr Sharaz.
“It’s a (parliamentary) sitting week when we want the story to come out,” Mr Sharaz can be heard telling Wilkinson and her producer. “Sitting week the story comes out … questions … it’s a mess for them. That’s why Britt’s picked that timeline.”
In the audio, Mr Sharaz said Senator Gallagher would probe and keep the story going in March at a Senate estimates hearing.
Gallagher, as it happens, is the very minister who runs the department who showered Higgins with taxpayer millions in a process that took just hours. Gallagher claims she had no role in the process. Why would Australian taxpayers take her at her word, when her government so blatantly meddled in the process — barring Senator Reynolds from speaking in her own defence — and weaponised Higgins’ allegations (with her collusion) in order to bludgeon the Morrison government?
But Senator Reynolds claimed she was the target of an orchestrated plot to bring down herself and the Morrison government, alleging senior Labor and media identities ruthlessly exploited her young staffer for political and personal gain.
“What happened should be of concern to all Australians, because this was clearly a political hit job on the government of the day to bring down the defence minister,” Senator Reynolds said in an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian.
The Australian
In a stranger twist, the Higgins furore has become tangled with another Labor scandal, the “Mean Girls” allegations. When Labor senator Kimberley Kitching died suddenly last year, accusations swirled that bullying by Labor’s “Mean Girls” — Gallagher, and Senators Penny Wong and Kristina Kenneally — was at least partly responsible.
She said the late Labor senator Kimberley Kitching had confided in her that Penny Wong – now Foreign Minister – knew of the rape allegations and planned to “weaponise” them.
“She was actually quite distressed that Penny’s going to weaponise the incident,” Senator Reynolds said.
During the trial, Higgins’ credibility as a witness was frequently questioned. Newly-released details continue to chip away at that credibility.
When Brittany Higgins walked out of Parliament House at 10.01am on Saturday, March 23, 2019, she was captured on CCTV wearing a black and white Carla Zampatti jacket.
“I borrowed a jacket from the goodwill box,” Higgins told police just over a week later, on April 1.
The only problem is…
Members of Reynolds’ office have told The Weekend Australian that there was no goodwill bin or box or pile of clothes for charity in Reynolds’ ministerial suite.
There was just a wardrobe full of the minister’s jackets. Including the Zampatti that Higgins took.
The Australian
Still, it’s heartening to see that Higgins is clearly on the mend. Post the compensation payout, Higgins has gone from being too suicidal to continue giving evidence, to graduating from university, holidaying in the Maldives, and going back to pursue post-graduate studies.
Of course, she wants the media to leave her alone.