Labor may well be wishing they’d never heard the name “Brittany Higgins”, right about now. What no doubt seemed like a golden opportunity to whack the then-Coalition government by weaponising a dubious rape allegation, is turning on them in the worst possible way.
Left factional powerbroker and close ally of Anthony Albanese, Katy Gallagher is looking more and more like a dead mean girl walking. Her denials on misleading parliament are looking weaker and weaker.
On top of that, she’s being exposed as a liar even about her relationship with Higgins’ odious boyfriend, wannabe Macchiavelli, David Sharaz.
Katy Gallagher has confirmed that Brittany Higgins’ fiance David Sharaz invited her to attend his first wedding in 2018, as senior Labor ministers hid behind parliamentary procedural tactics to dodge questions about when they first became aware of the Higgins rape allegations.
When text messages from Sharaz, a former political journalist with the taxpayer-funded SBS, referring to Gallagher as “an old friend”, surfaced, the Finance Minister tried to play it down. She claimed that their relationship was “purely professional”. She’s also trying the “I can’t remember” card.
Asked about her invitation to Mr Sharaz’s wedding to former wife Alexandra Craig, Senator Gallagher said: “I didn’t recall that until I heard it reported and I had to ask the people I worked with at the time.”
Higgins, meanwhile, continues with her Harry’n’Meghan act: whining about her privacy, while assiduously courting left-media attention.
And shooting herself in the foot while she’s at it.
Ms Higgins posted photographs of notes from a conversation she allegedly had with [Senator Michaelia Cash] and [her chief of staff Daniel Try] in “early February 2021”.
The conversation appears to be in relation to Ms Higgins’ allegations.“Please know that Daniel and I are here to support you,” Ms Cash is recorded as saying. “Britt, do you want to go to the police?”
The Australian
Which rather seems to contradict Higgins’ central claim that the then-government tried to bully her into silence.
Higgins might also want to ease up on the holiday jaunts to exotic destinations, as her taxpayer-funded windfall comes under increased scrutiny.
Brittany Higgins claimed up to 40 years’ worth of economic loss and the end of her pursuit of a future political career were among the reasons she was due more than $2.5m in compensation from the government […]
Ms Higgins was “diagnosed as medically unfit for any form of employment, and has been given a very poor prognosis for future employment” following the incident. She was therefore due $2,521,314.40 in economic loss, it states.
And yet…
Since March 2021, Ms Higgins worked as the media Adviser for the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria – a job she obtained with the assistance of her partner David Sharaz and his friend, former Labor Adviser, Emma Webster. She was also an interim media Adviser with the Queensland Human Rights Commission, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Ms Higgins was appointed a visiting fellow at the Australian National University Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at the end of 2021.
She is currently writing a book that will “shine a light on the toxic workplace culture of parliament”, and has this year teamed up with Ms Webster to launch a new company called Power Blazers Pty Ltd. The purpose of Power Blazers Pty Ltd is unclear.
The Australian
For someone “unfit for any form of employment”, she sure was working hard. A bit like the old A Current Affair staple of the bloke on compo with a bad back, filmed building an extension on his house.
A week is a long time in politics, they say: this final sitting week before the winter break must surely seem the longest ever, for the government.