To quote the great Kanye West, “I ain’t sayin’ she a gold digger…”
Brittany Higgins has lashed out at her former boss, Linda Reynolds, after the Liberal MP said she would ask the National Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the circumstances surrounding the commonwealth payment to her former staffer.
To be fair, if I’d scarfed up a cool couple of million from the taxpayer, I’d be a bit reluctant to see it clawed back, too.
But, coming from someone who deliberately and assiduously exploited the media in order to destroy her former employers, this is all a bit much.
On Tuesday Ms Higgins posted on social media a series of newspaper headlines that she claimed originate “from a current Australian Senator who continues to harass me through the media and in the Parliament . This has been going on for years now. It is time to stop.”
Remember, though: Higgins repeatedly thwarted police in order to film media interviews, and front a feminist rally outside Parliament House. She and her boyfriend also colluded with Labor politicians to weaponise the allegations in Question Time, and bragged about how they “exuded power”.
Also remember that Linda Reynolds and Higgins’ direct supervisor, Fiona Brown, both urged her to go to police, before Higgins had even directly made an accusation of rape.
And that Linda Reynolds was gagged from speaking in her own defence by the Albanese government. And that Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, a long-time friend of Higgins’ boyfriend, ran the department which handed her millions of taxpayer dollars after less than a day of hearings.
Senator Reynolds has indicated she will refer Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to the NACC over the payment of more than $2.5 million in compensation to her former staffer following Ms Higgins’ claims her allegations of rape were mishandled.
“The basis for the settlement and the reasons why the Attorney-General barred me and Senator (Michaelia) Cash from defending serious allegations against us have not been explained to us or to the Australian people,” Senator Reynolds said.
“I believe that the Attorney-General must not only be impartial, but must also be seen to be impartial, which requires transparency.”
Australians are more than entitled to expect that a process with such obvious potential for corruption must be investigated.
They are also entitled to question how someone who continued to work high-powered media jobs could claim 40 years of “economic loss”.
Ms 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 after allegedly being raped, a draft statement of claim revealed last month.
Mr Dreyfus has consistently refused to answer questions over Ms Higgins’ multi-million-dollar payout, which was provided without the consultation of former senior Liberal ministers at the centre of her claims.
Last year The Australian revealed the Albanese government muzzled Senator Reynolds in her defence against the multi-million-dollar lawsuit, threatening to tear up an agreement to pay her legal fees and any costs awarded unless she agreed not to attend mediation […]
She was therefore unable to dispute any of Ms Higgins’ allegations about a failure to support her or properly investigate the incident, some of which were contested by both Senator Reynolds and her then chief of staff Fiona Brown at Mr Lehrmann’s trial.
The Australian
Higgins might be well advised to cut back on the jaunts to expensive, exotic holiday destinations for a while.