Never have an inquiry, as the saying goes, unless you know in advance what it will find. But when a government commissions an inquiry and then keeps its findings secret for months, you can be certain that it found something they may or may not have expected, but don’t want to admit.
As I also wrote yesterday, there’s not a week goes by in the life of the Albanese government without a fresh absurdity from the Brittany Higgins Show. This week is delivering in spades. Yesterday, it was Higgins’ joining the ranks of “box tickers” in order to secure a high-powered “Indigenous” job from a friend. Today, it’s a series of new legal bombshells.
First off, the inquiry and the ensuing secrecy.
In a shock move, the ACT government will keep secret the findings of the Sofronoff inquiry into the prosecution for rape of Bruce Lehrmann for at least a month as it ponders how to deal with what are expected to be serious adverse findings against chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold.
Whether the report has actually been leaked is anybody’s guess, but clearly someone is whispering to the press as to what’s in it.
It is believed at least two of the potential findings against Mr Drumgold, who has been on leave since May and is not due to return until August 30, would be grounds for his dismissal as ACT Director of Public Prosecutions.
To refresh BFD readers’ memories, Brittany Higgins was a Morrison government staffer who accused a fellow staffer, Bruce Lehrmann, of raping her in then-Defense Minister Linda Reynold’s office after a drunken night out. Higgins further claimed that she was persecuted by the Morrison government when she made her accusations. The claims were weaponised by the media and the Labor Party. After multiple delays caused by Higgins’ behaviour and that of the media — primarily, journalist Lisa Wilkinson — the case collapsed amid claims of juror misconduct. Drumgold, as DPP, declined to seek a new trial.
But it’s the conduct of those surrounding Higgins — not just during the trial, but her fast-tracked compensation payout from the new Labor government — from Canberra legal officials to the media, that was the subject of the Sofronoff Inquiry. It appears its findings are especially damning. Not only that Drumgold, and other high-level Canberra legal figures, had effectively formed a view of Lehrmann’s guilt before he had even been interviewed, but that he misled ACT Chief Justice Lucy McCallum.
Possibly the most serious allegation against Mr Drumgold relates to a so-called contemporaneous note made of the now-infamous conference he held with TV personality Lisa Wilkinson four days before her Logies speech.
Drumgold’s note was intended to back his claim to Chief Justice McCallum that he had warned Wilkinson not to make the infamous speech that she did at the Logie Awards — a speech which delayed and nearly derailed the whole case. Wilkinson denies this. Drumgold gave the Chief Justice the impression that the arse-covering note in question had been made when he met with Wilkinson, but it was in fact written days later.
A finding by Mr Sofronoff that Mr Drumgold failed to appropriately warn an experienced journalist of risks posed by the Logies speech might be survivable for the DPP; a finding he deceived the Chief Justice would not.
The Australian
But while the ACT government sits on the report for as long as it can, Bruce Lehrmann isn’t waiting to unleash a legal blitzkrieg on those who pursued his prosecution.
Bruce Lehrmann will lodge a multimillion-dollar claim for compensation against the ACT Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions as the territory government examines what are expected to be serious adverse findings against chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold […]
Mr Lehrmann said he had appointed solicitors and a team of barristers to provide advice and was considering options in anticipation of the report being made public. Mr Lehrmann is already suing the ABC, Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over news broadcasts relating to allegations he raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in March 2019. He has always denied the allegations.
Lehrmann is far from the only party feeling decidedly wronged.
Earlier this year the federal government paid Ms Higgins compensation believed to be worth more than $2m after she claimed her allegations of rape were mishandled. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has refused to answer questions regarding the payout, which was provided without consultation with former senior Liberal ministers, including Senator Reynolds, who were at the centre of her claims.
On Monday Senator Reynolds criticised the delay in releasing Mr Sofronoff’s report. “The ACT government’s inexplicable suppression of the Sofronoff report for up to a month is deeply distressing for those whose lives and reputations have been negatively impacted by the conduct of this trial,” she said.
The Australian
As I’ve written many times, politicians unleash the dogs of scandal at their peril. In opposition, Labor revelled in kicking the Morrison government over the Higgins affair, especially the demonstrably false claims of an attempted cover-up. In government, they’re finding out too late that scandal is a pack hunter out for blood wherever it can find it.