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Headlines: ‘Mean Girls' lawsuit twist pits Reynolds against Wong and Gallagher · The Front

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  Speaker 1: Today's biggest news from The Australian. I'm Claire Harvey with
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  Speaker 1: the Front's afternoon headlines. The Brittany Higgins sparked feud between
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  Speaker 1: three of politics most senior women has taken a new twist.
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  Speaker 1: Linda Reynolds, a former minister in the Morrison government, says
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  Speaker 1: two of Labour's star ministers, Penny Wong and Katie Gallagher,
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  Speaker 1: at trying to escape responsibility for what she says was
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  Speaker 1: a targeted and unfair mean girl's campaign. A court has
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  Speaker 1: found Higgins was raped in the ministerial office of former
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  Speaker 1: Senator Linda Reynolds in twenty twenty one. Higgins also accused
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  Speaker 1: Reynolds of failing to act when she found out about
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  Speaker 1: the rape, but Reynolds has always maintained she sacked the
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  Speaker 1: alleged perpetrator, suggested Higgins go to the police, and had
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  Speaker 1: the young staffer's best interests at heart. Two courts have
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  Speaker 1: backed Reynolds's version of events, and Higgins has been ordered
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  Speaker 1: to pay Reynolds hefty defamation damages and legal bills. Now,
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  Speaker 1: Reynolds is suing the Commonwealth, as is her former chief
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  Speaker 1: of staff, Fiona Brown. Reynolds is accusing the Albanese government
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  Speaker 1: of deliberately preventing her from properly defending herself against Higgins's allegations,
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  Speaker 1: and now Reynolds says she's baffled that Wong and Gallagher
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  Speaker 1: want their names excluded from Reynolds's lawsuit. Reynolds has told
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  Speaker 1: The Australian I can't help but wonder why they are
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  Speaker 1: so incredibly sensitive and what they may have to hide.
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  Speaker 1: Reynolds claims the Commonwealth should have known that Higgins was
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  Speaker 1: making serious and damaging allegations against her, including of an
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  Speaker 1: alleged attempt to cover up a rape for political purposes.
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  Speaker 2: And the first thing that sort of awoke me was
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  Speaker 2: I was in a pain.
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  Speaker 1: My leg was kind of being crushed.
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  Speaker 2: The senior staff was on top of me as I
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  Speaker 2: woke up.
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  Speaker 1: Meda rape essentially as evidence of that, reynolds lawsuit noted
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  Speaker 1: the aggressive parliamentary questioning which she says was prompted by
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  Speaker 1: Higgins account by Gallagher and Wong in twenty twenty one.
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  Speaker 1: My final question, Senator Reynolds, was it your decision to
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  Speaker 1: send miss Higgins to Perth for the duration of the
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  Speaker 1: election campaign.
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  Speaker 2: Senator Gallagher again, that's also subject.
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  Speaker 1: Please to investigation. How hands that was your final question,
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  Speaker 1: Senator Gallagher, that was beneath you? Were you justage that
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  Speaker 1: we put you in hospital? You just said I put
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  Speaker 1: you in hospital, Senator Reynolds, Well, if so, you're the
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  Speaker 1: victim order Senator Wong's nobody questions nobody takes pleasure in
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  Speaker 1: US Government solicitors told Reynolds lawyers they wanted the reference
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  Speaker 1: to the two senators struck from her statement of claim.
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  Speaker 1: Reynolds says she accepted this in order to avoid further
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  Speaker 1: costs and delays. Opposition leader Susan Lee is appealing to
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  Speaker 1: jen Z voters, saying she cares about the climate, despite
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  Speaker 1: her Liberal party joining the Nationals in dumping support for
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  Speaker 1: net zero greenhouse gas emissions by twenty fifty.
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  Speaker 2: It's about the right thing for our country, and most importantly,
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  Speaker 2: it's about what's right for jen Z and millennials who
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  Speaker 2: right now can't afford to buy home, can't pay their
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  Speaker 2: power bills, and are looking at a government that is
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  Speaker 2: set to deliver them a worse standard of living than
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  Speaker 2: their parents. That's just not fair, because when energy is unaffordable,
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  Speaker 2: everything is unaffordable.
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  Speaker 1: It's been a painful and damaging saga for the Coalition,
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  Speaker 1: which now has to pivot its pitch to a crusade
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  Speaker 1: to get power bills and the cost of living down
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  Speaker 1: while still showing it cares about the environment. Anthony Albanezi
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  Speaker 1: says Lee claimed to be a moderate who would modernize
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  Speaker 1: the Liberal Party, but is instead trying to take Australia backwards.
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  Speaker 1: Check out those stories live right now at the Australian
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  Speaker 1: dot com dot a U and come back to the
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  Speaker 1: front first thing in the morning for something really fun.
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  Speaker 1: Our close look at two critics lists of the best
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  Speaker 1: TV and movies of the century. The lists prompted feelings
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  Speaker 1: from our audiences, and Culture editor Melanderut joins me to
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  Speaker 1: thrash out Barbie versus Parasite and Bluey Versus Succession.