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Linda Reynolds v Brittany Higgins: total war · The Front

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  Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker
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  Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, Here's what's
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  Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Thursday, August eighth.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: A new theory about autism from a decade long study
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  Speaker 1: revealed in The Australian Today. Baby boys with lower levels
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  Speaker 1: of a crucial brain enzyme are six times more likely
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  Speaker 1: to develop autism, but only if their mothers have been
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  Speaker 1: exposed to a plastic chemical found in food and drink
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  Speaker 1: containers and cosmetics. The link is revealed in a story
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  Speaker 1: Live right now at the Australian dot com dot If
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  Speaker 1: you thought the Bruce Lammon defamation trial was big, well
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  Speaker 1: buckle your seat belts for the Brittany Higgins trial. This
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  Speaker 1: is the former Liberal staff for being sued for defamation
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  Speaker 1: by her old boss, sitting Senator Linda Reynolds. Higgins accuses
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  Speaker 1: Reynolds of re traumatizing her after Higgins told the senator
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  Speaker 1: she'd been raped on Reynolds's office. So far, Reynolds says
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  Speaker 1: she didn't no such thing, and the trial has spun
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  Speaker 1: into a wild series of allegations and side shows. That's
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  Speaker 1: today's story. The biggest news story of twenty twenty four
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  Speaker 1: was the Bruce Lammon versus Network ten defamation trial. The
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  Speaker 1: man accused of rape by Brittany Higgins sued the TV
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  Speaker 1: station and it's star journalist and lost in spectacular fashion.
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  Speaker 2: I'm satisfied that it is more likely than not that
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  Speaker 2: mister Lehmann's state of mind was such that he was
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  Speaker 2: so intent upon gratification to be indifferent to Miss Higgins's
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  Speaker 2: consent and hence where head was sexual intercourse without caring
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  Speaker 2: whether she consented.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that was then. Now we're living through a trial
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  Speaker 1: that makes Lehman versus Ten look like a fairly minor skirmish.
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  Speaker 1: Reynolds versus Higgins is total war, shock and awe. There
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  Speaker 1: are so many battlefronts it's hard to keep up. The
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  Speaker 1: action is raging inside court and out, and especially in
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  Speaker 1: the place where it all began, social media. This time,
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  Speaker 1: Brittany Higgins is the defendant and the plaintiff is a
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  Speaker 1: former cabinet minister in the Morrison government, Linda Reynolds, who
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  Speaker 1: is angry and bent on what she believes is justice
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  Speaker 1: for being wrongfully accused.
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  Speaker 3: At geting no words to adequately describe what it is
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  Speaker 3: like being accused of covering up the rape of a
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  Speaker 3: young woman in my office in a way I knew
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  Speaker 3: was not true.
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  Speaker 1: The case is being heard in the West Australian Supreme
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  Speaker 1: Court and we're using voice actors to bring you the
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  Speaker 1: words spoken in court. First up, Linda Reynolds.
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  Speaker 3: I found it almost impossible to process mentally. All of
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  Speaker 3: a sudden, in the space of a couple of days,
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  Speaker 3: I had gone from a senator and a minister doing
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  Speaker 3: her job and doing it well, to being nationally vilified
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  Speaker 3: as someone who would do something so despicable.
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  Speaker 1: Reynolds is suing over tweets and Instagram stories by Higgins
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  Speaker 1: and her husband David Sharraz made in twenty twenty three.
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  Speaker 1: She says they were published as part of a plan
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  Speaker 1: by Higgins and Charaz, a conspiracy to inflict immediate political
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  Speaker 1: damage upon Reynolds and the former Morrison government. We've used
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  Speaker 1: voice actors to bring you some of those posts.
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  Speaker 4: This is from a current Australian senator who continues to
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  Speaker 4: harass me through the media and in the Parliament instead
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  Speaker 4: of solving the problem. There are people who would prefer
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  Speaker 4: to just silence victims.
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  Speaker 1: Linda Reynolds says the posts imputed that she was a
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  Speaker 1: hypocrite who didn't care about women's equality and who had
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  Speaker 1: deliberately minimized Higgins's account of rape, something Reynold says she'd
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  Speaker 1: never do.
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  Speaker 3: They're incredibly hurtful. They are making allegations I know are
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  Speaker 3: not true.
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  Speaker 1: She said. On one occasion, Charraz posted I see you.
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  Speaker 3: When someone says Linda, I see you, Apart from a
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  Speaker 3: stalky nature of saying something like that, it's that subtle
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  Speaker 3: reminder of the lies they had been propagating for a
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  Speaker 3: long time.
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  Speaker 1: All this happened two years after Higgins first told her
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  Speaker 1: story of being raped on the couch in Reynold's office
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  Speaker 1: to Tend's TV show The Project and to news dot Com.
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  Speaker 3: Tonight.
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  Speaker 5: Claims of rape roadblocks to a police investigation, and a
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  Speaker 5: young woman forced to choose between her career and the
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  Speaker 5: pursuit of justice.
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  Speaker 1: Higgins said in her Project interview that Reynolds and her
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  Speaker 1: then chief of staff, Fiona Brown had failed to take
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  Speaker 1: proper care of her.
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  Speaker 6: I would try and raise it, and I would try
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  Speaker 6: and bring it up. Then it was always it always.
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  Speaker 7: Sort of came back to sort of being a mere issue,
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  Speaker 7: and it says you can't deal with it, then you
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  Speaker 7: can leave.
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  Speaker 1: Both Reynolds and Fiona Brown vehemently denied Higgins's claims in
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  Speaker 1: a Lambman defamation trial. Brown said she had in fact
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  Speaker 1: walked Higgins down to the police office within Parliament House,
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  Speaker 1: but had respected Higgins's wishes not to pursue a police
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  Speaker 1: complaint at the time. Brown also gave evidence that when
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  Speaker 1: Reynolds heard about Higgins's allegation, she insisted Brown go to police,
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  Speaker 1: whether Higgins wanted to or not. In the earlier defamational
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  Speaker 1: just as Michael Lee did not believe there was evidence
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  Speaker 1: of a conspiracy.
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  Speaker 7: As we will see when examined properly and without partiality,
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  Speaker 7: the cover up allegation was subjectively short on facts, but
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  Speaker 7: long on speculation and internal inconsistencies. Trying to particularize it
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  Speaker 7: during the evidence was like trying to grab a column
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  Speaker 7: of smoke.
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  Speaker 1: Remember, Linda Reynolds brought this case to court. There have
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  Speaker 1: been months of failed attempts to mediate and at one
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  Speaker 1: point David Cheraz said he was out of money and
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  Speaker 1: out of energy to defend it. What Reynolds has wanted
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  Speaker 1: all along is an apology. After the verdict in a
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  Speaker 1: Lamban defamation trial, Higgins issued this.
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  Speaker 4: Senator Reynolds and Fiona Brown have also been hurt, and
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  Speaker 4: for that, I am also sorry. My perceptions and feelings
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  Speaker 4: about what happened in the days and weeks after my
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  Speaker 4: rape are different from theirs. I deeply regret that we
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  Speaker 4: have not yet found common ground so we can resolve
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  Speaker 4: our differences with a better understanding of each other's experience.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't help. Fruz Laman is appealing the finding in
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  Speaker 1: the earlier trial, and he's always denied raping Brittany Higgins.
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  Speaker 1: On Friday, the Reynolds versus Higgins trial opened with Reynolds's barrister,
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  Speaker 1: Martin bennettesc indicating this trial was going to be big.
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  Speaker 6: Miss Higgins reconstructed in her mind a series of events
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  Speaker 6: used to damnify my client. Every fairy tale needs a villain.
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  Speaker 6: Miss Higgins and her then partner and now husband, mister
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  Speaker 6: Schiraz cast Senator Reynolds in that role for their fictional
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  Speaker 6: story of a cover up of the rape. The fact
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  Speaker 6: she had been raped was traumatic and terrible, but it
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  Speaker 6: needed something more to attract the attention, to attract media interest,
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  Speaker 6: to attract the promotion of Miss Higgins. So she made
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  Speaker 6: it a political sex scandal. That's the fiction that needed
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  Speaker 6: a villain, and she cast Linda Reynolds in that role.
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  Speaker 1: Bennett referenced to photographs of Higgins after the alleged rape
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  Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, smiling and laughing on the campaign trail
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  Speaker 1: in WA, not sitting alone in her room, ostracized and isolated,
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  Speaker 1: as she'd claimed. He also quoted texts sent by Higgins
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  Speaker 1: to her then boyfriend indicating she was enjoying her time
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  Speaker 1: in WA.
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  Speaker 4: My day has been awesome, mostly spent poolside. It's been
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  Speaker 4: really nice, liking the WA office. I can't wait for
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  Speaker 4: the ANZAC Day festivities.
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  Speaker 1: What became clear this week is that the attacks on
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  Speaker 1: Reynolds by Higgins up until now are nothing compared to
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  Speaker 1: what's coming. In her opening address to the court, Higgins's barrister,
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  Speaker 1: Rachel Young sc demonstrated Higgins is now going to attempt
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  Speaker 1: to prove the truth of what she says is Reynolds's
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  Speaker 1: misconduct in court where she has absolute privilege to say
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  Speaker 1: what she thinks without the threat of future defamation action.
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  Speaker 8: Miss Higgins's truth. Her truth as to the rape is
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  Speaker 8: uncontested by the Senator. Young took issue with Bennett's description
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  Speaker 8: of Higgins's case as a fairy tale that needed a villain.
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  Speaker 8: She said it was no fairy tale for the Senator,
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  Speaker 8: through her oral and written opening, to suggest it may
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  Speaker 8: be so is misplaced, harassing and retraumatizing.
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  Speaker 1: Young said Higgins's case would show that Reynold's handling of
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  Speaker 1: the matter had been inadequate.
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  Speaker 8: Miss Higgins was a junior employee without job security who
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  Speaker 8: had been raped at work. The power discrepancy is palpable.
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  Speaker 1: And Young questioned the very basis of Reynold's claim.
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  Speaker 8: The focus of her case relies upon a novel extension
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  Speaker 8: of the law of aggravated damages and taught conspiracy. The
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  Speaker 8: conspiracy was later added by the Senator, is wrong and
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  Speaker 8: should not be.
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  Speaker 1: Found coming up the dramatic out of courts scuffles going
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  Speaker 1: on all at the same time. That's after the break.
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  Speaker 1: In recent days, Linda Reynolds has given emotional evidence under
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  Speaker 1: questioning from her own barrister. She described being questioned about
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  Speaker 1: Higgins in Parliament in twenty nineteen after Higgins went public.
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  Speaker 3: I was standing there in incredible pain. I'd stood up
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  Speaker 3: every single day, I'd faced down the questions. I just
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  Speaker 3: couldn't go on. I couldn't read what was on the
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  Speaker 3: piece of paper. I just started sobbing uncontrollably. I was literally,
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  Speaker 3: completely and utterly incoherent.
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  Speaker 1: On Tuesday, sheoked the twenty twenty two death of Senator
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  Speaker 1: Kimberly Kitching, a labor politician who died of a heart attack.
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  Speaker 1: Reynolds said that before she died, Kitching had told her
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  Speaker 1: Labor was coming to get Reynolds over Higgins' allegations.
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  Speaker 3: I was completely incredulous. I said to her, why would
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  Speaker 3: anybody reponize such an incident. I still can't find them
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  Speaker 3: words to describe, even for Labor, and they pulled some
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  Speaker 3: pretty nasty stunts, But this I actually found it hard.
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  Speaker 1: To believe, Reynolds said. After the incident with Lemon, she
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  Speaker 1: worked closely with Higgins in Wa where Higgins was helping
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  Speaker 1: the Liberal campaign.
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  Speaker 3: I thanked her for her great work. I was genuinely
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  Speaker 3: impressed with her. She had thrown herself into the campaign.
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  Speaker 3: She genuinely loved campaigning, and she was really good.
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  Speaker 1: She had stepped up, Reynold said, She admitted calling Higgins
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  Speaker 1: a lying cow while watching the project story on TV.
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  Speaker 1: She said though that wasn't a claim Higgins was lying
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  Speaker 1: about the rape, she meant that Higgins was lying about
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  Speaker 1: Reynold's response.
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  Speaker 3: I was incredibly angry. I was incredibly hurt. She probably
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  Speaker 3: didn't even realize this, but she couldn't have picked a
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  Speaker 3: worse issue to bring me down. It's such an abhorrent
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  Speaker 3: thing to say to any woman that you've mistreated the
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  Speaker 3: very pallagation, and that you have not only done that,
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  Speaker 3: but you have also covered it up.
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  Speaker 1: Brittney Higgins is not in Perth for this trial yet
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  Speaker 1: the court has heard. She's in France, where she and
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  Speaker 1: Schiraz bought and then sold of property in a small village.
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  Speaker 1: On Monday, she posted.
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  Speaker 4: This pertinent reading.
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  Speaker 1: With a screenshot of a book title, how Many More Women,
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  Speaker 1: How the Law Silences Women. Reynolds said this about the post.
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  Speaker 3: It's just validated why I'm taking these proceedings, because she
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  Speaker 3: will not stop, and even during this trial, she will
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  Speaker 3: not stop.
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  Speaker 1: Then a skirmish broke out about a crowdfunding page started
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  Speaker 1: for Higgins by another famous advocate for survivors of sexual
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  Speaker 1: assault Saxon Mullins. The fundraising page says this.
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  Speaker 5: Many hoped the judgment would mark the end of this
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  Speaker 5: legal saga and Brittany be free to move on and
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  Speaker 5: heal in private. However, Brittany is now being sued for
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  Speaker 5: defamation by a former boss. Bruce Lehman, who denies the rape,
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  Speaker 5: is also appealing Justice Lee's decision. Britney, who is pregnant,
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  Speaker 5: needs our support now more than ever.
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  Speaker 1: As soon as court resumed, Martin Bennett, the lawyer for
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  Speaker 1: Linda Reynolds, told the judge this was an attempt.
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  Speaker 6: To capture some public opinion.
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  Speaker 1: Rachel Young, Higgins's barrister, said it was beyond any stretch
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  Speaker 1: of the imagination that the fundraising page was connected to
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  Speaker 1: Higgins and Scharraz's alleged conspiracy to defame the Senator. The judge,
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  Speaker 1: just as Paul Tottle, granted a subpoena which means Higgins
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  Speaker 1: team has to hand over any communications about that page.
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  Speaker 1: Linda Reynolds mentioned in court on Wednesday another social post
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  Speaker 1: by Higgins in which she.
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  Speaker 4: Wrote, I won't stay silent so you can stay comfortable.
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  Speaker 1: Reynolds said this.
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  Speaker 3: I can assure you taking these proceedings, putting my house
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  Speaker 3: on the line, everything that I've worked for for forty years,
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  Speaker 3: Putting everything on the line to be able to be
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  Speaker 3: here today and tell the truth that just took the cake.
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  Speaker 3: We're not doing this to stay comfortable.
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  Speaker 1: Later in this trial, Brittaney Higgins herself will give evidence.
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  Speaker 1: Her time in the witness box is set down for
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  Speaker 1: five full days, but before that, Higgins's barrister will cross
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  Speaker 1: examine Linda Reynolds. We've got live updates from the courtroom
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  Speaker 1: all day at Beaustralian dot com dot au. Join our
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  Speaker 1: subscribers to ensure you don't miss it being and come
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: back to the front for updates