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How Brittany Higgins’ boss was vindicated · The Front

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Thursday, July thirty, twenty twenty six. A new blood
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  Speaker 1: condition twenty years before symptoms emerge. Australia's recorded a two
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty percent increase in reported anti Semitic incidents
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  Speaker 1: in the past two and a half years, the biggest
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  Speaker 1: surge of any country with a significant Jewish population. Those
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  Speaker 1: stories alive right now at the Australian dot com dot au.
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  Speaker 1: It's more than seven years since Brittany Higgins was raped
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  Speaker 1: inside Federal Parliament, but the reverberations of that event continue now.
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  Speaker 1: Higgins boss at the time, has won a payout from
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  Speaker 1: the Commonwealth after she accused them of breaching her workplace
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  Speaker 1: right and effectively blaming her. So what does it all
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  Speaker 1: mean for everyone else who works in the emotionally charged
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  Speaker 1: and hr free political bubble. Stephen Rice is here in
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  Speaker 1: just a moment. I wasn't a person who'd just gone
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  Speaker 1: through a life changing traumatic event.
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  Speaker 2: I was a political problem.
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  Speaker 3: The worst thing you can say to a woman she
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  Speaker 3: brought plus another woman's rape.
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  Speaker 1: Stephen rice is The Australian's New South Wales editor and
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  Speaker 1: for years now he's been covering the saga triggered by
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  Speaker 1: Britney Higgins allegation of rape against Bruce Lamb and a
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  Speaker 1: claim that was found in the Federal Court to be
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  Speaker 1: true on the balance of probabilities. Ricey this case has
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  Speaker 1: damaged the careers of almost everyone who's come into contact
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  Speaker 1: with it, and the person whose story is probably the
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  Speaker 1: most compelling and touching I think is Fiona Brown. She
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  Speaker 1: was the chief of staff to Linda Reynolds, the minister
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  Speaker 1: when this allegation was first raised. There's been a big
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  Speaker 1: development in Fiona Brown's case against the Commonwealth.
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  Speaker 4: What's happened well, Fioda Brown had sued the Commonwealth over
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  Speaker 4: her treatment by the government and the government she was
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  Speaker 4: talking about it was the Morrison government because Fiona Brown
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  Speaker 4: felt that she had not been properly supported by Scott
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  Speaker 4: Morrison or any of his senior ministers while she was
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  Speaker 4: being attacked for these false allegations that she and Linda
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  Speaker 4: Reynolds were somehow responsible for not taking care of Brittany
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  Speaker 4: after she'd made these allegations and all that they'd been
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  Speaker 4: involved in a cover up of the whole thing for
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  Speaker 4: political purposes. At that point, she could quite rightly have
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  Speaker 4: expected that the government, her employer would step in and
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  Speaker 4: protect her, and instead, according to her, they did nothing
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  Speaker 4: of the sort. And so she's taken this action. She
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  Speaker 4: filed it eight months ago. It took the the government
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  Speaker 4: six months to even mount a defense, and it's a
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  Speaker 4: very flimsy defense, and last week the government agreed to
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  Speaker 4: settle with her.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty three, Stephen Rice and Janet al Bretson
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  Speaker 1: interviewed Fiona Brown about her story. You'll hear snippets of
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  Speaker 1: that conversation throughout this episode.
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  Speaker 3: You have is your name.
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  Speaker 5: That's what you're come in with, is what you go
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  Speaker 5: out with. You fight for your name.
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  Speaker 3: So that's what I did.
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  Speaker 1: This was heading for trial. It would have been a
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  Speaker 1: ripping trial, rising because we would have got Morrison to
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  Speaker 1: give evidence as well as other people. Are you slightly disappointed?
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  Speaker 4: I'm very happy for Fiona Brown that she's achieved a settlement.
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  Speaker 4: I don't know what it is, but hoping it's a
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  Speaker 4: decent settlement. But yes, to be perfectly honest, it would
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  Speaker 4: have been I think very revealing to have had Scott
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  Speaker 4: Morrison and his most senior advisors in the witness box
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  Speaker 4: giving evidence about the way that they conducted that whole episode.
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  Speaker 4: Don't forget there was a conflagration going on at around
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  Speaker 4: the time that Britney Higgins' allegations were revealed. The Morrison
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  Speaker 4: government was hugely under fire for allegedly not caring about women.
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  Speaker 4: We cannot trust this place, not while it operates like
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  Speaker 4: a shameful boy's only locker room. And this blew up
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  Speaker 4: as the prime example of the way that Morrison and
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  Speaker 4: his merry men didn't care about women in Parliament, women
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  Speaker 4: in general, but specifically about Britney Higgins. And of course
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  Speaker 4: the Prime Minister walked into Parliament and made a national
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  Speaker 4: apology about what had happened to her.
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  Speaker 2: I am sorry, we are sorry. I'm sorry to miss
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  Speaker 2: Higgins for the terrible things that took place here and
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  Speaker 2: the place that should have been a place of safety
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  Speaker 2: and contribution turned out to be a nightmare.
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  Speaker 4: And Fiona Brown, quite rightly, I think, felt that parts
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  Speaker 4: of this speech implied that she hadn't taken proper care
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  Speaker 4: of Britney Higgins. In fact, Fiona was the one who
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  Speaker 4: led Brittany by the hand down to the Police Office
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  Speaker 4: in Parliament to report this. So at least two judges
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  Speaker 4: now have expressed the view that there was no cover up,
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  Speaker 4: that both Linda Reynolds and Fiona Brown treated Brittney Higgins
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  Speaker 4: with the utmost care.
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  Speaker 1: Here's what Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said about that.
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  Speaker 6: Despite the expression implied criticism of her, Miss Brown went
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  Speaker 6: out of her way to reassure Miss Higgins and supported
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  Speaker 6: her and assisted her in contacting the police. As missus
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  Speaker 6: Brown her self put it, she did her professional best
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  Speaker 6: with what was given to her.
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  Speaker 4: So I think for these purposes for fionder Brown, it's
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  Speaker 4: great that she's come to the settlement.
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  Speaker 1: Her allegation against Scott Morrison, apart from a general feeling
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  Speaker 1: that she was excluded and that she was made to
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  Speaker 1: feel like a hindrance or a paying for the government,
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  Speaker 1: was that Morrison came past her desk after speaking in
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  Speaker 1: Parliament about this issue while he was under far from
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  Speaker 1: labor and said to her we've spoken, haven't we. What
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  Speaker 1: did that mean?
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  Speaker 4: Well, he was trying to imply after the fact that
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  Speaker 4: the two of them had spoken about the Brittney Higgins
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  Speaker 4: case because he just told Parliament that they had. She
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  Speaker 4: says that didn't happen. Not only did it not happen,
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  Speaker 4: but this was the first time after the whole thing
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  Speaker 4: broke that the Prime Minister had spoken to her at all.
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  Speaker 4: So she was shocked and I think bewildered, frightened when
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  Speaker 4: suddenly Morrison appears out of the blue and says, we've spoken,
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  Speaker 4: haven't we. And it would have been interesting to have
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  Speaker 4: heard Scott Morrison's recollection of that event on the witness
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  Speaker 4: stand I and he's publicly said that he doesn't remember
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  Speaker 4: the conversation that way, but he's also not willing to
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  Speaker 4: challenge Fiona Brown's version of it.
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  Speaker 1: Fiona Brown depicts that inner circle of the Morrison government
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  Speaker 1: as kind of the boys club closing ranks, and that
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  Speaker 1: she certainly felt very excluded. There's such an interesting kind
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  Speaker 1: of circularity to that, isn't there. Because Britney higgins allegation,
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  Speaker 1: which has been found by the Federal Court and the
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  Speaker 1: WA Supreme Court not to be made out on the facts,
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  Speaker 1: was that this was a misogynistic government that had actively
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  Speaker 1: concealed her rape. Fiona Brown makes a similar accusation of
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  Speaker 1: sort of sexism and of old school tie. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know fear of women, but coming from a very different
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  Speaker 1: point of view, doesn't she Where do we end up?
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  Speaker 5: How do you think about that? Look?
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  Speaker 4: For me, I think the principal harm done to Fiona
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  Speaker 4: Brown was done because the government found itself in the
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  Speaker 4: middle of this maelstrom.
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  Speaker 5: The me Too movement had reached its peak.
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  Speaker 4: The government was desperate to appear to be friendly towards
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  Speaker 4: women and well disposed towards these kinds of claims of
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  Speaker 4: sexual harassment, sexual assault. So I think those were the
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  Speaker 4: issues more at play. But yes, it did certainly seemed,
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  Speaker 4: and I think quite legitimately to founder Brown may have
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  Speaker 4: looked very much like a boys club at work.
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  Speaker 3: She made me in that program with the Project, more
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  Speaker 3: of the villain than Bruce Lehman. I was framed as
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  Speaker 3: the perpetrator in that interview.
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  Speaker 1: Fiona Brown was not the person I think that she
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  Speaker 1: was initially depicted as in that original Project story. She
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  Speaker 1: was not this sort of hard edged political operative hollow
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  Speaker 1: man for one of a better phrase. She was new
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  Speaker 1: to chief of staffing as her first job as a
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  Speaker 1: chief of staff, Linda Reynolds was kind of making her
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  Speaker 1: way up in the ministry, but was also not part
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  Speaker 1: of the kind of inner circle of kind evil liberal
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  Speaker 1: operative zo they were about to be. And I think
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  Speaker 1: if you manage people, the bind that Linda Reynolds and
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  Speaker 1: Fiona Brown found themselves in feels very real. A young
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  Speaker 1: person comes to you and says, something awful has happened,
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  Speaker 1: but I don't want to go to the police. I
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  Speaker 1: don't want there to be any more fuss about this.
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  Speaker 1: I'm moving on. Please don't make me make this into
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  Speaker 1: a big deal. Despite that, Fiona Brown did take her
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  Speaker 1: down to the police office Linda Reynolds. According to Fionda
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  Speaker 1: Brown in their federal court when she gave evidence there,
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  Speaker 1: Linda Reynolds was trying to order Fiona Brown to go
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  Speaker 1: to the police herself one stage, even if Brittany didn't
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  Speaker 1: want to go. What do you think you manage.
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  Speaker 5: People too right? For he?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, has it? Do you feel some of that
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  Speaker 1: dilemma that they were in?
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  Speaker 4: Oh? Absolutely, I mean nothing like this had ever happened,
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  Speaker 4: not only to them, nothing like this had ever happened
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  Speaker 4: to Parliament before. And here were these two women trying
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  Speaker 4: to do their best and to me it was a
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  Speaker 4: classic situation. On one side, Look, if she's saying that
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  Speaker 4: she's been secretly assaulted, we have to make her go
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  Speaker 4: to the police about it. And on the other side, no,
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  Speaker 4: she's got to have some agency herself in whether she
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  Speaker 4: goes to the police. It was a very difficult situation
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  Speaker 4: for both of them to be in, and certainly as
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  Speaker 4: far as Justice Lee, who examined this minutely in the
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  Speaker 4: federal court case that Bruce Leman had bought and lost,
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  Speaker 4: just as Lee found that both those women had acted
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  Speaker 4: in the best way that they could under the circumstances
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  Speaker 4: that they found themselves in at that time.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up, Will all this make any difference to politics.
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  Speaker 1: I think political staffers live by the assumption that they
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  Speaker 1: don't have the same workplace protections that the rest of
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  Speaker 1: us do. They are working in a sector where their
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  Speaker 1: bosses could get resolved at any time for kind of
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  Speaker 1: any reason if the prime Minister or the premier thinks
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  Speaker 1: they're a liability while they're out, and there's no unfair
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  Speaker 1: dismissile claims for politicians. That has kind of any assumption
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  Speaker 1: for political staffers too, that you could be punted at
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  Speaker 1: any moment, and bad luck if that happens to you.
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  Speaker 1: They all lose their jobs when an election is called,
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  Speaker 1: and then they just have to hope that they get
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  Speaker 1: reemployed if the government gets re elected. What is this settlement?
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  Speaker 1: How does this change our perception of where the political
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  Speaker 1: staffers do have some rights as employees.
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  Speaker 4: Well, unfortunately it didn't go to court, so there's no precedent.
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  Speaker 4: And again it would have been an interesting case because
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  Speaker 4: one of the claims that the Commonwealth makes in its
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  Speaker 4: defense against Fiona Brown is that the Prime Minister is
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  Speaker 4: entitled to make political decisions and have political conversations with
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  Speaker 4: his staff that aren't workplace conversations.
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  Speaker 5: Now, I find that absurd.
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  Speaker 4: If a Prime Minister comes along to one of his
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  Speaker 4: vulnerable staff, senior staff in the workplace and says, we've spoken, haven't.
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  Speaker 5: We about a workplace issue?
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  Speaker 4: I don't think that the Commonwealth is entitled to claim
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  Speaker 4: that that's not a workplace issue. But it did. That's
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  Speaker 4: what it says in its defense. It's extraordinary.
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  Speaker 1: It's kind of saying, well, the Prime Minister is not
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  Speaker 1: the Seoh he's not really the boss. That's kind of
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  Speaker 1: the argument.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, but maybe he's not the ultimate boss. Maybe he
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: doesn't pay her himself, but he was her manager. He
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: was the person that she reported to in this political,
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: come administrative, come public service position.
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  Speaker 1: Linda Reynolds has also feels extremely hard done by. She's
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  Speaker 1: very aggrieved and she's and she spent a huge amount
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  Speaker 1: of money on a deformation action which she won, but
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: who knows whether her bills will get paid because Britney
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  Speaker 1: Higgins has now gone bankrupt. Brittany Higgins had been ordered
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  Speaker 1: to pay eighty percent of Miss Reynolds's legal costs. She
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  Speaker 1: will now be required to hand over her estate to
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  Speaker 1: an appointed trustee. So what's the former Senator Reynolds's case
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  Speaker 1: against the Commonwealth now and where does that go?
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  Speaker 4: Well, her case against the Commonwealth is slightly different from
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  Speaker 4: Fiona Brown's, So Linda Reynolds's issue was really about the
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  Speaker 4: two point four million dollars that the Albanese government handed
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  Speaker 4: over to Britney Higgins without so much as a question
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  Speaker 4: ian Apart from the very short time frames that were
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: involved in that case. They literally relied on Britney Higgins
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: to tell them what had happened. So Linda Reynolds is
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  Speaker 4: claiming that the government breached its fiduciary duty towards her
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  Speaker 4: and that by awarding Britney Higgins this two point four
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  Speaker 4: million dollars, it was essentially saying she was right and
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: that then Senator Reynolds had been involved in something that
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: shouldn't have occurred.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that might result in a settlement. Suddenly, to Rice,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised.
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  Speaker 5: I wouldn't be surprised either.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me. Stephen Rice is The Australian's new
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: South Wales editor. You can read all our journalism anytime
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com dot au