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Why Labor won’t admit the Brittany Higgins ‘cover-up’ was fake · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, December three, twenty twenty five. A senior Japanese diplomat,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Shingo Yamagami, has accused the Albanese government of failing to
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: offer public support for his country in the face of
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: a vicious Chinese campaign directed at new Japanese Prime Minister
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Snai Takeichi. Yamagami says Canberra has failed to back Japan
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: as it stands up to Beijing over issues including Taiwan.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Finance Minister Katie Gallagher, who aggressively pursued the concept of
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: a liberal conspiracy to cover up the rape of Brittany Higgins,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: has refused to say whether she accepts two courts rulings
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: that the conspiracy was fabricated. In today's episode, inside the
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Fiery Parliamentary Hearings, exploring why the ABA government is spending
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars defending its actions in
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the Higgins matter.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Let us know what we should be asking for.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: No, that's not how it works. Senate estimates are fabulous.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Ministers and their departments are dragged in to answer questions
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: about whatever senators are curious about. It's where opposition and
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: minor party senators get to be annoying and pedantic.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: I'm not telling you how to write your APDs, I.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Am what how about you just tell me? And government
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: ministers get to be grumpy and defensive. Right now, as
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Parliament winds down for the year, ministers are puffing and
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: sighing their way through hearings before they can go home
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: for Christmas. This is Liberal Senator James Patterson trying to
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: get a rise out of Finance Minister Katie Gallagher on Tuesday.
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  Speaker 3: Are you interested in the actual issue?
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Yes, Patterson, so, I'm very interested. But I think this
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: is a real important Gallagher knows her way round a
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Senate hearing. It was in this forum a few years
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: back when Labor was in opposition that Gallagher and Penny
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Wong got to play the opposition part, grilling then Liberal
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Senator Linda Reynolds about her role in the Brittney Higgins drama.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Senator Gallagher, I did answer your questions to the point
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: that you ground me to the ground and ended me.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Ended up in hospital. But I'm back.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: I'm answering questions. I'm answering questions and I'm assisting.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Will you justage that we put you in hospitals. You
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: just said I put you in hospital, Senator Reynolds, Well, if.
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: So, you're order.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Senator Nobody.
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: Questions, nobody takes pleasure.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: A few months earlier, a young Liberal staffer named Brittney
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Higgins had publicly alleged she was raped in Linda Reynolds
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: part Eliament House office by one of her colleagues. We
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: now know that colleague was Bruce Laman. Higgins also alleged
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: in an interview with the Project that her assault had
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: been covered up by the government of the day. I
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: would try and raise it, and they would try and
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: bring it up.
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  Speaker 2: Then it was always it always sort of came back
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: to sort of being a mere issue, and it says,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: so you can't deal with it, then you can.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Leave labor back. Then used the Senate estimates process to
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: put the heat on Reynolds.
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: Here.
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  Speaker 1: My final question, Senator Reynolds, was it your decision to
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: send miss Higgins to Perth for the duration of the
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: election campaign.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Senator Gallagher, again, that's also subject please investigation, how hangs
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: That was your final question, Senator Gallagher, that was beneath you.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: This has become a sprawling legal saga to rival the
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Epstein affair in the US, But in summary, this is
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: what's happened since then. Laman has been found by the
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Federal Court to have raped Higgins on the balance of probabilities,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: he's always denied it. Reynolds sued Higgins for defamation and won.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: In both those proceedings, judges said there was no evidence
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: of any political conspiracy to cover up the rape. Reynolds
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: and her former chief of staff, Fiona Brown are suing
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: the Commonwealth. Brown's taking a fair work case, accusing the
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: government of breaching its obligations to her as an employee.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Brown has said she felt unsupported by Morrison and his office.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Reynolds is accusing the Commonwealth of breaching its duty to
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: act in her best interests when it paid Higgins a
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: two point four million dollar settlement. Reynolds is also demanding
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: answers from Parliament about why she was pursued by Gallagher
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and Wong for something she's always denied, covering up the rape.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: When asked about the conduct of Wong and Gallagher, Anthony
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Albanesi last month said, this should your senators who led
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the charm of a Liberal Party cover up over the
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Higgins case, apologized to the Fernalds, well, that's not right.
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: I don't accept that characterization.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Don't you accept I don't accept.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I don't accept accept that.
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  Speaker 4: I don't accept. I don't accept that characterization.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: I don't accept that characterization.
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  Speaker 1: On Monday, in the Senate, a Liberal senator named Anne Rustin,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: in the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee's Estimates
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  Speaker 1: hearing ask Penny Wong.
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  Speaker 2: This incident, does the Prime Minister accept the findings of
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: the Federal and Supreme Court of Western Australia.
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: Well, Senator, I will see if the Prime Minister has
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: anything to add to the answer that he gave on
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: the day in question.
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  Speaker 1: Rustin kept asking.
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: The heart of this matter was a young woman who
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: a court found was raped in the office of a
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: Liberal minister, and I would hope we can all reflect
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: on the impact on her and as importantly all survivors
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: of sexual assault in this country. Now, I know there
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: are further legal proceedings in place which make it much
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: more difficult for us to comment further.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: On Tuesday, Roston asked Katie Gallagher, who you just heard
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: being very robust in this same Estimates Forum, the same question.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Gallagher kept her eyes on the table, doodling with a
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: pencil while answering.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: I'm aware of the court decision.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: I'm aware of that reporting. I have read it.
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  Speaker 2: Not a report, So, Minister, given that the findings of
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: two superior Australian courts found that there was no cover
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: up and no wrongdoing, will you now acknowledge that the
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: accusations made by you and members of your government of
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: a cover up were in fact unfounded.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: Senator Austin, I have nothing further to say on this matter.
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  Speaker 3: I have answered a number of questions and I spoke,
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  Speaker 3: including directly from Senator Reynolds herself before she left the Senate,
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  Speaker 3: and that that is on the record, and I have
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: nothing further to say coming up.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: So why is the government engaging the country's most expensive
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: barristers to fight the claims by Reynolds and Brown? This
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: issue is a tricky one for the Liberal Party. Linda
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Reynolds was, of course a Liberal politician, and the Liberal
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: led government was seriously damaged by Higgins allegations, which precipitated
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: street marches and some very awkward moments for the then
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Prime Minister. You'd think the Liberals would now after two
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: court findings that there was no Liberal conspiracy to conceal
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: the rape, be going for the government's throat, strongly backing
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Linda Reynolds. That's not the case, and there have been
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: discussions within Shadow Cabinet where sources have told The Australian
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: some of the opposition's most senior figures don't want a
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: full inquiry into the matter because they believe the former
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: government has quote too much to lose, and Ruston, however,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: is a Liberal who is doggedly pursuing this matter. On Tuesday,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: the Department of Finance put up one of its senior officials,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: First Assistant Secretary Rachel Antne, to answer Rustin's questions about
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: why the Commonwealth has engaged some of Australia's most senior
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: barristers silks, including Justin Gleeson, Kate Eastman and Ruth Higgins,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: and they're defending the Commonwealth against Reynolds and Brown. Rustin
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: repeatedly asked, and Antone repeatedly declined to answer exactly how
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: much they were charging.
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: The costs are commercially negotiated rates that are commercially confidential,
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: so their rates are commercially sensitive and we are under
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: obligation not to share those.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Antone said, barristers are engaged on the recommendation of solicitors,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: taking into account issues like their expertise and whether they
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: are trauma informed.
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  Speaker 2: The fake and malicious claims against Fiona Brown have quite
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: frankly ruined her life. She attempted suicide, she's had her
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: career ruined, and she's simply seeking justice. So I'm interested
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  Speaker 2: to understand why the Department of Finance is spending hundreds
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  Speaker 2: of thousands of dollars of taxpayers money fighting Miss Brown
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  Speaker 2: with possibly the most expensive legal team in the country
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  Speaker 2: at the moment. So what is the justification in terms
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  Speaker 2: of your proportionate, appropriate, time sensitive, trauma informed approach that
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  Speaker 2: you believe reflects the circumstance that I've just read out
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  Speaker 2: about a person who quite frankly nearly lost her own
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  Speaker 2: life at her own hands because of the circumstance of
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  Speaker 2: her employment in this place.
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  Speaker 5: Senator, you would appreciate that it's very difficult for us
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  Speaker 5: to go into the detail of any individual set of circumstances,
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: especially when a matter is live. As I mentioned earlier,
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  Speaker 5: there are many many things we cannot simply share, because
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: these processes of dispute resolution and court processes are sacrosanct
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  Speaker 5: and we all have obligations to maintain confidentiality throughout them
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: and comply with court processes throughout them. So it is
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: very difficult for me to be able to give you
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: the level of detail that you're after today.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Fiona Brown's fair work case will be heard in April
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven. We're covering this story extensively at the
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au and you can join our
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: subscribers right there