Taxpayers taken for mugs by Labor in Higgins payout drama

Labor looking like hypocrites taking taxpayers for mugs as details of Brittany Higgins secret seven-figure compensation emerge. Imagine if Scott Morrison has signed off on it.

Imagine, for a moment, if Scott Morrison’s government had signed off on a seven figure payment to someone on the basis of a secretive damages claim that was settled behind closed doors within hours and with no apparent testing of evidence.

And imagine, too, if the person who was paid out was at the centre of a political firestorm that became a big part of the reason the Liberals wound up in office.

The level of outrage from Labor would be measured in megatons.

Rightly so, too.

Yet when it is Labor in office and cutting the cheques, the message is very different.

Brittany Higgins leaves the ACT Magistrates Court in Canberra. Picture: AFP

Shut up, stop politicising things, you don’t need to know.

Seriously, the Albanese government must take the taxpayer for mugs.

Senator Linda Reynolds in Senate estimates at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

For months, Labor has been incredibly secretive about the payment it made to Brittany Higgins, refusing to answer even the most basic questions.

Now, we have another piece of the puzzle as to why.

What we already knew was damning enough.

Among other things, it paid what has been reported to be as much as $3 million – again, taxpayer money – to Higgins, after a mediation session that lasted less than a day.

Senator Katy Gallagher makes a statement in the Senate Chamber at Parliament House. Picture:

Correspondence has revealed that former defence minister Linda Reynolds, who might have had something to say about how Higgins was treated when she worked in her office and when her alleged sexual assault occurred, was told to stay away from the hearing.

Otherwise, the Commonwealth said, it wouldn’t cover Reynolds’ or Michaelia Cash’s legal bills, which is normally standard operating procedure whenever a minister of the crown is involved in legal action as part of his or her job.

This, despite both Reynolds and her chief of staff Fiona Brown, among others, having evidence that contested Higgins’ claims that she was not supported after an alleged sexual assault by Bruce Lehrmann, which Lehrmann vigorously denies ever happened.

Higgins’ mediation appears to have been settled in less than a day – an insult to countless veterans and others who sometimes spend years trying to shake a penny out of the Commonwealth.

And now we know that a draft statement of claim, reported by The Australian, for $2.5 million was filed by Higgins on the basis that she was “medically unfit for any form of employment, and has been given a very poor prognosis for future employment.”

“The claimant further claims for the likelihood that she would have succeeded in either progressing in the public service, politics or in the private sector and would have been remunerated at increasing rates,” the draft claim reads.

“If the matter proceeds, the claimant will obtain a forensic ¬accounting report, but anticipates that this part of the claim for future economic loss will be in order of at least an additional $1,000,000.”

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

We don’t know if that is the final basis on which the claim was paid, because the offices of Katy Gallagher, the finance minister, and Mark Dreyfus, who as Attorney-General has to sign off on all substantial claims, won’t talk.

We also don’t know whether the Commonwealth ever sought advice as to whether the claim could be tested, as is normally standard.

The “model litigant” policies which govern how the Commonwealth behaves in legal matters are quite clear.

In 1999 the Australian Law Reform Commission said, “the model litigant rules require fair play, but not acquiescence, and government lawyers must press hard to win points and defend decisions they believe to be correct.”

It continued, “the obligation … does not therefore preclude all legitimate steps from being taken to pursue claims by the Commonwealth and its agencies and testing or defending claims against them.”

Remember, Anthony Albanese came to power in no small part because he promised transparency.

Now though it seems he is only delivering trickery.

Originally published as Taxpayers taken for mugs by Labor in Higgins payout drama