Coalition continues to grill Katy Gallagher over her knowledge of Brittany Higgins’ complaint
Katy Gallagher says one thing could have changed everything as doubts about her knowledge of Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape continue to be raised.
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Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has suggested the controversy over what she knew about Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape could have been avoided had she not held a key meeting behind closed doors.
The Coalition on Monday launched question time in federal parliament for a second week in a row by grilling Senator Gallagher about what she knew and when before media reports featuring Ms Higgins’ claims were broadcast and published on February 15, 2021.
Senator Gallagher last week confirmed she had been “provided with information” about Ms Higgins’ complaint in the days before it was made public but insisted she did “absolutely nothing” with that information and she hadn’t misled the Senate.
The Labor minister made the statement after the publication of leaked text messages called into question the Labor frontbencher’s earlier claim that “no one” in Labor had been aware of Ms Higgins’ complaint before it became public knowledge.
The messages suggest Ms Higgins’ partner David Sharaz had contacted Senator Gallagher before Ms Higgins came forward publicly to allege she had been raped by a fellow Liberal staffer in 2019 in the office of her boss, then defence minister Linda Reynolds.
The Coalition chose not to pursue Labor over its handling of Ms Higgins’s complaint in question time in the House of Representatives on Monday.
But it was a different story in the upper house.
Nationals senator Susan McDonald cited commentary from senior press gallery journalists who said Senator Gallagher had misled the upper house as she called on the Labor frontbencher to “correct the record”.
Senator Gallagher responded by again insisting she hadn’t misled the Senate during a now-contested senate estimates hearing in June 2021 in which Senator Reynolds claimed Labor senators had been secretly briefed on Ms Higgins’ rape allegation before the story broke.
At the time, Senator Gallagher responded to Senator Reynolds’ assertion by saying: “No one had any knowledge. How dare you. It’s all about protecting yourself.”
Senator Gallagher on Monday said she had clarified her remarks shortly after the estimates hearing in question at a private meeting with Senator Reynolds and her Liberal colleague Anne Ruston.
She said she told the Coalition senators at the time that she “had been aware of the allegations in the days leading up to them becoming public”.
“I did tell Senator Reynolds at the time in that private meeting, and I think perhaps all of this could have been avoided if that meeting wasn’t private but it was private,” Senator Gallagher said.
“It was held outside of the senate estimates room.”
Echoing the statement she read out in parliament last week, Senator Gallagher said: “What I was responding to that night was an allegation that … two weeks before the allegations that Ms Higgins made became public was that I knew about them and I’d made a decision to be part of making them public.
“That is not correct. I never did that,” she said.
Pressed on the recent political commentary suggesting she had misled the Senate, Senator Gallagher said: “I cannot control what other people write about this. Maybe they don’t understand it.
“None of them have spoken to me about it … Well, certainly they haven’t spoken to me about it in the last few weeks,” she said.
“They’re writing opinion pieces or saying opinion comment. I mean, that’s up to them and, you know, good luck to them.”
The Coalition’s renewed questioning of Senator Gallagher comes after the upper house was marred by allegations made by three women – including independent senator Lidia Thorpe and former Coalition senator Amanda Stoker – against senator David Van.
The embattled senator resigned from the Liberal Party on the weekend after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton informed him last week he was no longer welcome to sit in the Liberal party room.
But Senator Van has not resigned from parliament at this stage and is continuing to deny allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women in parliament.
Originally published as Coalition continues to grill Katy Gallagher over her knowledge of Brittany Higgins’ complaint
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