Andrew Bolt: Higgins’ claim must be tested in open court

The Albanese Government cannot settle a compensation case involving Brittany Higgins behind closed doors.

Justice demands the Albanese Government tests fully Brittany Higgins’ claim for nearly $3 million for a rape she has not proved.

Not just justice to taxpayers.

How about justice to the man whose life is wrecked by an allegation he denies?

Higgins accused fellow Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann of raping her in Parliament House after a drunken night out.

That allegation will probably never be proved in the criminal courts after the first trial was aborted and the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions dropped the case, claiming the stress of a retrial could kill Higgins.

Yet Higgins was fit enough to immediately lodge this compensation claim against two Liberal ministers who employed her, and last week tweeted she was also prepared to be a witness “to defend the truth … in any potential civil cases brought by Mr Lehrmann” for compensation of his own.

Brittany Higgins. Picture: Gary Ramage

I can understand why the criminal case, at least, became too stressful for Higgins. Claims she’d made to police about the alleged rape turned out in court to be false.

Some claims she made about the bullying and lack of support by the two Ministers, Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash, were denied.

Only then did Higgins become too fragile to continue.

That means the only court proceeding so far that Higgins can’t cope with is a criminal trial where the truth of what she claims must be established beyond reasonable doubt.

This compensation claim requires a lower standard of proof and can even be settled outside court by the Finance Department.

Indeed, the Government might find it politically convenient if Higgins is just handed the millions, without making her prove anything.

Labor has used her to smash the former Morrison Government as heartless and sexist, and the more she now gets for her alleged trauma, the worse the Liberals will seem.

What’s more, the Finance Department will probably argue it’s cheaper to pay Higgins than fight her in court.

But what price justice?

Every Australian must be presumed innocent until proven guilty, but if the Commonwealth simply hands Higgins millions, many will assume Lehrmann did rape her.

That is monstrously unfair, when Lehrmann has already been robbed of the chance of being found not guilty at his criminal trial.

The Finance Department cannot settle this highly politicised case behind closed doors.

It must test Higgins’ claim in open court, where Lehrmann, Reynolds and Cash get the chance to prove their innocence.

No more politics.

Let’s look for truth.