Tanya Plibersek rejects claims Labor knew about Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation weeks before story broke

Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek has rubbished claims Labor knew about Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation for weeks before the story broke.

Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek has declared claims Labor knew about Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation at Parliament for weeks before the story broke “completely untrue.”

Defending Finance Minister Katy Gallagher over claims she misled Parliament, Ms Plibersek said her colleague was responding to a claim Labor knew for a long time about the allegation.

“She‘s been really clear that she was responding to Senator Linda Reynolds saying that Katy had known for weeks about this and that she and Labor were trying to weaponise these allegations,” Ms Plibersek told Channel 7.

“Both of those things are completely untrue.”

Tanya Plibersek has defended her colleague Katy Gallagher against claims she knew about Brittany Higgins' alleged rape weeks before the story broke. Picture: Sunrise

Ms Plibersek said the recent headlines around Ms Gallagher were “missing the point”.

“The central point here is that a young woman made an allegation that she had been sexually assaulted in her workplace and that it had been inappropriately investigated … even covered up by her employers.

“What really worries me about this … is if you are a young woman, looking at the way this has unravelled – with personal SMS messages making it into the public domain, leaked to journalists, counselling records being given to the opposing legal team, private conversations taped and released to the public – you would really think twice about making a complaint.

“I really do want to send a message to those people who have been sexually assaulted, who are thinking about making a complaint – there will always be people who will stand up for you, for your right to get justice. We are trying to make the legal system better.”

The exchange in Parliament in June 2021 did refer to Senator Reynolds’ claim she was tipped off weeks before the story broke.

But leaked text messages suggest Senator Gallagher was tipped off three days before the story broke on February 11, not a fortnight earlier.

However, she wasn’t the only politician who knew the story was about to break.

What did Peter Dutton know?

On the same day that Katy Gallagher appears to have found out, then Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton had confirmed he was briefed by the Australian Federal Police.

The reason was that under sensitive investigation protocols the AFP decided to inform him after Ms Higgins re-engaged with police on February 5, before the story broke.

Mr Dutton told Parliament in 2021 that he initially kept this information confidential when he was informed by the AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw on February 11.

It was only when the media approached the Prime Minister’s office on February 12, a day later, that Mr Dutton said he asked his chief of staff to tell the PMO that the AFP had been in contact. He later explained to the Today show’s Karl Stefanovic how it unfolded.

“Brittany re-engaged with the Australian Federal Police on about the 5ᵗʰ February and I was informed by the Australian Federal Police Commissioner on the 11ᵗʰ of February,” Mr Dutton said.

Mr Dutton said he was briefed by the AFP about the alleged incident involving Ms Higgins. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“I have a special responsibility I suppose; unlike other Ministers, I have responsibility for the Australian Federal Police. So I receive briefings on a regular basis, particularly sensitive matters, by the Australian Federal Police Commissioner and the way in which the AFP deal with that, is they have a sensitive investigation board that has a look at matters, and if they deem an investigation to be sensitive – which they did after Britney re-engaged on about the 5ᵗʰ February – then they met on the 11ᵗʰ of February, and the Police Commissioner then is obliged to inform me, which he did, on the 11ᵗʰ February.

“Now I have, as I say, a responsibility as the Minister responsible for the Australian Federal Police not to disclose that information and I take that responsibility very seriously. I didn‘t have a briefing about the full detail of the case, but I did have a briefing about the process that the AFP intended to undertake.

“That was on the 11ᵗʰ February and I‘ve had a couple of briefings since then over the course of the last fortnight. But now we’re at a stage where the police want to conduct the investigation. They can do that because an official complaint has been made and that’s what should take place.

“In relation to my interaction with the Prime Minister; I deemed it not to be appropriate to provide information to the Prime Minister on the 11ᵗʰ. There were media inquiries that came in to the Government on the 12ᵗʰ of February, the following day and as a courtesy, we provided information to the Prime Minister‘s Office at that point.

“So I don‘t disclose the information provided to me by the Australian Federal Police, particularly where there are operational matters and that was the decision, I think quite appropriately, that I took on the 11ᵗʰ February and that’s the situation.”

Contacted today over what information was provided to the Prime Minister’s office – for example if it was passed on that Brittany Higgins had re-engaged with police – a spokeswoman for Mr Dutton said he had “no comment”.

“We have no comment to make,” she said.

What did Katy Gallagher know?

An explosive tranche of leaked texts is the key to claims Finance Minister Katy Gallagher was tipped off about Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation by her boyfriend David Sharaz before the story broke.

On February 11, 2021, four days before the story broke Mr Sharaz messaged Ms Higgins to say: “Katy is going to come to me with some questions you need to prepare for … She’s really invested now ha ha.”

Brittany Higgins and her partner David Sharaz. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

But Senator Gallagher later told Parliament on June 4, 2021 “how dare you! No one had any knowledge.”

The texts include claims that Mr Sharaz sent her a transcript of Ms Higgins interview with The Project before it went to air.

After 48 hours of silence after the release of text messages revealing she was in contact with Mr Sharaz, she insisted on Saturday she did not mislead Parliament.

“No, I did not mislead the parliament. I was responding to an assertion that was being made by the Minister Reynolds at the time, that we had known about this for weeks and had made a decision to weaponise it,” Senator Gallagher said.

Senator Katy Gallagher has been accused of being tipped off about Ms Higgins’ rape allegation, which she denies. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“Mr Sharaz provided me with information. I think we‘ve seen that in the paper in the last couple of days,” she said.

“I did nothing with that information. And I was clear about that at the time. So, some two years ago, when I spoke with Senator Reynolds about it. I said to her exactly that, that I had been made aware, I wasn‘t aware of the full allegations, and that were made public on when the interviews went to air.

What did Senate leader Penny Wong know?

News.com.au revealed over the weekend that Penny Wong was tipped off about “an incident” in October 2020 but was not told it was an alleged rape or Brittany Higgins name

Senate leader Penny Wong was personally briefed on the findings of a secret probe into “an incident” in a ministerial office at Parliament House in late 2020 months before Brittany Higgins went public with her story.

“I want to make it clear I did not know the full details of the allegations before the story became public,‘’ she said.

“There are others who did know a lot of detail, including in the Morrison government who still failed to account for what they did with this information.

“But I do want to make this, President Ryan, the former president of the senate made a statement in the Senate some time ago, in which he indicated that a number of senators including me, were aware of some details as early as 2020 when an anonymous complaint or anonymous complaints were made to presiding officers. Those details have never been made public, including by me.”

Senator Wong has rejected reports she was briefed or knew the “full details” of Ms Higgins’ allegations before they became public. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The secret investigation followed an anonymous tip off handed to the presiding officers Speaker Tony Smith and President of the Senate Scott Ryan that alleged improper conduct by parliamentary officials over the cleaning of the office.

It included complaints about the decision to order a special clean of Linda Reynolds’ suite on March 23, 2021 and whether a potential crime scene had been tampered with – claims the AFP investigated and rejected.

A second investigation was then conducted by former Inspector-General of Intelligence Vivienne Thom, who was charged with examining CCTV of Ms Higgins and Mr Lehrmann at Parliament House.

It found not wrongdoing by Parliamentary staff.