Reynolds to continue defamation action despite apology

Liberal MP Linda Reynolds has vowed to continue with a defamation suit against Brittany Higgins if Higgins continues to claim there was a political cover-up after the senator’s former staffer was raped in Parliament House.

Higgins made her first public comments on Saturday since Justice Michael Lee found on the balance of probabilities – the civil standard of proof – that Bruce Lehrmann had raped her in Reynolds’ ministerial office in 2019.

While Higgins apologised to Reynolds for the hurt caused by the years-long saga, the former staffer said her “perceptions and feelings about what happened in the days and weeks after my rape” differed from those of Reynolds and her former chief of staff Fiona Brown. “I hope we can resolve our differences with a better understanding of each other’s experience,” Higgins said.

Reynolds, in a written statement released on Sunday, said she appreciated Higgins’ apology but added she would continue with defamation action against her and her partner, David Sharaz, over statements the couple published on social media.

Reynolds emphasised her legal action was never about the truth of the rape, but rather about claims Reynolds had failed to support Higgins and subjected her to a damaging political cover-up to protect the Coalition from scrutiny.

“My action deals with what Justice Lee exposed as false allegations raised two years after the rape,” Reynolds said.

David Sharaz, Brittany Higgins and Linda Reynolds are entwined in defamation proceedings in WA.Credit: Trevor Collens

“At enormous emotional and financial cost, I have fought for three years to expose the truth in relation to my conduct. Looking forward, I welcome Ms Higgins’ olive branch and her commitment to engage with me to reach a resolution.

“What still lies between us are not different perceptions. It is a fact that Ms Higgins received our support and that there was no cover-up.

“If Ms Higgins does not accept Justice Lee’s findings on the claims of cover-up and mistreatment then, regrettably, it will have to be proved again in our trial set for July this year.”

Higgins’ Instagram post following Linda Reynold’s decision to proceed with her defamation action.Credit: @brittanyhiggins___

While not naming Reynolds, Higgins seemingly responded to the news in a since deleted Instagram post on Sunday evening. She shared an image of tire tracks on sand to her story, alongside the caption, “Ah. Wonderful. Keep showing people the truth of who you really are.”

In a historic decision in the Federal Court last Monday, Lee upheld Network Ten and TV presenter Lisa Wilkinson’s truth defence to Lehrmann’s defamation claim over an interview with Higgins broadcast on The Project on February 15, 2021.

Lee’s finding that there was no political cover-up, which he said was the most important theme of The Project story, fuelled media and opposition scrutiny of a $2.4 million federal compensation payment to Higgins. The payment was arranged in December 2022 after prosecutors dropped charges against Lehrmann after a mistrial due to juror misconduct.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Higgins’ statement was gracious and noted the improvements in parliamentary standards since her claims were aired.

He and opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham put the blowtorch on senior ministers Katy Gallagher and Penny Wong, who led the questioning of the Morrison government over the affair.

“I don’t think the problem in relation to the payout is on Brittany’s side – I think it’s on the government’s side, and I think others have pointed that out,” Dutton said on the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.

“If there’s an inappropriateness to the political opportunism that Katy Gallagher and others tried to eke out of an alleged sexual assault, then firstly, I think that reflects poorly on Katy Gallagher, but also on the government as well.”

Birmingham pointed to Lee’s judgment about “politicisation of the matter impeding the criminal prosecution” of Lehrmann.

”There are those within the media and there are those within the parliament, and I think they all know who they are in terms of the way in which they pursued this in the parliament, the types of questions that were presented and the way in which they were relentlessly presented,” he said on Sky News’ Sunday Agenda.

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