Eleventh-hour bombshell as lawyers reveal Higgins won’t give evidence

Former staffer Brittany Higgins will no longer be called to enter the witness box in WA Liberal senator Linda Reynolds’ defamation case against her in an eleventh-hour bombshell underpinned by confidence in the strength of her case and concerns for her health.

On Monday, Higgins’ lawyer, Rachael Young, SC, told the WA Supreme Court the 29-year-old would no longer be called to give evidence, referring to top-secret documents concerning her medical state.

WA senator Linda Reynolds (right) has taken defamation action against Brittany Higgins.Credit: Holly Thompson/ Supplied

Higgins, who is expecting her first child with husband David Sharaz, had been due to travel to Perth from her new home in the south of France to give evidence over five days from August 26.

But Young told the court the defence no longer considered that necessary to convince Justice Paul Tottle that Higgins should be successful in the proceedings.

Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, told the court he would be taking the day to consider the development and how it might affect the rest of the trial.

The former defence minister has been pursuing Higgins for damages, as well as aggravated damages, over a series of social media posts from 2023 that she claims accused her of mishandling her rape allegation and attempting to silence victims of sexual assault.

Higgins is defending the action on the basis the substance of the posts was true.

She had been due to give sworn evidence on what unfolded in the days after her alleged rape by Bruce Lehrmann in the former defence minister’s office after a night out on March 23, 2019.

Lehrmann denies the claim and his 2022 criminal trial was aborted due to juror misconduct.

He is appealing against a separate Federal Court judgment that found the rape allegation to be true on the balance of probabilities.

Outside court, Bennett told the media the development was disappointing given how long the senator had been waiting to restore her reputation and have the truth determined by a judge.

“I’m sure what Senator Reynolds will be unhappy about is that the contest will now not be her word against Ms Higgins’, it will always be the question of whether Ms Higgins could have answered the allegations if she was well enough,” he said.

“That is unsatisfactory. Linda Reynolds has waited years to vindicate her reputation, and this was the day. But these things happen in trials.”

The former staffer has not been to Perth since March 2024, when she and Sharaz engaged in a marathon nine-hour mediation hearing with Reynolds.

The shock revelation is due to cut the five-week defamation trial short, with Reynolds’ former chief of staff, Fiona Brown, also excused on medical grounds.

Brown’s barrister, Dominique Hogan-Doran, SC, on Monday handed over a top-secret medical certificate and report, sealed and covered by a suppression order, to a handful of lawyers and the judge.

But Young told the court she would still seek permission to contest parts of Brown’s written affidavit, including her recollection of a meeting, two weeks after Higgins’ alleged rape, between Reynolds and former assistant commissioner Leanne Close.

Reynolds has called more than two dozen witnesses to attest to the toll on her of the political furore over Higgins’ alleged rape and the Morrison government’s handling of it.

That line-up has included former prime minister Scott Morrison, Tasmanian senator Wendy Askew, Reynolds’ medical team, her closest friends and her elderly parents.

Earlier on Monday, WA Liberal Party statesman Jeremy Buxton told the court Reynolds would have struggled to retain her seat after the controversy surrounding Higgins’ alleged rape.

The selection committee chair took the witness stand on Monday, where he gave evidence about the effect of the Higgins saga and subsequent media coverage on Reynolds’ professional life.

Reynolds called time on her decade-long political career in February 2024.

But while giving evidence, she revealed that she had intended to stand for another six-year term until pulling the pin over health issues she claims were exacerbated by the stress.

Buxton, who has been charged with selecting candidates since 1971, told the court he believed she would have struggled to gain a winnable seat on the ticket given the nature of the allegations made against her and the breadth of the media coverage.

“In my opinion, Reynolds has been a very well-regarded senator, but I think it’s very likely that there would have been a feeling that Ms Reynolds mishandled the situation ... that Ms Reynolds may have been unethical and involved in a cover-up, and I think she may have been judged a little more harshly as a woman who did not provide adequate support to a young female staffer,” Buxton told the court.

“There would have been considerable reservation, putting her at a disadvantage.

“I think she would have been struggling to get even the third position on the ticket.”

While telling the court the extensive media coverage had not changed his view about the senator, he said that was likely only due to their long history.

“I wouldn’t say I was necessarily representative of the view across the selection committee,” he said.

Read more

Nightmare neighbours: State tenants terrorise Perth suburb

It’s gone from slum to million-dollar suburb, but my Karawara scars remain

Perth, say no to Mondayitis: Value-packed meal deals to start the week right