Bruce Lehrmann is “arguably Australia’s most hated man” and is largely unemployable unless he appeared on adults-only video subscription site OnlyFans “or something silly like that”, his lawyer has claimed.
Solicitor Zali Burrows told the Federal Court in Sydney on Monday there was a “significant public interest” in Lehrmann having the opportunity to clear his name by appealing against a damning defamation decision finding that he raped his former colleague Brittany Higgins.
Zali Burrows outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Monday and Bruce Lehrmann in Queensland earlier this year.Credit: Edwina Pickles / Kate Geraghty
She said the unemployed former Liberal staffer, who observed the hearing remotely, was “scared [of] coming to court today” because of the “media onslaught”.
Lehrmann this year lost his multimillion-dollar defamation suit against the Ten Network and presenter Lisa Wilkinson over an interview with Higgins aired on The Project in February 2021.
Federal Court Justice Michael Lee, who found on the balance of probabilities that Lehrmann raped Higgins in Parliament House in 2019, subsequently ordered Lehrmann to pay $2 million to Ten to cover some of the costs of its successful defence. Lehrmann has now filed an appeal.
At a hearing in Sydney on Monday, Ten urged Federal Court Justice Wendy Abraham to order Lehrmann to pay $200,000 in security as the price of continuing his appeal. The sum would cover some of Ten and Wilkinson’s legal bills in the event Lehrmann failed to have the decision overturned and was ordered to pay his opponents’ costs.
Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer, Zali Burrows, outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Monday.Credit: Edwina Pickles
Burrows said her client was “on a Centrelink income, and he won’t be able to meet a security of costs order”. She suggested the application for security was a “bullying tactic”, an accusation rejected by Ten.
Lehrmann was “pretty much unemployable”, Burrows said, and “the only shot he’d probably ever ... [have] making money is going on OnlyFans or something silly like that”.
“Other than that, they know that he cannot come up with this money,” Burrows said.
Lehrmann was “arguably probably Australia’s most hated man” and “he really does need his day in court”, Burrows said.
Dr Matt Collins, KC, acting for Ten, said Lehrmann had “no capacity” to pay the $2 million costs order against him, let alone any order for security for costs. This meant an order for security would “stultify” the appeal, Collins said.
But he said Lehrmann had “had a very expensive trial … conducted in the full glare of the entire nation” and was “very ably represented” by experienced lawyers. The appeal raised no novel or important issues of law and Lehrmann had “had his day in court”. It was “more than a day in court, 26 days in court”, Collins said, in a reference to the length of the trial.
Lehrmann, meanwhile, is seeking a stay to halt the enforcement of the $2 million costs order against him. It is likely the enforcement of that order would lead to his bankruptcy.
“You don’t expect, on a bankruptcy, to recover the amounts?” Abraham asked Collins. On this basis, she asked what the urgency might be in seeking to enforce the costs order.
Collins did not point to any prejudice to Ten “beyond the delay in having the matter clarified one way or the other”.
He said Ten had served a bankruptcy notice on Lehrmann but no further steps would be taken until the court had ruled on Lehrmann’s stay application.
Sue Chrysanthou, SC, acting for Wilkinson, said Lehrmann “came to this court by choice” and had had his day in court.
This needed to be considered in assessing the public interest in the grounds of appeal, Chrysanthou said.
“He chose to enter the fray. He made the decision,” she said.
The judge will deliver her decision at a later date.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.