Higgins, Reynolds’ lawyers in tug-of-war over ‘conspiracy’ claim amid shock Credlin connection

Liberal senator Linda Reynolds’ lawyer has accused Brittany Higgins of concocting a plan to weaponise her alleged rape in an “unprovoked attack underpinned by visceral hatred”, while revealing Sky News anchor Peta Credlin finessed one of her powerful public addresses.

Higgins’ barrister, Rachael Young, SC, used the final hour of her closing address on Tuesday to savage the conspiracy arm of Reynolds’ Supreme Court defamation claim over several social media posts from July 2023.

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

Young told the court the Reynolds’ evidence had failed to support her claim Higgins and the ex-staffer’s now-husband David Sharaz had devised a malicious plan to attack her by handpicking journalists, curating the timing of the bombshell story and aiding her political opponents.

She downplayed the relevance of a five-hour recording before Higgins’ tell-all interview with The Project in 2021 in which Sharaz told journalist Lisa Wilkinson the former staffer’s motivation was for Reynolds to lose her job.

Higgins’ lawyer, Rachael Young, SC.Credit: Jesinta Burton

Heard in its entirety, Young, said the audio showed Higgins’ real desire was for cultural change and that had been evidenced by her continued advocacy for reform and to support victims of sexual assault.

“Ms Higgins wanted to call out the perpetrator and the way she was treated afterwards because she felt she had a moral obligation to do so … she wanted to generate reform, and that is evidenced by her continued advocacy on such issues,” Young said.

“Ms Higgins has talked about her motivation at length, which is corroborated by the evidence … at no point did Ms Higgins ever state to [journalist Samantha] Maiden that her motive was to injure Senator Reynolds.”

Young concluded her final address by telling the court it wasn’t until the former staffer’s tell-all interview, two years after her alleged rape, that she found the agency she had fought for.

In the spirit of honouring that, the barrister recited portions of an address the former staffer delivered to the press shortly after breaking her silence in February 2021 which she said best articulated her true motive.

“The prime minister has repeatedly said that I should be given agency going forward, but I don’t believe that agency was provided to me over the past two years – I seize it now,” Young read.

“From the outset, I have been driven by my desire to ensure that no other person would have to go through the trauma that I have experienced during my time in Parliament House.

“That’s why she [Higgins] spoke out up, that’s what she is being sued about, and that’s why we say this action should be wholly dismissed.”

But Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, dubbed the recording the strongest proof of a co-ordinated attack by Higgins alongside her now-husband Sharaz – her “co-conspirator” – based on a “litany of lies”.

And he cautioned the court against relying on the excerpts of Higgins’ media statement, revealing it was actually penned by Higgins and edited by Sharaz and Sky News host Peta Credlin.

The court was shown correspondence in which Sharaz sent Credlin the statement and invited the anchor to edit it as she saw fit.

Credlin returned the statement with a series of recommended changes for Higgins.

Linda Reynolds and her lawyer, Martin BennettCredit: Fairfax Media

“It needs to be treated with caution. What appears to be Higgins’ voice is the voice of people jumping on a bandwagon,” Bennett told the court.

Credlin confirmed her involvement during a live broadcast on Tuesday evening and said she helped craft the statement with the “full support” of then-prime minister Scott Morrison and her boss at Sky News believing reform was needed.

But the Sky News host said she grew concerned the matter was being “weaponised politically” in the months that followed.

Reynolds made a shock appearance just before 11am, sitting in the front row of the public gallery before Bennett lambasted Higgins for “arrogantly” trivialising his client’s suffering from her new home in France.

He told the court the written evidence Higgins provided was “flaky” and fell “woefully short” of defending what he dubbed an “unprovoked attack underpinned by visceral hatred” laid bare in her pre-interview briefing.

“What was said was the genuine, unguarded, unrehearsed, real, true expression of the moment, of what then took place as part of the planning for premeditated attack that is of central relevance now,” Bennett told the court.

“The contents of [Maiden’s] article and The Project interview are not referred to in the defence’s closing submissions because they are simply indefensible.”

Bennett also hit back at claims Reynolds knowingly hosted a meeting with Higgins over the alleged rape in her ministerial office on April 1, 2021, just metres from the couch on which it is said to have occurred.

He told the court it implied a “callousness” antithetical to the character the senator demonstrated on the witness stand.

Earlier, Higgins’ lawyer described Reynolds as a “self-serving” witness who had targeted the wrong person, attempting to saddle Higgins with the blame for her ailing health and demotion from the defence portfolio.

The former defence minister claims Higgins’ social media posts accusing her of mishandling the former staffer’s alleged rape in Parliament House by colleague Bruce Lehrmann on March 23, 2019, after a night out are defamatory.

Higgins is defending the action on the basis her posts were true.

Lehrmann has maintained his innocence since the 2022 criminal trial was aborted due to juror misconduct, but a Federal Court judgment found, on the balance of probabilities, that he did rape Higgins.

Lehrmann is now appealing this ruling.

The trial continues.

Get the day’s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter.