Lisa Wilkinson hires Sue Chrysanthou, SC, to defend her reporting on Bruce Lehrmann

Lisa Wilkinson announcing her resignation from The Project.

Lisa Wilkinson has sensationally dumped her lawyers at Network Ten and hired a fresh legal team to defend her reporting as she faces defamation action brought by former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann.

Sydney’s legal fraternity was abuzz with rumours on Monday that Wilkinson had severed ties with Ten’s lawyers at Thomson Geer; these were confirmed on Tuesday after documents were filed with the Federal Court stating the television journalist had engaged a new team of solicitors along with hot-shot barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC.

Chrysanthou’s recent victories have included substantial defamation payouts for former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro and mining investor Tolga Kumova, but also former columnist Clementine Ford in her case against The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who was awarded $120,000 in compensation against former senator David Leyonhjelm.

Federal Court documents indicate that Wilkinson will be represented by Gillis Delaney Lawyers and its partner Anthony Jefferies. Who’s paying for all of this? Network Ten might argue that Wilkinson fund her own case, although it’s likely this will be argued extensively once the matter is concluded.

The switch in tactics is understood to have blindsided Ten’s legal team, with lawyers at Thomson Geer lodging papers on Monday afternoon stating they would be representing Wilkinson. Less than 24 hours later, fresh papers stated the arrangement had been terminated.

Sue Chrysanthou, SC, is Lisa Wilkinson’s newly appointed legal adviser. Picture: Adam Yip

As to why Wilkinson would proceed down this path is open to interpretation. The facts suggest a significant fracturing of her relationship with the network and its lawyers, and at least some doubt that they will act in the best interests of Wilkinson in the event these interests diverge.

She quit her role on The Project in December but at the time was adamant she was not leaving the network, owned by US giant Paramount.

Lehrmann, who is represented by Mark O’Brien Legal, initiated defamation action last week against Network Ten and News Life Media, the publisher of News.com.au and owned by News Corp Australia. Wilkinson and journalist Samantha Maiden were also named as respondents.

The former coalition staffer was tried last year in the ACT Supreme Court on a charge of sexual intercourse without consent, having pleaded not guilty to the assault of former staffer Brittany Higgins in 2019.

Wilkinson and Maiden each reported extensively on the case in the lead-up to police charges being laid. The trial was aborted in October owing to juror misconduct and the matter was subsequently dropped by the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, over concerns for Higgins’ mental health.

The question now is which barrister will cross-examine Lehrmann when the trial commences. Will it be Victorian silk Matthew Collins KC, acting for Network Ten, or will it be Chrysanthou, regarded as one of the most formidable defamation advocates in the country?

Collins, rumoured to be a contender for the next chief justice of the Federal Court, might have the clout and experience, but Chrysanthou’s record speaks for itself.

A postal packet

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson applied great heat to Australia Post executives on Tuesday during a budget estimates hearing after unearthing a contract awarded to former Labor staffer Ryan Liddell, a partner at Principle Advisory.

Henderson also managed to extract the extraordinary size of the post office’s stakeholder relations team, which stands in the order of 60 staff under the direction of general manager Tanny Mangos.

Revealed during the sparring session was that Liddell, formerly a chief of staff to opposition leader Bill Shorten, had been signed by Australia Post to an 18-month contract never put to public tender. Why? The details were apparently too confidential, or so the hearing was told by one executive.

The Lobbyist Register confirms that Liddell has been under contract since November.

Whether that timing coincides with a dramatic escalation in corporate warfare between Australia Post and its upstart rival Team Global Express is open to question; TGE is helmed by Post’s former CEO Christine Holgate, who has been seeking the use of Post infrastructure. Rebuffed repeatedly, she has made herself quite a thorn in the side of the government-owned organisation in recent months.

As to the contract value for Liddell’s services, Mangos said she would provide her answer on notice, a tactic deployed for numerous other difficult queries.

What she did disclose, however, was that Principle Advisory had been engaged to fill capability gaps within her team – one already bloated with three-score individuals.

Defending the lack of transparency, chief executive Paul Graham said Liddell’s work didn’t necessitate a full tender process because of its narrow scope. Henderson, impeccably briefed on the matter, might have put it best when she said: “I put it to you, Mr Graham, this is contrary to public expectation.”

Straight to the pool room

Turns out Anthony Albanese has a pool room of sorts – it’s where he tucks away some of the lesser-loved gifts he receives as Prime Minister.

Margin Call has learned that the latest addition is a painting gifted to him by BHP chief executive Mike Henry in October. The occasion was a tour of the big miner’s Nickel West operations in Western Australia alongside visiting Japanese PM Fumio Kishida.

As Margin Call reported at the time, the event was flung onto Henry at the last minute while he was already in the UK for London Metals Exchange Week. Caught off guard by the scheduling clash, he flew back to Perth for the photo op with the allied PMs and thereby missed an in-person speech that he planned to give in London.

The gift, an artwork by a local Indigenous artist, appears not to have won the affection of Albanese. We hear it’s ended up in storage, along with numerous other curios the PM has received on his travels.

Schwartz recruiting

Melbourne property developer and publisher Morry Schwartz looks to be having another crack at launching a business publication. Let’s hope it doesn’t tank this time.

The millionaire owner of The Saturday Paper, the Quarterly Essay and The Monthly magazine appears to be recruiting for experienced editors and reporters to work on a new website and podcast. Even those working in financial markets are being lured with the option of a sea change.

It follows a previous attempt some years ago to pursue a similar venture. That ended with the closure of Australian Energy Daily, Australian Finance Daily, and Australian Health Daily in 2020, just 18 months after they opened.

Schwartz chief executive Rebecca Costello was tight-lipped when approached by Margin Call on Tuesday. Further hints may lie in Schwartz’s latest corporate vehicle, Forum News Pty Ltd, which lists himself as a director alongside Costello and Schwartz Media editor-in-chief Erik Jensen.

It’s not like the concept doesn’t work, however. A similar play led to spectacular successes for journalist Alan Kohler, who in 2007 set up Business Spectator with journalists Stephen Bartholomeusz, Robert Gottliebsen and Eric Beecher, in a venture backed by John Wylie and Mark Carnegie.

Five years later its parent, Australian Independent Business Media, was sold to News Corp Australia for $30m. Schwartz will need to sell an ad or two before he gets to that.