ACT must release Higgins report

The dispiriting mess of the Brittany Higgins-Bruce Lehrmann saga has devastated lives young and old, cost taxpayers several million dollars and raised questions about the administration of justice in the ACT. In light of evidence heard at the Sofronoff inquiry about errors in the prosecution of the case, Chief Minister Andrew Barr has no excuse to keep the report by inquiry chairman Walter Sofronoff KC secret for at least another month. ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold SC has been on leave since mid-May and has extended his time off until the end of this month. On the strength of evidence heard at the inquiry, it was always going to be difficult, if not untenable, for Mr Drumgold to return to his day job pending Mr Sofronoff’s report.

Now it has been received, Mr Barr has no reason to drag out the process if the issues are as clear-cut as the public hearings indicated they could be. Does his government need to consider whether the course of justice has been perverted? On Tuesday, Stephen Rice and Janet Albrechtsen reported that the most serious allegations of misconduct against Mr Drumgold involved episodes where he misled ACT Chief Justice Lucy McCallum during the course of the proceedings against Mr Lehrmann. Mr Drumgold has already admitted two breaches but said they were unintentional.

Another issue raised at the inquiry was Mr Drumgold’s trying to prevent the Moller report, prepared by Australian Federal Police as part of the investigation into the rape allegation, from being disclosed to Mr Lehrmann’s legal team. In doing so, lawyers argue, Mr Drumgold went against a basic duty of a prosecutor to disclose any relevant evidence, particularly matters adverse to their case, to the defence.

Ms Higgins accused Mr Lehrmann of raping her in the Parliament House office of then Coalition defence industry minister Linda Reynolds in the early hours of March 23, 2019, after Friday night staff drinks at a Canberra bar. Mr Lehrmann has always denied the claim. He also has said if the Sofronoff report finds Mr Drumgold acted with malice or against his duties as DPP and an officer of the court he will consider a multimillion dollar claim for damages from the ACT. Earlier this year the Albanese government paid Ms Higgins compensation believed to exceed $2m after claiming her allegation was mishandled.

With the ACT justice system in disarray and the relationship between federal police and the DPP at a low ebb, Mr Barr must restore confidence in the system. He wants cabinet to have three or four weeks to consider the report before he tables it, when he “may” provide an interim response, pending a final response that “may take several months”. That snail-like timetable is no excuse to keep the public in the dark.