Katy Gallagher to be grilled over Brittany Higgins as Albanese digs in

Anthony Albanese and Katy Gallagher. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Suddenly not everything is going according to plan for Anthony Albanese.

The Prime Minister faces an uncomfortable fortnight ahead, with the final two weeks of parliament before a long winter break to be dominated by the Higgins text scandal and economic bad news.

By this point in the cycle, all earlier predictions had us believe that interest rates would have peaked, inflation would be on the run and happier times might be ahead.

That is no longer the case.

To add to Albanese’s troubles, the Greens appear intent on sticking to their plan to block Labor’s election pledge for housing. And there is the industrial relations brawl that will test the government’s mettle. Yet no one could have foretold that parliament would be re-prosecuting the politics of the Higgins story, this time with Labor now under the blowtorch for its behaviour in opposition.

This is the unexpected event that has the potential to strip some bark from the Labor government – and Albanese personally – if the opposition can keep it distracted from core issues. And it doesn’t appear to be showing any signs of going away just yet.

If anyone on the government side thinks Finance Minister Katy Gallagher’s explanation at the weekend over what she knew and when will suffice, then they may want to think again.

The opposition’s strategy this week will be to cause maximum damage, even if it cops some blowback. Which it will.

Presumably, the focus will be confined initially to the Senate in what will be a relentless pursuit of Gallagher. Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, who now also appears to have suggested prior-knowledge, will be target No. 2.

Where it goes from there is unclear. The government clearly believes that the issue will run out of fuel. But the opposition is hoping to establish a conspiracy of silence among the Labor leadership group over who had prior knowledge and whether there was a collective decision to weaponise that knowledge in Labor’s pursuit of Scott Morrison.

On the surface, Gallagher’s ­response at the weekend doesn’t wash. Having obfuscated for several days, refusing to directly answer questions, the senator from the ACT finally conceded she had prior knowledge.

Her defence is that in denying two years ago she knew about it before it became public, she was answering a broader question about whether she used that prior-knowledge and that she had known about for weeks. Gallagher now insists she had only days’ ­advance notice and didn’t do anything with it.

But Gallagher risks looks tricky. Whether she misled parliament hinges on a technicality. Whether it passes the pub test is another matter.

What level of political fallout there is for the government depends on whether the opposition can establish that senior members of the cabinet have a case to answer as to whether they conspired to use prior knowledge of the Higgins story as a political weapon against Morrison and other members of his Coalition government.

What level of corroboration, and whether it extended to the then opposition leadership group, might be hard to establish. If, indeed, this was the case. Albanese strongly denies such suggestions.

June 2021 Senate Committe Proceedings from Australian Parliament where Senator Katy Gallagher constantly and aggressively puts question to Linda Reynolds climaxing in a moment where Gallagher exclaims "How Dare You" after Reynolds states that she knew details of the alleged Brittany Higgins assault 2 weeks prior to it becoming public knowledge.

Albanese and Gallagher’s cabinet colleagues have all rallied behind her. The plan is to dig in.

The trap for Labor is that in ­defending by attacking – in this case re-raising questions about Morrison and his government’s handling of the issue – it is pulled into a vortex that will mire the government in an appearance of broader parliamentary disgrace.

With claims by former staffer Fiona Brown that Morrison also may have misled parliament over the issue as prime minister, there is a profound risk of a “pox on both houses”.

But Albanese must remember that he is now Prime Minister and Labor is no longer in opposition. And on potential scandals like this that extend to both sides of politics, it is the government of the day that tends to suffer more political damage by virtue of a community expectation that it can maintain control of the place.

For this reason, Peter Dutton won’t want to let it go – although he is unlikely to take a lead role in parliament on this just yet. He will want to see where it all heads, if anywhere.

The Liberal leader will be keeping his radar tuned to interest rates, energy bills and general cost-of-living misery, considering the bad economic news last week.

Dutton now has his first substantial political opportunity in front of him. And he will be feeling the pressure just as much as Albanese to get the tone right.

The Liberal Party backbenchers are getting edgy. Having sat patiently on the opposition benches for the past 12 months, waiting for a grand strategy to emerge, they now also sense for the first time that the government could be exposed.

They will be looking to Dutton to make sure he makes the most of it.