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Stephen Rice

Who said conspiracy? Lisa Wilkinson’s lawyer abandons cover-up claim

Stephen Rice
Lisa Wilkinson with her barrister Sue Chrysanthou on Tuesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short
Lisa Wilkinson with her barrister Sue Chrysanthou on Tuesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

Lisa Wilkinson’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC had just finished her cross-examination of Fiona Brown when Justice Michael Lee moved in with a trademark killer question.

“Can I proceed on the basis that no submission will be made Ms Brown was a knowing participant in a systemic
cover-up of a rape?” he asked.

There was a pause as Ms Chrysanthou took stock of this question.

It was only last week that her client had sat in the same witness box and told the Federal Court she believed Brown, former chief of staff to then-minister Linda Reynolds was “getting instructions from the prime minister’s office” and it followed she and Reynolds were “knowing participants in a systemic cover-up”.

“You’d agree that it would be wicked conduct … being involved in the systemic cover-up of a rape allegation?” Lee had asked.

“Yeah, it was about keeping the details away from the media,” Wilkinson replied.

Those words may have flashed through Chrysanthou’s mind as she considered her response.

“Not for the purposes of these proceedings, your Honour,” she agreed after a long moment – there would be no submission that Brown was engaged in a systematic cover-up of the rape.

That stunning concession may not win Bruce Lehrmann his defamation case against Wilkinson and the Ten Network, but it puts a torpedo through the bows of a central claim in their case – that Brittany Higgins was a victim of powerful forces inside the Morrison government who pressured her to stay silent or risk her career.

Ex Liberal staffer Fiona Brown arrives at the Federal Court on Tuesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short
Ex Liberal staffer Fiona Brown arrives at the Federal Court on Tuesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

If Brown wasn’t part of the giant conspiracy, who was?

On the evidence Chrysanthou extracted from Brown on Tuesday, Reynolds had been determined to get the police involved even before Higgins had verbalised her rape claim, let alone decided to make a complaint.

Brown told the court she feared losing her job after defying orders from both Reynolds and another minister, Alex Hawke – a close confidante of Scott Morrison – to make a police report without Higgins’ consent, before the young staffer had said she was raped.

Higgins had said she did not want to make a police report, and wanted to speak to her father before making a decision, Brown said.

Brown said she was doing what she’d been told to do by Department of Finance executive Lauren Barons: “Ms Higgins needed to have her agency and it was her right to make a police report.”

Brittany Higgins and her fiance David Sharaz depart Brisbane international Airport bound for France. Picture: Backgrid/news.com.au
Brittany Higgins and her fiance David Sharaz depart Brisbane international Airport bound for France. Picture: Backgrid/news.com.au

The most startling evidence that Chrysanthou extracted from Brown on Tuesday was that she believed Reynolds and Hawke were trying to protect themselves when they demanded she go to the police.

Brown: “There was no consideration of Ms Higgins – consideration for themselves but not Ms Higgins.”

Chrysanthou: “You felt they were covering themselves – that’s all they were worrying about?”

Brown: “Yes.”

It’s not a pretty allegation to make about Reynolds and Hawke – that they simply wanted to be able to say they did something – but it shoots down the proposition that the government was intent on silencing the young woman and covering up the rape.

Wilkinson had been convinced the story involved “an extraordinary cover-up”, as she texted a colleague, after reading a timeline of the case prepared by Higgins fiance David Sharaz.

The Project had claimed its story was about “a young woman forced to choose between her career and the pursuit of justice” – and put Brown squarely at the centre of that allegation.

From allegedly ignoring Higgins’ first disclosure of a rape to claims she’d offered Higgins a “payout” to get her out of the way in the lead-up to the election, the implication was clear: Brown was part of the rot.

Bruce Lehrmann arrives at the Federal Court on Tuesday with his barrister Steven Whybrow. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short
Bruce Lehrmann arrives at the Federal Court on Tuesday with his barrister Steven Whybrow. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

Wilkinson doubled down on those claims in the witness box, saying Reynolds and Brown had been “very, very careful in the lead-up to a tightly contested election”. She said she believed they were taking advice and later, that they were “loyal servants”, to the Prime Minister’s office.

“That’s the way politics works,” Ms Wilkinson said.

The Project’s brutal portrayal of Brown ended her career and left her so traumatised that Justice Lee delayed the livestream of the defamation proceedings to allow her time to seek medical help should she need it.

In her final moments giving evidence on Tuesday, Brown, who had been confident but restrained in the witness box, gave an impassioned reply to the allegations of cover-up.

“There was none,” she told Steven Whybrow SC, for Lehrmann, “absolutely none”.

Fiona Brown: 'The worst thing you can say to a woman is she walked past another woman's rape

“The story wasn’t about the politicians. These were two 23-year-olds and there was no cover-up.

“The police were consulted, the Department of Finance was consulted, the Department of Parliamentary Services knew. There was no cover-up.”

Whybrow has always said Brown was the most important witness in the case because in those first days after the alleged assault she was the only one who took contemporaneous notes.

But this very decent, caring public servant may have rendered an even greater public service by finally laying to rest the nonsense of a vast political conspiracy – a sentiment that infected parliament, the courts and the media and which has made the task of untangling what happened that night immeasurably more difficult and painful than it should ever have been.

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/who-said-conspiracy-lisa-wilkinsons-lawyer-abandons-coverup-claim/news-story/b094d885027637f9f4703dcbb8a89109