Brittany Higgins, David Sharaz texts reveal politics, plots over Bruce Lehrmann rape allegations
Text messages between Brittany Higgins and boyfriend David Sharaz reveal the pair’s bid to enlist senior Labor figures to pursue her rape allegation and disparage former Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
A tranche of previously unseen text messages between Brittany Higgins and her boyfriend David Sharaz has revealed the pair planned to directly enlist the help of senior Labor figures to pursue Ms Higgins’ rape allegation and her claim the Coalition government covered it up.
The texts reveal Mr Sharaz arranging “drops” for favoured reporters, organising meetings with Labor MPs to bolster support for Ms Higgins’ claims of a cover-up by the Coalition government and disparaging former prime minister Scott Morrison, saying “I still hate the c...”.
Ms Higgins says: “He’s about to be f..ked over. Just wait. We’ve got him”.
Anthony Albanese this week emphatically denied claims of Labor involvement made in a five-hour pre-interview brainstorming session in which Ms Higgins, Mr Sharaz, Network Ten presenter Lisa Wilkinson and her producer Angus Llewellyn discussed whether “friendly MPs” could be used to publicise her case.
Asked by The Australian whether he had been solicited by Ms Wilkinson or anyone else associated with Ms Higgins to publicise the case in question time or elsewhere, the Prime Minister responded simply: “No.”
However, the text messages seen by The Australian reveal Mr Sharaz was in contact with Mr Albanese, and that both the former journalist and Ms Higgins had dozens of interactions with various other Labor MPs, some before Ms Higgins went public with her rape allegations.
The texts come from material produced during the investigation of Bruce Lehrmann and were widely distributed within the Australian Federal Police, the ACT office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the defence and possibly other parties.
The Australian has redacted large parts of the material for privacy reasons, removing details unrelated to the political and public interest issues raised.
Sharaz boasted of special relationship with MP
The texts reveal Mr Sharaz, a former journalist, boasting of his special relationship with now-Finance Minister Katy Gallagher.
On February 11, 2021, four days before Ms Higgins appeared on The Project to detail her claims, Mr Sharaz messaged her: “Katy is going to come to me with some questions you need to prepare for … She’s really invested now ha ha.”
Later Mr Sharaz wrote: “She’s an old friend. We opened a chair together! So you can trust her.”
Ms Higgins replied, “going forward pass my details onto Katy. I’m happy to talk to her.”
Mr Sharaz replied “No, no. That’s really okay … I don’t mind talking to Katy.
“But we can both speak to her if that’s easier.”
Seconds later, Ms Higgins then insisted to Mr Sharaz, “please just send people my way going forward.”
Later that day Mr Sharaz told Ms Higgins: “Katy Gallagher messaged me. She’s angry and wants to help. She’s got the context. Says they knew something was wrong because they fired Bruce and not you. They avoided a scandal.”
Ms Higgins: “Can I see her message?”
Mr Sharaz: “Yep! I gave her [The Project] interview for context. I hope that’s okay? She’s not doing anything with it. But I’m also happy to step out and let her talk to you if you want. Basically, I wanted her to get all the context because it’s so complicated.”
Ms Higgins: “That’s fine. It’ll all be public pretty soon anyway haha.”
Senator Gallagher was previously asked in Parliament about the state of her knowledge before the story broke.
In June 2021, Senator Gallagher expressed outrage when former Defence Minister Linda Reynolds claimed she had been tipped off that Labor had been aware of the allegations before they became public and planned to use them.
“No-one had any knowledge. How dare you,’’ Senator Gallagher said. “It’s all about protecting yourself.”
Senator Reynolds told The Australian earlier this year the rape case was “weaponised” by Labor, denying Ms Higgins’s claims that she and her staff failed to support her in the aftermath or properly investigate the alleged assault by Bruce Lehrmann.
The text messages seen by The Australian reveal that Ms Higgins was concerned about litigation before The Project aired.
On February 11, she texted Mr Sharaz, “I’m just stressy that this will all become a litigious matter now.”
Mr Sharaz responded minutes later: “Suing you looks like doubling down on a victim close to an election. Politically it would be very stupid. Everything dragged out in court, all public. Do they want the 5 hours of stuff public? Nope.”
The five hours was a reference to the more than five hours of audio recording when Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz met Wilkinson and Llewellyn, as revealed in detail on Seven’s Spotlight program on Sunday night and reported by The Australian this week.
That audio captured the parties war-gaming who would be “friendly” MPs, journalists and other figures to keep Ms Higgins’ rape allegation going.
Direct contact with Anthony Albanese
On Tuesday Mr Albanese denied being asked by Ms Wilkinson or anyone else associated with Ms Higgins to publicise the case in question time or anywhere else.
Mr Albanese, then the opposition leader, and Tanya Plibersek, then opposition spokeswoman for women, made reference to the allegations dozens of times during question time in February and March 2021.
The text messages reveal Mr Sharaz appeared to be in direct contact with both Mr Albanese and Ms Plibersek.
On April 16, 2021 Mr Sharaz texted Ms Higgins: “So Albo gave me his number – he just came in to do the breakfast show – and says if you meet with Scomo to let him know and he’ll fly to Canberra to be there if you want to meet with him too.”
Ms Higgins responded: “For sure. I have no qualms meeting with Albo.”
On April 22, Mr Sharaz texted Ms Higgins, “Friday 9am with Albo locked in at CPO. Details to come. A minute later Mr Sharaz texts: “Tanya too.”
Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz agreed to meet Mr Morrison.
On March 26, 2021, Ms Higgins said of Mr Morrison: “He’s about to be f..ked over. Just wait. We’ve got him.”
Mr Sharaz: “Will you explain when I see you?”
Ms Higgins: “Yes.”
It is believed Ms Higgins was referring to their belief that Mr Morrison’s office had been “backgrounding” against them.
‘I still hate the c...’
Mr Sharaz made frequent disparaging remarks about the then prime minister at one point telling Higgins: “I still hate the c...”.
Over the course of six days in February following Ms Higgins’ revelations, Senator Gallagher asked 11 questions without notice in the Senate on the issue, including whether Senator Reynolds had “implicitly encouraged her former staff member not to pursue the incident with police?”
In text messages seen by The Australian, Mr Sharaz told Ms Higgins on February 21, 2021, a week after The Project interview aired, that Senator Gallagher would be making a speech the following day and asking if she could call to “clarify facts”.
The following day Senator Gallagher spoke in the Senate about “this terrible incident (which) happened in Senator Reynolds’s office” and gave a factually incorrect account of events, including that Ms Higgins “had already independently spoken to police days” before Senator Reynolds and her chief of staff Fiona Brown moved to ensure Ms Higgins was given access to the police.
“According to Ms Higgins, the access to police in the 1 April meeting was couched in terms of: ‘If you go to the police, you must let us know when you do.’ There was no offer of going with her, of supporting her, of sitting with her.” Senator Gallagher said.
In fact, Ms Brown suggested going to the police as soon as she became aware there might have been an assault, organised the meeting with the AFP, located the offices in the Parliament House basement and accompanied Ms Higgins to those offices. Ms Brown offered to sit with her in the meeting or outside the room, and to come back and collect her. Ms Higgins declined those offers.
‘Feed everything to Katy’
When Ms Higgins suspected someone from the Prime Minister’s office had been “backgrounding” against them, she texted Mr Sharaz asking if they could “at least get Katy to ask about it in estimates”.
“You may as well feed everything you have to Katy,” she said. “The sooner we can nip it in the bud the better. Especially if we can call them out by name.”
Mr Sharaz responded: “I’ve texted katy and SHY (Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young).”
Senator Gallagher was responsible for the department that paid out a confidential settlement believed to be up to $3m to Ms Higgins in December over her claim she was not properly supported by Senator Reynolds and others after the alleged sexual assault.
The Albanese government barred Senator Reynolds from providing evidence in the case, threatening to tear up an agreement to pay her legal fees unless she agreed not to attend the one-day mediation, meaning that Ms Higgins’ claims of mistreatment in Senator Reynolds' office were not contested.
At the time, Mr Albanese declined to answer questions about whether it was a conflict of interest for Senator Gallagher to have oversight of the deal, given her earlier engagement on the issue and whether she should recuse herself from any involvement in it.
A spokesperson for Senator Gallagher has previously told The Australian: “The Minister for Finance has no decision-making role in processes around significant legal matters.”
The spokesperson said 11 questions posed by The Australian “should be redirected to the Attorney-General or his department as they relate to a significant matter under a legal services direction or legal processes”.
A spokesperson for Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus declined to answer any of the questions, saying only: “The parties have agreed that the terms of the settlement be confidential. All claims against the commonwealth are handled in accordance with the Legal Services Directions 2017.”
The payout may be the subject of a probe by the new national anti-corruption commission when it begins operations on July 1, according to some reports, with Senator Reynolds understood to be ready to lodge a referral.
‘She’s pretty savage politically’
The texts seen by The Australian show that on May 5, 2021 Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz again discussed the backgrounding issue after Mr Morrison’s chief of staff John Kunkel had made contact with Ms Higgins. The couple were apparently unhappy at the approach. The following day Mr Sharaz asked Ms Higgins: “Should we get Katy Gallagher’s advice re kunkel? She’s pretty savage politically haha”
Mr Sharaz discussed giving someone in the media a “drop” on the material, but Ms Higgins said: “He’ll just deny he confirmed anything. These meetings are more in their interest than ours. I’ll just brief it out to Tanya and get her advice.”
Mr Sharaz responded: “Plibersek? That’s a good idea.”
Three days after The Project interview aired, Ms Plibersek had praised Ms Higgins in parliament, “Speaking about a crime that happened to you shouldn’t require bravery, but, sadly, for survivors of sexual assault, it still does.”
Ms Plibersek featured in several later conversations, with references to her being consulted early in 2022 about allegations of misconduct being made by ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold.
On April 20, 2022 Ms Higgins sends ABC chief political correspondent Laura Tingle a WhatsApp message saying she was going to lodge a formal complaint with the AFP that day over its release of her counselling notes to Mr Lehrmann’s legal team.
Ms Higgins wrote: “These are the notes compiled by the DPP Shane Drumgold in relation to the police misconduct. Tanya P is across the detail as I looped her in earlier this year if you’d like to speak about it off the record with someone.”
The DPP had given Ms Higgins the documents “to help with the complaint” against police, she said.
‘Yet another Brittany fan...’
The text messages reveal a central role played by Mr Sharaz as a “conduit” to Ms Higgins. Mr Sharaz’s role was also revealed by series of earlier emails between him and Ms Wilkinson headed: “MeToo Liberal Party Project Pitch”
After The Project, Mr Sharaz corresponded, on behalf of Ms Higgins, with Wilkinson, Peter FitzSimons (who was arranging a book deal for Ms Higgins), journalists including Samantha Maiden, David Crowe, David Speers, and others.
Mr Sharaz texted Ms Higgins about “Yet another Brittany fan…”
It is a text former deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop sent to Wilkinson: “Hi Lisa, I watched your interview with Brittany Higgins last night and sadly, I was not surprised but I was deeply upset … I would love to reach out to her to tell how much I admire her courage.”
Ms Bishop said: “I’m here for her” and passes on her mobile number.
Ms Bishop was one of the people raised during the five-hour recorded conversation that took place on January 27, 2021 as a possible “friendly” to keep the story going, though Wilkinson can be heard expressing her disappointment.
Mr Sharaz appeared to act as go-between between Ms Higgins and ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates too.
On April 27, he sent Ms Higgins a screen shot and a note saying: “Heidi made this offer for you. I mentioned on the phone that you’ve gotta come to Canberra for the police, which is how she knows/cares.”
Mr Sharaz also texted Ms Higgins about “Malcolm” – presumably former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull who was raised as a possible friendly supporter during the five-hour audio.
Ms Higgins replied: That’s very kind. Getting the tick of approval from Malcolm is lovely.”
THE AUSTRALIAN
Texts show probe is needed into Higgins’ compensation award
The emergence of highly charged text messages between Brittany Higgins and her boyfriend David Sharaz raises important questions about the behaviour of senior political figures. The plotting and conversations revealed in the messages are of vital public interest. They go to the heart of how politics is played and how events that are the proper preserve of the criminal justice system can be exploited for personal and political gain.
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