Court releases Brittany Higgins’ bombshell memoir

Brittany Higgins’ draft memoir details ‘becoming quite a game-planning twosome’ with David Sharaz and a ‘Wolf of Wall Street-style’ party.

A memoir written by Brittany Higgins was released by the Federal Court during defamation proceedings on Friday. Picture: Colin Murty

Brittany Higgins and her fiance David Sharaz “war-gamed” a meeting with Scott Morrison and discussed getting “reinforcements” from Kevin Rudd’s daughter and former NSW premier Mike Baird, according to documents released by the Federal Court on Friday.

Chapters of Ms Higgins’ draft memoir also detail a night out with former ministers Steven Ciobo, Christian Porter and Michael ­Keenan, who she describes as “the big swinging dicks”.

She also refers to a Wolf of Wall Street-style party held in the office of Mr Ciobo, claiming he was “lining up his staff and pouring whiskey directly in our mouths”.

Former minister Steven Ciobo. Picture: AAP

Former attorney-general Christian Porter. Picture: Getty

The documents were released after Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network 10 and presenter Lisa Wilkinson was reopened, following fresh evidence from former Seven Network producer Taylor Auerbach.

Ms Higgins also details in the draft chapters how she reached out to Wilkinson and news.com.au journalist Samantha Maiden in order to make public her rape allegations against Mr Lehrmann.

Mr Lehrmann has maintained he never had sexual intercourse of any kind with Ms Higgins, and the charge against him was dropped after his criminal trial was aborted due to juror misconduct.

In a chapter titled Game Planning for the PM Meeting, Ms Higgins details how she “pounced” on Mr Sharaz “excitedly” after devising a plan to “war-game” a discussion with Mr Morrison.

“David walked through the apartment door. I pounced on him excitedly, ‘once I’ve got my head screwed on straight, I know how I’m going to handle the meeting with the Prime Minister’,” she wrote, adding: “He put his bag down, confused by the sudden burst of energy.”

According to the court documents, Ms Higgins wrote that she and Mr Sharaz had “become quite a twosome when it came to game planning”, considering her experience as a media adviser, and his as a producer.

“Together we understood how the gallery media sphere operated,” she wrote. She said she would accept an offer to meet with Mr Morrisson, but would forward “an embargoed copy of the letter to the ‘friendlies’ in the gallery so the ideas can’t be buried by the Prime Minister’s Office”.

“ ‘The letter will stipulate that the meeting will have to happen in Canberra,’ I said slowly,” she wrote in the draft chapter.

“David looked at me hesitantly. I know that he hated the prospect of me ever setting foot in Parliament House ever again. Grabbing his hand, ‘if the Prime Minister doesn’t have the dignity to privately extend this olive branch, I want him to be publicly accountable for this meeting with me.’ I could see his resolve soften.”

Ms Higgins then wrote that she planned to “pre-draft a statement about the meeting asserting the items which we will discuss so the Prime Minister’s Office isn’t able to spin it.”

According to the court documents, she then said she would “take reinforcements in the form of Mike Baird and potentially Jessica Rudd? I’m not sure, it needs to be bipartisan”.

“A silence loomed. David waited as I looked up at him expectantly to get his thoughts. ‘Well, what do you think of the plan?’ Exacerbated by the whole performance which had led to no applause from my audience. David finally chimed in, ‘Oh, I was just waiting for the part where you actually say what you want to discuss with the Prime Minister’,” she wrote.

“Ah, f..k. I had war-gamed the meeting. I would fly to Canberra. I would allow myself to be at the mercy of the press gallery again. Why did I have to come up with the agenda and the solutions to these deeply complex problems as well.”

In another chapter titled The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Ms Higgins wrote “absurd” Christmas gifts were handed to Mr Ciobo’s office, including “Christmas cards from the Rothschilds, dates from the Prince of Qatar”.

According to the court documents, she claimed the “Team Ciobo” Christmas party saw the former minister “lining up his staff and pouring whiskey directly in our mouths”.

“The whole event had an almost Wolf of Wall Street style of hedonism about it,” she wrote.

In the same chapter, she wrote there were “open secrets in Parliament House” including former Liberal MP Andrew Laming “playing with the buttons on my blazer and introducing me to his latest ‘intern’ at a function”.

A chapter titled The Sitting Week Cycle detailed the long hours she worked, “getting in the office at 6.45am and not leaving until 8pm”.

“Morning media briefings, question time prep meeting, Sky News being on in every Coalition office 24/7,” she wrote.

She said there was a “post question time ritual of breaking out a bottle of wine/champagne for the office” and wrote about serving drinks to “The Big Swinging Dicks” – former ministers Ciobo, Porter and Keenan.

The allegations contained in the book outline have never been tested in court and there is no independent verification of the claims made by Ms Higgins concerning the named MPs.

During Mr Lehrmann’s defamation proceedings, his barrister Steve Whybrow suggested Ms Higgins could write the book only on the basis that Mr Lehrmann raped her. “I declare it now, if I have actually finished the book, I will donate or 200 and whatever, to charity. I don’t care about the money,” she replied.