David Sharaz: How Brittany Higgins’ fiance played a central role in rape allegation saga
From support act to central player, the links of David Sharaz to Canberra and key figures in the Labor Party appear deeply personal.
After a week of explosive revelations, the fiance of Brittany Higgins, David Sharaz has gone from support act to central figure in the saga involving her alleged rape at Parliament House.
Who is David Sharaz and where did he work?
David Sharaz is a former journalist and Canberra media adviser who has recently worked in radio for Southern Cross Austereo in Brisbane.
After Ms Higgins alleged she was raped by a colleague in then-Defence Minister Linda Reynolds’ office in 2019, text messages have revealed Mr Sharaz’s close involvement in negotiating the public airing of Ms Higgins’ story.
Mr Sharaz resigned from his job with Southern Cross Austereo in February, just two weeks after receiving a defamation notice from Senator Reynolds, Ms Higgins’ former boss, over comments he has made about the saga on social media.
Why did he meet with Lisa Wilkinson?
Mr Sharaz was present during a five-hour meeting between Ms Higgins, The Project host Lisa Wilkinson and her producer Angus Llewellyn in 2021 in which the group discussed putting Ms Higgins’s allegations to air and finding “friendly” Labor politicians to push the story and put the Morrison government under pressure.
A large tranche of previously unseen text messages, published exclusively in The Australian, show Mr Sharaz boasting of his close relationship with Labor Senator Katy Gallagher, now Finance Minister, as well as his moves to set up meetings between Ms Higgins and Anthony Albanese, Tanya Plibersek and Malcolm Turnbull as well as other “Brittany Higgins fans” in Canberra.
Mr Sharaz married a Treasury adviser in 2018 and reportedly named tables at his wedding after prominent Labor figures. The couple separated in 2020 before Mr Sharaz became involved with Ms Higgins. He proposed to her in December 2022 and the pair jetted off to the Maldives on holiday.
Bruce Lehrmann, who was tried for allegedly raping Ms Higgins but later had the charges dropped, has told The Australian Mr Sharaz is a “class A typical political staffer”.
Why is he under fire?
His links to Labor politicians including Senator Gallagher have put the spotlight on the government over exactly when it became aware of Ms Higgins’ allegations, and appear to back up claims of an orchestrated political campaign.
Mr Lehrmann has accused Mr Sharaz of weaponising sexual assault to advance the Labor Party and bring down the Liberal government.
Senator Gallagher denied any prior knowledge of the rape claims, but texts from Mr Sharaz appear to show he had contacted her about The Project interview days before it went to air.
She is now accused of misleading parliament.
In a sensational interview with The Australian, Senator Reynolds revealed how she learned of Ms Higgins’ allegations, spoke of discrepancies in her young staffer’s claims and insisted Senate colleagues on the Labor side were behind a political “hit job” to ruin her career and the Morrison government’s election chances. She also revealed the late Labor senator Kimberley Kitching had confided in her that Penny Wong – now Foreign Minister – knew of the rape allegations and planned to “weaponise” them.
“She was actually quite distressed that Penny’s going to weaponise the incident,” Senator Reynolds said.
What about the compensation payout?
After going public with her rape allegations, Ms Higgins received a confidential compensation payout from Senator Gallagher’s Finance Department, believed to be worth up to $3 million. The money was awarded to Ms Higgins in December over her claim she was not properly supported by Senator Reynolds and others after the alleged sexual assault by Bruce Lehrmann.
Questions have now been raised about how that decision was made and whether it should be referred for investigation. A spokesperson for Senator Gallagher told The Australian: “The Minister for Finance has no decision-making role in processes around significant legal matters.”
At the time, the Prime Minister 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.
Kill threats
In April, a NSW man was charged after allegedly threatening to kill Mr Sharaz, Brittany Higgins and their pet cavoodle over social media.
David William Wonnocot, 49, allegedly told Mr Sharaz he would “kill you both when you least expect it” and that he was planning to “chop Kingston [pet dog] up into little pieces”, according to messages seen by The Australian. Mr Wonnocot also allegedly told Mr Sharaz that he would follow him and Ms Higgins home and “destroy you all”.
“During the investigation, detectives uncovered a total of 49 messages with similar threats or offensive content sent from a number of accounts, which were believed to be linked,” a police spokesperson said. “Further inquiries revealed one of the accounts was also linked to messages sent on social media to a man in the ACT, allegedly threatening to kill the man, his partner, and their pet dog.”
