Ex-staffer Fiona Brown forced to wait until 2027 for Higgins scandal court case
A top barrister has entered the government’s fight against former ministerial staffer Fiona Brown’s claim the commonwealth failed to protect her in the Brittany Higgins scandal.
Fiona Brown will have to wait for another 16 months before her claim against the commonwealth for failing to protect her in the wake of the Brittany Higgins scandal is heard in the Federal Court.
The Fair Work case brought by the former chief of staff to then Liberal minister Linda Reynolds has been set down for a four-week trial in the Federal Court beginning on March 30, 2027.
The commonwealth was represented at a brief case management hearing on Monday by top silk Kate Eastman SC, whose appearance led judge Nye Perram to remark: “Heavy representation for a consent order.”
The high-profile Ms Eastman was this year named leading NSW employment law senior counsel by Doyles Guide.
The commonwealth’s use of some of Sydney’s most expensive lawyers to fight the legal cases brought against it by Ms Brown and her former boss has been the subject of controversy.
Ms Reynolds is also suing the commonwealth, alleging it failed to act in her best interests when it settled Ms Higgins’ compensation claim after a one-day mediation from which the senator was excluded by then-attorney-general Mark Dreyfus.
The commonwealth has hired former solicitor-general Justin Gleeson SC, reportedly able to command $25,000 a day, to head a team that also includes top silk Ruth Higgins.
Ms Brown was represented pro bono on Monday by Dominique Hogan-Doran SC.
It is understood Ms Brown has not been able to work for more than four years due to the toll caused by false allegations she and her boss engaged in a political cover-up of Ms Higgins’ rape claims.
The details of Ms Brown’s claims were not made public at the hearing, but the former career public servant spoke about the case and her subsequent mental health struggles in an interview with The Australian in June 2023.
Ms Brown told The Australian in that interview that senior figures in the Morrison government failed to support her in the wake of the claims that she and then-Senator Reynolds had tried to paper over the assault for their own political convenience in the run-up to a federal election.
As the then-Labor opposition ruthlessly exploited the claims, she said, work responsibilities were taken from her with no explanation, and some ministers wouldn’t even say hello.
Ms Brown said that she didn’t keep her mental health decline private. She says she asked for help from Scott Morrison’s chief of staff, John Kunkel, and others.
She told The Australian that she wanted to take legal action against Ten for defamation but was told by senior people in the Prime Minister’s Office that a legal claim would just make the story bigger.
She accused Mr Morrison of effectively siding with Ms Higgins over her claims of mistreatment by Ms Brown and Ms Reynolds.
Mr Morrison apologised to Ms Higgins in parliament, saying “I am sorry to Ms Higgins for the terrible things that took place here”, an act Ms Brown characterised as throwing her under the bus “and running over (her) several times”.
“He had sentenced me without even talking to me,” Ms Brown said in the 2023 interview. “I was crushed. I was sentenced for being the perpetrator, ignoring a rape.
“They were all fearful, they were all scared. Everyone was out for themselves. Because no one wanted to be Fiona Brown.”
West Australian Supreme Court judge Paul Tottle found in a landmark defamation decision in August that there had been no cover-up of Ms Higgins rape, as part of his decision ordering Ms Higgins pay Ms Reynolds more than $340,000 in defamation damages and interest.
Justice Tottle’s finding echoed similar conclusions from Bruce Lehrmann’s unsuccessful Federal Court defamation action against Network 10 in April last year, in which judge Michael Lee ruled that, on the balance of probabilities, Mr Lehrmann did rape Ms Higgins but skewered any notion of a conspiracy.
The unresolved battle over Ms Brown’s compensation claim stands in contrast to the speed in which Ms Higgins was awarded more than $2.4m from the commonwealth in December 2022, just months after a criminal prosecution of Mr Lehrmann was abandoned due to juror misconduct.
Ms Reynolds has pleaded with Anthony Albanese to intervene in the commonwealth’s fight against Ms Brown’s claim. “It is clear to me and so many others that Fiona suffered a grave injustice that has yet to be righted,” Ms Reynolds said.
“For two years the Albanese government has waged guerrilla lawfare against Fiona Brown.
“My message to the Prime Minister is even if you will not apologise for the damage you and Labor have done – please do the right thing now and compensate Fiona for the terrible damage you inflicted on her so her healing can finally start. Please.”
