Linda Reynolds asks former colleagues to hold Labor to account as Katy Gallagher says she will never answer Brittany Higgins questions
Katy Gallagher says she will ‘not be answering any further questions’ on her fictitious claims of a Liberal cover-up of Brittany Higgins’s rape, as Linda Reynolds urges Coalition MPs to try and hold Labor to account.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has vowed she will “not be answering any further questions” on her fictitious claims of a Liberal cover-up of Brittany Higgins’s rape and the findings of two judges who ruled her and Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s allegations were baseless.
Senator Gallagher’s extraordinary declaration to never respond to questions on the cover-up matter came as ex-defence minister Linda Reynolds urged Coalition MPs to at least try to hold Labor to account in the last Senate estimate of the year, after her former colleagues shot down holding an inquiry into her and former aide Fiona Brown’s alleged mistreatment.
Ms Reynolds – Ms Higgins’s former boss – pleaded with former colleagues on Sunday to “ask the most obvious question of all” to Senator Gallagher and government officials this week at the Senate hearings.
“Why, after nearly five years and two court judgments, is the Labor government still spending millions of taxpayer dollars fighting Fiona and me?” she told The Australian.
“Why?”
Ms Reynolds said she found it “disappointing” that Sussan Ley’s shadow cabinet refused to back a push for an inquiry into the Higgins saga. The Australian revealed the shadow cabinet voted against it out of concerns some party figures had “too much to lose”.
“It is disappointing that despite two court judgments, my Liberal colleagues are leaving two Liberal women to fight for justice on their own,” Ms Reynolds said.
On Sunday, Senator Gallagher was asked again about her role in claiming the Morrison government had engaged in a cover-up of Ms Higgins’s rape, and the fact two judges had found there was no evidence of this.
“I’m not answering any further questions on this,” she said.
When asked whether she thought there should be accountability over the $2.4m compensation payment to Ms Higgins, Senator Gallagher said that question was not for the government.
“Those matters are made at arm’s length from government and they, to my understanding, have been referred to the (National Anti-Corruption Commission) and I’ll leave it for that authority to say anything,” she said.
Ms Reynolds labelled this “completely absurd”.
“I find it completely absurd that the Labor government continues to claim that it was at arm’s length from the settlement,” she said.
“The Labor Attorney-General signed off on the mediation and cut me out of my own defence.
“Therefore, it is impossible to believe that the Finance Minister, the Prime Minister and their offices had nothing to do with the settlement.”
Ms Reynolds accused Senator Gallagher – and others – of being “selective” about to whom justice was afforded.
“Justice must be available for all Australians, regardless of political affiliation or gender,” she said.
“It saddens me that the federal Minister for Women, the Prime Minister and now the Greens and teals are so selective in terms of which Australian women are deserving of justice.”
Greens leader Larissa Waters last week demanded that Ms Reynolds and Ms Brown should donate any compensation payouts from court battles with the commonwealth, and teal independent MP Zali Steggall said questions about Labor’s handling of the Higgins saga amounted to “continued harassment” of rape victims.
Ms Reynolds, in a separate statement on Sunday, said she thought it was “incredibly ironic” that at the same time Anthony Albanese was getting married at The Lodge on Saturday, she was “contemplating the need to sell our home to pay for my continuing fight for justice”.
“I found it incredibly ironic given Labor’s weaponisation of the lies about me contributed to making that wedding venue possible,” she said.
“Nothing can undo the personal and professional harm the political conflation and weaponisation of these lies has had on so many.”
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