Linda Reynolds seeks to overturn Brittany Higgins trust

Linda Reynolds is preparing new legal action to set aside a trust established by Brittany Higgins, a move designed to ensure that in the event she wins her upcoming defamation case, she is able to access any assets still held by her former staffer.

Brittany Higgins, pictured last year. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Linda Reynolds is preparing new legal action to set aside a trust established by Brittany Higgins that the former Liberal minister asserts may have been set up by Ms Higgins to protect the money she received in a $2.4m commonwealth compensation payout.

Senator Reynolds’ move is designed to ensure that in the event she wins her upcoming defamation case against Ms Higgins, she is able to access any assets still held by her former staffer.

In a draft of an application to be filed in the Western Australian Supreme Court on Monday Senator Reynolds demands a copy of the Brittany Higgins Protective Trust deed, set up in February last year, to ascertain who is the trustee – and who to sue in the event Ms Higgins claims not to be able to meet any costs or damages awarded.

If the court grants the order, Senator Reynolds would then be able to bring an action under section 89 of the WA Property Act – or other similar provision in the relevant jurisdiction where the trust was established – to have the trust set aside.

The trust should be set aside, Senator Reynolds asserts, because it was made to potentially deny future creditors when Ms Higgins made representations to the commonwealth.

Linda Reynolds, centre. Picture: Colin Murty

Senator Reynolds sets out in the draft version of the affidavit her belief that the trust was set up “with knowledge of potential impending indebtedness”.

That included knowledge of her potential indebtedness to the commonwealth in circumstances when Senator Reynolds asserts she knew certain particulars of the claim were false; and when she knew she might be obliged to repay money to her publisher, Penguin Random House Australia, given the ­outcome of the criminal trial against Bruce Lehrmann and Senator Reynolds’ warning to Penguin that the memoir contained defamatory allegations against her.

Ms Higgins was also aware that Senator Reynolds had brought defamation proceedings against her fiance, David Sharaz.

The pre-action discovery would require Ms Higgins to ­produce all documents in her ­possession comprising the Trust or any other trust created to hold any part of the $2.4m awarded by the commonwealth.

Senator Reynolds cites an article in the Daily Mail, published in August 2023, which stated that “following the settlement, Ms Higgins took Mr Sharaz on a holiday to the Maldives, rented a house on the Gold Coast, and then set up a discretionary investment trust in February – which protects her assets from any future lawsuits”.

In a separate letter filed with the draft version of the application, Senator Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, tells Ms Higgins’ lawyer: “This information would only have come from Ms ­Higgins.”

“For these reasons I verily believe (Ms Higgins) has established a trust for the purpose of protecting some of her assets from litigation”, Senator Reynolds says in her affidavit.

“I have concerns (Ms Higgins) will not be able to satisfy a potential judgment debt in the defamation proceedings in the event I am successful due to some part of her assets being transferred to the trust.”

Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz moved to France. Picture: Instagram

Senator Reynolds also notes that she sought legal advice on getting freezing orders against Ms Higgins after learning she had bought a property in France, but held off an application for the orders in order not to interfere with an upcoming mediation.

Senator Reynolds’ solicitors wrote to Ms Higgins’ lawyer, Leon Zwier, in March and April, requesting a copy of the trust deed, but a copy was not provided.

Senator Reynolds has asked the National Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the circumstances behind the compensation payment to Ms Higgins, after she was excluded from participating in a mediation conference that preceded the settlement payout.