Linda Reynolds told counsellor: Peter Dutton undermined me

Linda Reynolds told a psychologist that Peter Dutton had ‘undermined’ her in the wake of Brittany Higgins going public with her rape allegation, as doctors feared the senator could die after she collapsed soon after the story broke.

Linda Reynolds, pictured in Perth earlier this year. Picture: Colin Murty

Linda Reynolds told a psychologist that Peter Dutton had “undermined” her in the wake of Brittany Higgins going public with her allegation that she had been raped by a co-worker in the senator’s Parliament House office.

And doctors feared the senator could die after she collapsed soon after the story of Ms Higgins’ alleged rape first broke.

Psychologist April Jones first came in contact with Senator Reynolds after she was referred to the senator through Parliament House’s Employee Assistance Program, and held several counselling sessions with her over more than two years.

Under cross-examination from Ms Higgins’ legal team in the Western Australian Supreme Court, where Senator Reynolds is suing Ms Higgins for defamation, Ms Jones was asked about notes from her sessions in which she had written that the senator had told her “Peter Dutton undermined me”.

Recap how the day in court unfolded here

“I know she made that comment, we wrote it down, but we didn’t dive down deeper into that,” Ms Jones said.

Mr Dutton replaced Senator Reynolds as defence minister in March 2021, just weeks after Ms Higgins went public with allegations she had been raped by a co-worker in Senator Reynolds’ Parliament House office.

Ms Higgins’ legal team also pointed out notes from Ms Jones in which she wrote that the senator was distracted by the criminal trial of Ms Higgins’ accused rapist, Bruce Lehrmann, and that her partner, Robert Reid, was “in Canberra keeping an eye on the case”.

Robert Reid. Picture: NewsWire / Sharon Smith

“She thinks this has been staged to bring down the Morrison government,” Ms Jones wrote.

Those notes were seized upon by Ms Higgins’ lawyer, Rachael Young SC, when she cross-examined Mr Reid later in the day over his decision to attend Mr Lehrmann’s rape trial.

Mr Reid denied he attended court so he could pass on information about the proceedings to Senator Reynolds ahead of her witness testimony.

The senator was in Rwanda when the trial began, and had to return early to give evidence.

Mr Reid said he had attended almost every day of the trial, but only messaged the senator about the case to tell her she would likely have to cut her trip short.

He said he did not attend so he could pass on information about the trial to Senator Reynolds. Instead, he said he was there because he “wanted to hear what actually went on”.

“I was there to flesh it out for my own purpose, nothing else,” he said. “It was helping me piece together the story. It was helping me to understand what had gone on and had affected my life and my family’s life so much. I was there to hear the evidence, I did not take a position on the outcome.”

Earlier, Mr Reid told the court doctors feared for Senator Reynolds’ life after she collapsed soon after Mr Higgins went public with her allegations.

Mr Reid said both he and the senator were eager for her to push on and try to deliver a major speech at the National Press Club the day after she had broken down in parliament. He described how he took her first to a public hospital and then to a private clinic late on the evening before she was due to address the Press Club, after finding her pale and dishevelled inside her Parliament House office.

It was at that clinic, Mr Reid said, that a cardiologist warned him her life could be in danger.

“He said we might lose her. He said this is very serious,” Mr Reid told the court through tears.

“All the time I’m thinking to myself, ‘we’ve got a speech in the morning and for her own future, she needs to give it’.”

Both he and Senator Reynolds insisted on going back that night to their Canberra home, which they shared with senators Anne Ruston and Jane Hume.

“I thought, stupidly, that she could give that speech the next day and she could handle the questions,” Mr Reid said.

“Senators Ruston and Hume were saying ‘no, she can’t, Robert, she can’t, phone the prime minister’s office, phone the prime minster, say there’s no way she can give this speech’.”

When he woke up the next morning, he found Senator Reynolds on the couch with senators Ruston and Hume, who told him the speech had been cancelled.

Brittany Higgins. Picture: Colin Murty

“It was at that point I realised it was the best decision, the only decision, even though it was going to be damaging to her career and potentially the future of the government,” Mr Reid said.

He also told how he was “concerned” about then ACT director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold before the start of Mr Lehrmann’s rape trial. It was ultimately abandoned after jury misconduct, while Mr Drumgold resigned from his role amid an inquiry into his handling of the case.

Under cross-examination by Ms Young, Mr Reid said he had formed that view about Mr Drumgold after he and Senator Reynolds had a meeting with him in the lead-up to the trial.

He said Mr Drumgold “had no ideas books were being written about this, he had no idea how big this was going to be”.

He said his concerns grew after Mr Drumgold said he had offered Ms Higgins the opportunity to enter and exit the court through the basement carpark. He said he had told Mr Drumgold, “she wants to walk in that courtroom every day, she wants the photos”.

Mr Reid also told the court of his anger at Senator Reynolds over her insistence, after Ms Higgins went public, that she would respect her wishes and not comment on the accusations.

“I said to Linda, ‘how will you handle this?’. Question time was about to start the next day, she said ‘I can only say that I can’t talk about it’,” Mr Reid said.

“I said that’s not going to be enough. She said she can’t talk about it because she promised not to talk about it, it was not her story to tell.”