Brittany Higgins: Secret rape inquiry finds security guard alarm at handling

A parliamentary inquiry secretly looked into rape allegations in the Defence Minister’s office after guards raised concerns about the matter’s handling.

Former Liberal adviser Brittany Higgins.

A parliamentary inquiry has secretly been looking into rape allegations in the office of Defence Minister Linda Reynolds after security guards raised concerns about the handling of the matter.

Senators were told in confidential submissions that reports about the March 23, 2019, incident filed by the parliament guards were changed to remove details and soften graphic language describing how Senator Reynolds’s former adviser Brittany Higgins was found.

Several Coalition and Labor senators have known for months about the allegations — made public by Ms Higgins on Monday — and the possibility that the Department of Parliamentary Services destroyed significant evidence by immediately steam-cleaning the office, a claim first reported by news.com.au. The inquiry into the DPS, which has received 17 confidential submissions from current and former staff members, was also told that senior departmental officers were quick to take control in the hours after the alleged rape.

Ms Higgins on Monday disclosed she had allegedly been raped by a more senior member of Senator Reynolds’s staff in her office in the early hours of a Saturday morning in 2019 and felt she was forced to choose between reporting it to the police or keeping her job.

Brittany Higgins with Steven Ciobo.

Senator Reynolds on Tuesday issued Ms Higgins an unqualified apology for her handling of the matter, but questions remain around whether the minister told others about the incident.

Scott Morrison is standing by Senator Reynolds, saying he was made aware of the sexual assault allegations only on Monday morning after it became public.

The Prime Minister said he was unhappy that he had not been told by Senator Reynolds for nearly two years, but said she was only trying to protect Ms Higgins’s privacy. His staff, he said, were informed about those specific allegations only on Friday.

Mr Morrison has asked West Australian Liberal MP Celia Hammond, the former vice-chancellor of Notre Dame University in Perth, to look into the culture within the Coalition, while Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet deputy secretary Stephanie Foster will review the process of making workplace complaints.

There remain further questions about what Mr Morrison’s staff knew about the allegations, with several senior advisers told about the security breach in Senator Reynolds’s office within weeks of its occurrence.

Labor Senate leader Penny Wong said it was implausible that neither Mr Morrison nor his advisers knew about the alleged incident in Senator Reynolds’s office.

“That statement becomes even less credible when you remember that the person who was the Minister for Defence’s chief of staff at the time of the incident, at the time of the alleged rape, was someone who had previously worked for the Prime Minister and subsequently returned to work with the Prime Minister,” Senator Wong said.

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds during Question Time in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday. Picture: AAP

“And finally, we know from Ms Higgins’s own words that a person who she has described as the PM’s ‘fixer’, I think his principal adviser, was involved shortly after the alleged rape and in fact even called her again in the week that Four Corners aired its program exposing sexual misconduct inside the government … those facts, along with I think the commonsense view, do make it very difficult for Australians to believe that the Prime Minister knew nothing.”

A DPS spokeswoman said the department — and Speaker Tony Smith and Senate President Scott Ryan — were aware of the assertions made by former and current guards to the inquiry.

“These assertions have been independently investigated and found to be unsubstantiated,” the spokeswoman said.

She declined to answer questions about how many reports about the incident had been created and filed.

“The AFP has advised DPS that it had conducted inquiries into the action of DPS staff in the initial handling of the incident, including whether there was any criminality identified, such as attempts to conceal or interfere with a suspected crime scene.

“The AFP advised that there were ‘no disclosures of sexual assault made by the complainant on the day of the incident and therefore actions taken by them (DPS) were not in response with a suspected crime’,” she said.

“As a consequence of this issue now being under active investigation, further queries should be addressed to ACT Policing.”

The DPS said Senator Reynolds’ parliament suite had been cleaned at the request of the Department of Finance. The department said: “At that time, police inquiries were not being made and Finance had no information suggesting that an alleged assault may have occurred in the office.”

Senator Reynolds refused to say if and when she informed Mr Morrison’s office about the alleged rape or if she had helped the alleged perpetrator to find alternative work after his employment with her was terminated over a “security breach”.

But on Wednesday she clarified she had no contact with him.

“Since the individual in question left my office I have had no contact with him and I have provided no references,” she said.

Celia Hammond. Picture: Gary Ramage

Senator Reynolds said she “deeply regretted” holding a meeting with Ms Higgins in the office in which the alleged attack took place. “The fact that she felt unsupported in her time working here was also very, very clear for us all to see and for that, I apologise,” said Senator Reynolds, who at the time of the alleged rape was defence industry minister.

“At the time, I truly believed that I, my chief of staff were doing everything we could to support that young woman who I had responsibility for at all times.”

Ms Higgins said Mr Morrison’s principal private secretary, Yaron Finkelstein, contacted her to “check in” around the time the ABC’s Four Corners program into sexual harassment in parliament was aired. Government sources deny that call was ever made. Other advisers in the Prime Minister’s office were told about the incident but maintain they were only informed that it was a security breach.

Ms Higgins has called for a comprehensive review of legislation governing staff and an independent complaints handling process to prevent cases of sexual assault and protect employees.

Mr Morrison’s announcement of an investigation into workplace culture at Parliament House was welcome but overdue, she said.

“It should not have taken my story, or the story of other victim-survivors to air on national television for the Prime Minister or any member of parliament to take action on workplace sexual harassment, assault or bullying,” Ms Higgins said. “Everyone should feel safe to report sexual assault without fear of losing their job.”

Labor and the Greens have demanded an external review of parliament’s workplace culture, informed by the experience of staff across the political spectrum.

Ms Higgins said she planned to ask the Australian Federal Police to recommence an investigation into the alleged rape but as of Tuesday afternoon the AFP had not received any instruction from her to investigate the matter.