Katy Gallagher ducks for cover as the Minister Women after a brutal Question Time

The Minister for Women attempted to shut down debate about the Brittany Higgins media blitz, claiming it was not ‘safe’.

Senator Katy Gallagher during Question time in the Senate Chamber on Tuesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has confirmed she was provided information about Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations and a planned media interview with The Project before it went to air in 2021.

Speaking in the Senate on Tuesday, Senator Gallagher said she did nothing with the information after being requested by Ms Higgins and her partner David Sharaz that it remain confidential.

“I was provided with information in the days before the allegations were first reported, and I did nothing with that information, absolutely nothing.

“I was asked to keep it to myself and I did. I did nothing differently on this occasion compared to hundreds of other times that people have reached out to me in my time as a politician and asked me to keep their information private, including women seeking support over alleged sexual assaults, violence and harassment,” Senator Gallagher said.

The issue has dominated the first day of the final parliamentary sitting fortnight before the long winter recess, including Question Time in both houses.

Senator Gallagher continued to dodge questions about what she knew and when she learned about Ms Higgins’ allegations and subsequent media interviews during a fiery Question Time in the Senate on Tuesday.

“What you‘re asking me to do is to breach the confidence,” Senator Gallagher said in response to pointed questions from Ms Higgins’ former boss Michaelia Cash, Coalition Senators Anne Ruston, Bridget McKenzie and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Simon Birmingham.

When asked for specific dates of when she received a transcript of The Project interview from Mr Sharaz in 2021, she replied: “I don’t have the exact dates.”

“The first I knew of the details of the allegations, from my best recollection, and I have gone back to try and find any information that would assist with being more precise, but from my best recollection I became aware of the specific allegations as they related to an alleged rape in a minister‘s office in this building was in that week prior to those shows, being published.

“So I wasn‘t aware, for example, of other things that people knew in this place. I wasn’t aware of any of that, and that people had known for some time. I had no knowledge of any of that. And I came into receiving some information through the partner of the young woman who was going to raise those allegations. It was put to me and asked of me to keep that information confidential and I did.”

Katy Gallagher’s statement to the @AuSenate today regarding Brittany Higgins. #auspolpic.twitter.com/QydyZfPpxe

— Jenna Clarke (@jennamclarke) June 13, 2023

Despite repeated questioning for more specific details about her interactions with Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz, Senator Gallagher refused to answer.

“I‘ve made it clear I am not going to breach that person’s privacy any more than it has already been breached. I don’t think it’s safe,” she said.

“I think the problem the Opposition are having here is that someone might actually act with some decency and integrity.”

The government attempted to shut down debate when Senator Gallagher incited her other portfolio, as the Minister for Women.

“Last week I was being accused of misleading the Senate and having an inappropriate role in a compensation payout. I have dealt with those in my statement today.

“I have also made it clear that the wellbeing of Miss Brittany Higgins matters to me. It matters to me. And so you know, subjecting her, because this is what happens, to further commentary, you know, is very distressing for her. As Minister for Women I don’t think it’s acceptable and I think for all the young women waiting out there, wondering about whether they should stand up and say something, and all the older women when it’s happening to them, whether they should stand up and say something and they get treated like that,” Senator Gallagher said in response to persistent questioning from a rambunctious Coalition.

Senator Gallagher said the continual coverage and questioning, by the media and opposition MPs, about Ms Higgins’ allegations is an “egregious breach of privacy that is continuing to occur against a young woman in this country.”

Leader of the Government in the Senate Penny Wong stepped in to shut down debate about the issue as Senate President Sue Lines struggled, at times, to resume order.

“I would suggest to you President, and to members of this chamber, that the use of private text messages obtained without consent in this chamber is a matter, where it is a reasonable matter, for a Minister to respond on when those are put to him or her. And I would again, encourage all of us to reflect on the context of these current discussions and the effect on the individual concerned,” Senator Wong said.

When the initial story about Ms Higgins’ alleged rape inside the office of then Defence Minister Linda Reynolds first broke in February 2021, Senators Wong and Gallagher peppered Senator Reynolds with more than 22 questions in three days during Senate Question Time, including what she knew and when about the alleged incident.

During the subsequent Senate Estimates periods, Ms Higgins’ name was mentioned 135 times by Senator Gallagher over a two-year period.