Rape inside corridors of power: who knew what about Brittany Higgins

The crisis over a former Liberal staffer allegedly raped widens after Michaelia Cash reveals she knew as far back as 2019.

Michaelia Cash during question time in Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday. Picture: Gary Ramage

The former Liberal staffer who alleges she was raped in a ministerial office has accused Scott Morrison of “victim blaming”, as the Prime Minister moved to establish an independent review into parliament’s culture.

The political crisis engulfing the Morrison government widened on Wednesday when Employment Minister Michaelia Cash, who hired Brittany Higgins after the May 2019 election, revealed she knew as far back as October that year about an incident in the office of Linda Reynolds, now the Defence Minister.

Senator Cash, who told Ms Higgins her office had “everything under control” in October 2019, said she had only found out the incident was an alleged sexual assault on February 5 this year. Senator Cash said she had offered to go with Ms Higgins to both Mr Morrison’s office and to the Australian Federal Police and assist her in raising the issue.

“She advised me she did not want to pursue it,” she said. “She advised me that at all times she wanted her privacy respected.”

Ms Higgins, who worked for Senator Reynolds before moving to Senator Cash’s office, disclosed on Monday that she had been allegedly raped by a colleague on March 23, 2019 in the ministerial wing of Parliament House.

Brittany Higgins

Despite Ms Higgins telling a member of Senator Reynolds’ staff who now works for Mr Morrison, the Prime Minister said on Tuesday that he had not been made aware of the allegations until Monday when the claims were first published in the media.

His office found out on Friday, Mr Morrison said at the time.

Ms Higgins escalated her row with Mr Morrison over the government’s handling of the matter, accusing him of “victim-blaming rhetoric” that was “personally very distressing to me and countless other survivors”.

“The government has questions to answer for their own conduct,” Ms Higgins said.

“I didn’t know that security guards came into the office multiple times seeing me in a state of undress. I didn’t know they were undertaking an internal review into how the matter was handled at the time.”

The Australian reported on Wednesday that a parliamentary inquiry had secretly been looking into the rape allegations after security guards raised concerns about how it was handled.

Both Speaker of the House of Representatives Tony Smith and Senate President Scott Ryan were also aware of the inquiry.

In a statement on Wednesday, Senator Ryan and Mr Smith clarified that they had been informed of an incident in Senator Reynolds’ office by April 2019 but had not been told the identity of Ms Higgins until Friday.

Neither raised the matter with Mr Morrison or his office.

Senator Ryan and Mr Smith had commenced an inquiry into the allegations raised by the guards, but found the evidence did not substantiate claims that senior officials in the Department of Parliamentary Services asked them to amend incident reports to minimise the event and remove key information. That inquiry reported to DPS secretary Rob Stefanic on October 29 last year.

Mr Morrison has now asked his most senior bureaucrat, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Philip Gaetjens, to check when and what his office knew about the alleged rape.

Ms Higgins claims Mr Morrison’s principal private secretary Yaron Finkelstein called to “check in” around the time the ABC’s Four Corners program into sexual harassment in the Liberal Party was aired in November.

Scott Morrison in the House of Representatives in Parliament House, Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage

Sources close to Ms Higgins said at least one other adviser in Mr Morrison’s office had been notified about the rape allegations as early as 2019.

The government denies Mr Finkelstein made a call to Ms Higgins or that other members of Mr Morrison’s staff knew before the end of last week.

“The facts of these matters demonstrate, as they’ve been reported to me, that Brittany had made a decision (in 2019) that she did not wish to make a statement and register a complaint with the police,” Mr Morrison told parliament.

“She chose at that point not to do that and that is why the matter sat for as long as it did.

“It is up to them to have the power of the decision as to how that should proceed.”

Senator Reynolds cited an “active investigation” for refusing to tell the Senate when she knew about the rape allegation, though AFP have said the case remains open but will not be active unless Ms Higgins asks to recommence an investigation.

Under pressure from Labor and the crossbench for an independent review into federal parliament’s workplace culture, Mr Morrison wrote to Anthony Albanese saying such an investigation would be established at arm’s length of government.

“It is my expectation that this review would … consult widely across parliamentarians and their staff, the departments and agencies that support our work, and provide constructive feedback on measures that can be implemented,” the letter reads.

Yaron Finklestein

“In particular, I have asked that this process considers the adequacy, effectiveness, independence and awareness of current supports that are available to parliamentarians and their staff. It is important that staff who work with us are listened to in this process.”

The former adviser accused of rape by Ms Higgins was already in the process of being forced out of Senator Reynolds’ office and was sacked for security breaches on March 26, 2019, days after the alleged rape, government sources said.

Those officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss staff matters, said the breaches involved potential intoxication and accessing a ministerial office after hours.

Parliament House security officers told news.com.au that they had not only signed Ms Higgins and the other adviser into the building but opened the door to Senator Reynolds’ office. She was, at the time, defence industry minister.

Guards later found Ms Higgins disoriented and half-naked in the office, where she had been left by the male staffer.

The former Liberal staffer at the centre of the rape claim has reportedly checked himself into hospital in Sydney.

The man accused by Ms Higgins of sexually assaulting her in Senator Linda Reynolds’s office drove to the Royal North Shore Hospital and checked himself in on Wednesday, sources told The Daily Telegraph.

A source told the newspaper that the man was concerned and had sought psychiatric care, but had not self harmed.