Scott Morrison ‘happy to have chat with Brittany Higgins’

Scott Morrison says he would be happy to meet with Brittany Higgins after she formally complained to his chief of staff about apparent backgrounding by the PM’s office against her partner.

Brittany Higgins.

Scott Morrison says he would be happy to meet with Brittany Higgins after she formally complained to his chief of staff about apparent backgrounding by the Prime Minister’s office against her partner.

A second source has also provided Mr Morrison’s chief of staff, John Kunkel, with “confidential information” about the backgrounding, leading the Prime Minister to establish a process to “deal with complaints against staff members”. It was unclear on Thursday what that process was or if there would be any consequences for his staff.

Ms Higgins wrote to Mr Kunkel saying that journalists from three media outlets — news.com.au, The Daily Telegraph and Ten Network — had “reported to me personally” there had been backgrounding against her partner, David Sharaz.

“To my knowledge, this was being done by staff within the Prime Minister’s media team,” she wrote. “I believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt. It is entirely plausible the Prime Minister did not know that this was happening, however the more relevant point is that it did occur.”

The former Liberal staffer’s letter and the information provided to Mr Kunkel by another “primary source” who witnessed the backgrounding came after Mr Morrison said no one in the press gallery had complained about anything his office had done. Ms Higgins also wants to give evidence as part of the Gaetjens review, which was until recently investigating who in Mr Morrison’s office knew what and when about her alleged rape at Parliament House in March 2019.

The review was “paused” on March 9 after Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Philip Gaetjens received advice from Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece ­Kershaw. Mr Morrison said he would ensure Ms Higgins could participate.

Facing pressure over his government’s handling of the allegation, Mr Morrison on Thursday said he would meet with Ms Higgins if that was what she wanted.

“It’s one of those things where I want to be careful to respect her wishes but if she would like to, I’d be happy to sit down and have a chat with her,” he told Nine’s A Current Affair program.

“What has become, I think, more crystallised in this last five weeks (is) Brittany standing up has caused a very deep and confronting conversation in Australia, we have gone way deeper, we have gone beyond the sheer shock of violent acts. We are starting to deal with some real home truths.”

Asked by Tracy Grimshaw “where have you been”, Mr Morrison acknowledged almost every woman had lived with sexual assault or harassment, but Ms Higgins’ story had made him aware of it “at a different level”.