Taxpayers to cover Linda Reynolds’ costs in NACC case

The Albanese government will cover Linda Reynolds’ legal costs in her complaint to the anti-corruption watchdog against the Attorney-General over the $2.4m compensation payment to Brittany Higgins.

Senator Linda Reynolds is suing Brittany Higgins and her husband David Sharaz for defamation in the WA Supreme Court.

The Albanese government has confirmed it will cover former Liberal minister Linda Reynolds’ legal costs in her complaint to the national anti-corruption watchdog against Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus over the commonwealth’s $2.4m compensation payment to Brittany Higgins.

Mr Dreyfus tabled in parliament a notification that Senator Reynolds’ application for legal assistance in her complaint to the National Anti-Corruption Commission had been approved by his Department Secretary.

The NACC has not confirmed whether it is actively investigating the case, in which a settlement was reached with Ms Higgins after a one-day mediation from which then-­defence industry minister Senator Reynolds was excluded from giving evidence.

The government threatened to tear up an agreement to pay Senator Reynolds’ legal fees and any costs awarded unless she agreed not to attend the mediation. The commonwealth’s lawyers also demanded they take control of Senator Reynolds’ defence.

Senator Reynolds was therefore unable to dispute any of Ms Higgins’ allegations about a failure to support her or properly investigate the incident, many of which were contested in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson. In his judgment in that case, Justice Michael Lee found that Ms Higgins made a number of untruthful allegations about her bosses while negotiating the payout.

Brittany Higgins. Picture: Colin Murty

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The government ultimately paid Ms Higgins more than $2.4m compensation in a settlement that relied entirely upon the ­former Liberal staffer’s version of events, just days after Bruce Lehrmann’s rape trial was abandoned in the ACT ­Supreme Court.

During her own defamation case against Ms Higgins last month Senator Reynolds recalled the outrage she felt after receiving a letter informing her the Commonwealth would take over her defence in the compensation case.

The settlement deed ensured the government was released from any future claims by Ms Higgins but left Senator Reynolds and former Liberal minister Michaelia Cash open to further legal action by their former staffer, a carve-out clause that was not fully communicated to either senator.

“The Attorney-General of this country was stitching me up on allegations I had not seen and believed had expired,” Senator Reynolds told the court in her defamation case. Mr Dreyfus was “seeking to silence me”, she said, telling the court she had never consented to the government taking over her defence.

“I was utterly outraged because this was to be finally my opportunity to defend against these allegations, which in my mind, were utterly defendable,” she said.

“I could see immediately what the Attorney-General was trying to do, which is why I referred it to the National Anti-Corruption Commission. It says it there, he was seeking to silence me … They were seeking to deny me the opportunity to finally defend these claims. My defence was going to be no defence.”

Senator Reynolds said she believed Mr Dreyfus, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese were all “hopelessly conflicted” on the Higgins matter and should have had nothing to do with Ms Higgins’s compensation claim, which was first raised in December 2021 and for which she was ultimately awarded $2.445m in compensation in late 2022.

Mr Dreyfus has previously declined to answer questions from The Australian about the settlement, saying only: “The parties have agreed that the terms of the settlement be confidential.

“All claims against the commonwealth are handled in accordance with the Legal Services Directions 2017.”