‘Privileged white male’: Why Taylor Auerbach didn’t want Bruce Lehrmann to come to the cricket

Texts reveal Taylor Auerbach brainstormed with his Seven boss how to stop Bruce Lehrmann from getting a box at the SCG, for fear the former Lib staffer would be seen as ‘a privileged white male’.

Former Spotlight producer Taylor Auerbach.

Former Spotlight producer Taylor Auerbach brainstormed with his boss how to stop Bruce Lehrmann from getting a box at the SCG, for fear of public criticism, and a desire to help the former Liberal staffer upkeep his “image”.

The Federal Court late Friday night released hundreds of messages between the former colleagues, after Auerbach finished giving explosive evidence in the defamation case brought by Mr Lehrmann against Network 10 and presenter Lisa Wilkinson.

Mr Lehrmann is suing Ten and Wilkinson over an interview conducted with Brittany Higgins in early 2021, in which she claimed she was raped in parliament house but did not name Mr Lehrmann as the alleged attacker. Mr Lehrmann has always maintained his innocence.

Ten this week successfully applied to reopen the defamation trial, citing fresh evidence from Auerbach about expensive perks provided to Mr Lehrmann while the Spotlight team were trying to convince him to hand over his exclusive interview rights.

Auerbach also claims Mr Lehrmann provided Spotlight with confidential information from his criminal rape trial as part of his interview deal. Mr Lehrmann has denied giving the program such information.

In one message from December 2022, Auerbach has screenshot a text sent to him by Mr Lehrmann, in which Mr Lehrmann says “Thinking about getting a box for the Sydney test, you fellas keen?”, and forwarded it to his then-boss, Steve Jackson.

“I’m trying to think of a nice way to tell him not to,” Auerbach writes to Jackson. “The boxes at the SCG are the worst seats in the house. Endless free piss. Media people everywhere in adjoining boxes. Nightmare.”

Jackson replied, saying “Yeah – he’ll get written up for sure.”

Messages between Steve Jackson and Taylor Auerbach.

Later, Jackson said “your man isn’t going to come off well if he wants to be seen playing golf and watching cricket in his box”.

“He will look every bit the privileged white male his detractors believe him to be,” Jackson wrote.

Auerbach replied: “Yes I know. I’m trying to think of a nice way of saying that.”

“I reckon you’ve got to be honest with him and say image is critical right now … he should put his faith in you managing it,” Jackson said in response.

Auerbach: “I’m going to tell him to save it, we’ll go to the Lord’s Test instead.”

Jackson: “Good call.”

Steve Jackson and Taylor Auerbach.

This exchange occurred about one month before news broke that Mr Lehrmann had been charged for the rape of a woman in Toowoomba, Queensland.

Mr Lehrmann, who is currently on bail, is yet to enter a plea although his legal team have indicated he will deny the allegations. The matter has been set a committal cross-examination hearing on June 17.

When Jackson learned of the new allegations against Mr Lehrmann on January 11, he called Auerbach nine times between 10.28am and 10.50am.

“Can you call urgently?” he wrote. “Lehrmann has been charged with rape in Qld.”

Auerbach replied: “Holy s--t. Just tried calling.”

Messages between Steve Jackson and Taylor Auerbach.

This exchange occurred a few months after the Spotlight team believed they had locked in an exclusive interview with Mr Lerhmann.

On October 23, 2022, Jackson sent a message to Auerbach congratulating him on helping land the interview. “It is really played off you big guy – best story in the country!” he wrote.

The pair discussed how to get Mr Lehrmann to sign a formal agreement to make sure “we won’t lose this yarn”.

“Probably worth sending details for an agreement first thing in the morning so one can be drawn up either way,” Jackson wrote.

Auerbach replied: “Yeah – that’s what I’m trying to do.”

“We won’t lose this yarn if everyone can just come on board and realise what’s doing,” he said.

Jackson and Auerbach again discussed confidential documents from the criminal trial – which Ten alleges were provided by Mr Lehrmann – and how they could use them for the Spotlight episode.

“If we can seal it, we’ve got to make it BIG,” Jackson wrote. “Will take a lot of work to cover all the bases, recres, that unseen vision and audio. It should be the most amazing thing on Australian TV ever.”

Auerbach replied, saying: “Yeah. They’ve got all that too so we don’t need to go through the court.”