Scott Morrison to face grilling in Linda Reynolds’ case against Brittany Higgins

Scott Morrison is likely to be cross examined over his apology to Brittany Higgins and his public rebuke to Linda Reynolds – and over allegations he misled parliament during the scandal.

Scott Morrison with Linda Reynolds in 2020. Picture: AAP

Former prime minister Scott Morrison is expected to face a grilling over his apology in parliament to Brittany Higgins and his public rebuke of Linda Reynolds when he gives evidence in Senator Reynolds’s defamation case this week.

Mr Morrison is also likely to be cross-examined by Ms Higgins’s counsel when he gives evidence in the case on Tuesday over alle­gations by Senator Reynolds’s then chief of staff Fiona Brown that he misled parliament over the scandal.

The case has ripped the band­aid off painful wounds on both sides of politics, with renewed focus on the role of Labor’s so-called “mean girls”, after Senator Reynolds broke down on the stand last week and saying she felt guilty for Labor “bullying to death” senator Kimberley Kitching.

Text messages linked to Katy Gallagher

She told the court she believed her decision to reveal to senators Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher that Kitching had warned her that Labor was aware of Ms Higgins’s alleged rape in parliament had triggered events that led to her death.

In the days that followed the rape allegations, Senator Reynolds was repeatedly questioned by Senator Wong, Senator Gallagher and senator Kristina Keneally over her knowledge of the case.

The role played by Senator Gallagher, now Finance Minister, will continue to be examined in the trial, with Ms Higgins’s counsel tendering text messages she claimed were between the pair in a bid to disprove Senator Rey­nolds’s allegations of conspiracy to push false claims of a cover-up.

Legal observers have expressed surprise that Senator Reynolds has called Mr Morrison to give evidence on her behalf.

She was admonished in parliament by Mr Morrison, who said it was unacceptable that she had not told him or his office about the alleged rape in her office.

Brittany Higgins with Morrison at a Liberal Party event in Perth.

Senator Reynolds told The Australian last year that Mr Morrison “expressed regret” to her, in private, the following day when she was escorted, in a state of collapse, from the Senate chamber into the Senate anteroom.

“He realised that it was never my position to tell anybody about Brittany Higgins’s story,” she said.

The former defence ­minister wants Mr Morrison to give evidence in support of her claim that she was the target of an orchestrated plot to bring down herself and the ­Coalition government, and to give his personal account of the mental anguish he saw Senator Reynolds suffering under the attacks from Labor.

The former prime minister is likely to be cross-examined by Ms Higgins’s barrister, Rachael Young SC, over the contrast between what is claimed that he said in public and private, and also grilled over allegations by Ms Brown that he misled the house when he claimed to have spoken to her about Ms Higgins’s claim that her job had been threatened.

Ms Brown, who was Mr Morrison’s director of ­operations at the time but temporarily working as Senator Reynolds’s chief of staff, says her career was destroyed in the aftermath of Ms Higgins’s claim she had told Ms Brown she was raped but pressured not to ­report it.

On February 18, 2021, Anthony Albanese asked Mr Morrison during question time whether he had spoken to Ms Brown about Ms Higgins’s claim that her job had been threatened. Mr Morrison ­replied that he had.

Ms Brown told The Australian that was not true and after question time, the then-prime minister had ­approached her and said “We’ve spoken, haven’t we?”

“He had never sat down or even walked by and had a proper discussion with me when this issue exploded,” she said. “The most discussion I ever had with him was in that moment. That was the extent of it, a two-minute conversation – ‘Hi Fiona, how are you?’ I said, ‘Oh, it’s pretty tough.’

“And I apologised to him. I said ‘I’m sorry they’re using me to get to you. I’m really sorry about that. But she never, never told me’.

“Then the only thing he says in relation to this matter, ever, is ‘We’ve spoken’. That’s it. ‘We’ve spoken, haven’t we?’

“I realised at that moment that I was collateral damage.”

Mr Morrison told The Australian: “I understood my statement to be accurate to the house. I regularly saw Ms Brown in the office and would ask how she was going. Specifics of ­matters relating to the incident were the subject of many other processes that I did not seek to­ ­interfere with.”

He said he accepted that Ms Brown might have had a different expectation about what such a conversation should have entailed, hence her recollection.

“I had not sat down with Ms Brown over these issues in the same way as I had with Ms Higgins,” he said. “I note the latter meeting was arranged at Ms Higgins’s request. I meant no dis­respect or insensitivity to Ms Brown, as there were many competing issues I had to address as prime minister.”

Under political pressure following The Project interview, Mr Morrison asked the head of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Phil Gaetjens, to investigate which staff in his office knew about the alle­gation, when they became aware and what they were told.

Ms Brown told The Australian she was presented with a statutory declaration that she refused to sign. “I felt like I was being stitched up,” she said.

The Gaetjens inquiry was suspended when alleged rapist Bruce Lehrmann was charged and never issued a finding before the ­Coalition lost government.

Mr Lehrmann’s charge was later dropped after he pleaded not guilty; he maintains his innocence.

Ms Brown alleged her position in the Prime Minister’s Office was ­restricted and her role downgraded in the aftermath of the case.

She was originally scheduled to give evidence in the defamation case over two days next week but Senator Reynolds’s lawyer, Martin Bennett, has foreshadowed she may give written evidence only because of medical treatment required for her mental health issues.

Senator Reynolds’s husband, Robert Reid, is expected to take the stand on Monday.

Ms Higgins should begin five days of evidence on August 26.