- Updated
- National
- WA
- Defamation
This was published 4 months ago
‘I never agreed to being locked down’: Reynolds defends leaking top-secret letter
Liberal senator Linda Reynolds has defended her decision to leak a top-secret letter about the compensation claim levelled by former staffer Brittany Higgins, insisting she never agreed to being “locked down” by the Commonwealth.
During cross-examination, Higgins’ lawyer Rachael Young, SC, grilled the former defence minister at length about her decision to forward the confidential correspondence to The Australian newspaper’s Janet Albrechtsen in June 2022.
Linda Reynolds arrives at the WA Supreme Court with husband Robert Reid (left) and lawyer Martin Bennett (right).Credit: AAP
Reynolds had been named a defendant in Higgins’s compensation claim over the mishandling of her alleged rape by colleague Bruce Lehrmann in Parliament House in 2019, an allegation Lehrmann denies.
After seeking financial assistance from the Commonwealth, Reynolds was given a breakdown of terms that required her to remain tight-lipped about the case and at arm’s length from the mediation.
And under oath, Reynolds told the WA Supreme Court she took issue with the proposal, arguing it was crafted by members of the Albanese government that had a direct conflict of interest.
“To the best of my knowledge, I hadn’t agreed to their confidentiality terms because I found them quite … I never agreed to how they wanted to lock me down,” Reynolds told the court.
Young highlighted the letter had been sent via Reynolds’ personal email, suggesting she did so to ensure it would not be disclosable in any freedom of information process. Reynolds rejected the assertion.
Higgins was paid $2.4 million by the federal government in the settlement, which covered lost earnings, medical expenses, legal fees and the humiliation she experienced following the saga.
Earlier, Reynolds had also been quizzed about “catty” criticisms of Higgins’ “predilection for expensive clothing” after seeing press photographs, suggesting she was imitating Catherine, the Princess of Wales.
And Reynolds repeatedly rejected assertions she knew uttering the words “lying cow” during a broadcast of Higgins’ tell-all interview on The Project would be heard by staff and undermine the credibility of her rape allegation.
Young continued to grill Reynolds about the fact she failed to apologise to her former staffer for the comment until weeks after it was made and two days after the comment was leaked to the media.
“Apologising for lying about me? No, I didn’t,” Reynolds told the court.
“I made it very clear in this [media statement], that I have never questioned her account of her sexual assault. I didn’t and I still don’t doubt her account of the sexual assault. This was about the statements about me. I don’t know how I could have made it clearer.”
Reynolds had compared herself to a “punching clown” during her evidence on Wednesday, saying a claim she covered up Higgins’ alleged rape amounted to a “premeditated and personal” attack.
Reynolds made the allegations after recounting the moment she discovered a recording of the pre-interview briefing between Higgins, Higgins’ now-husband, David Sharaz, and journalist Lisa Wilkinson.
The meeting in January 2021 was held ahead of the bombshell interview about Higgins’ alleged rape, but a transcript of the recording was not made public until it was tendered as evidence in Lehrmann’s unsuccessful defamation trial against Network Ten.
In it, Sharaz detailed how Higgins had said “best-case scenario, Linda Reynolds” when asked what she hoped to gain from going public with her allegation.
When Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, quizzed her in court, Reynolds said she would remember the moment she had heard about the recording until the day she died.
“Until that point, even not understanding how our recollections had been so different, I hadn’t believed there was malice in it, but hearing [the recording], it was clear it was premeditated and personal against me,” Reynolds told the court.
“I had blamed Labor, but I had no idea of just how well-prepared this plan was. They [Higgins and Sharaz] had a package for the media, for the #MeToo movement, a package for disaffected Liberals ... it was premeditated, and it was personal.”
Reynolds went on to detail the toll the saga and the media frenzy that followed took on her and those within her orbit, including her elderly parents, telling the court she had been subjected to a barrage of press coverage.
She said that was only perpetuated by social media posts Higgins and Sharaz published.
“It was just part of the pile-on,” Reynolds said.
“I felt like one of those punching clowns at the fairground: you get punched down and punched down again, and you have to get up smiling – that’s what this was.
“They keep reminding the public of the lies about me, the media keep reporting it, and it keeps doing damage to me and the people I love, over and over again.”
Taken through each social media post now underpinning her defamation suit against Higgins and Sharaz, Reynolds told the court they were designed to remind people of the alleged cover-up and accuse her of bullying.
That included a cryptic quote published by Higgins on the day of the pair’s mediation, which read: “I won’t stay silent so you can stay comfortable”.
“I can assure you that I’m taking these proceedings, putting everything on the line, including my house of 40 years, to be heard and seek some justice,” Reynolds told the court.
“I’m not doing this to ‘stay comfortable’. That ain’t comfortable.”
Both Higgins and Sharaz have rejected allegations they weaponised the press to engage in a campaign of harassment against the WA senator.
Reynolds has been pursuing Higgins for damages, as well as aggravated damages, for the past year over several social media posts she claims accuse her of using the media to harass Higgins.
She claims the posts were false and defamatory of her, brought her into public hatred and damaged her physical and mental health.
Higgins has allegedly sold her home in France to vigorously defend the claim on the basis the imputations of harassment and the mishandling of her alleged rape are true.
Reynolds has also mortgaged her home to take the defamation action.
Read more
Perth blocks for sale shrink while prices soar past $300k
‘Spat on, stolen from, screamed at, punched’: WA’s retail crimes revealed