‘Utterly false’: Scott Morrison rubbishes Brittany Higgins cover-up claims in explosive testimony

Former prime minister Scott Morrison has vigorously defended West Australian senator Linda Reynolds’ handling of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation, rubbishing claims of a political cover-up and saying it was parliamentary process that had failed the former staffer.

Giving evidence in Reynolds’ defamation case against Higgins on Tuesday via videolink from Sydney, Morrison pored over what unfolded in the days after Higgins’ tell-all interview with The Project on February 15, 2021, including what he described as “aggressive” and “co-ordinated” questioning in federal parliament and by the media.

Scott Morrison is giving evidence this week in the Linda Reynolds v Brittany Higgins defamation trial. Credit: Nathan Perri

Morrison revealed the broadcast was the first he knew of the alleged rape in Reynolds’ ministerial suite and conceded he was disappointed the then-defence minister had kept him in the dark.

But he said he understood Reynolds’ predicament in attempting to balance her obligations to the government while maintaining the promise of confidence she had given Higgins.

Morrison told Higgins’ lawyer, Rachael Young, SC, that the need to ensure workplace safety at parliament was what had motivated him to order an inquiry, not the growing media attention.

And the former prime minister insisted that that scrutiny did not underpin his decision to replace Reynolds as defence minister after she called Higgins a “lying cow” while watching The Project interview in her office, a comment she said in court this week she did not mean as disbelief in the rape allegation itself.

“It’s not appropriate language to be using about a member of staff, it was extremely out of character for Senator Reynolds, and she apologised,” Morrison told the court.

“That played no part in her ongoing performance as defence minister. If every member of parliament had their private comments made public, we wouldn’t have anyone serving in the parliament.

“She suffered severe injury from the attacks she endured over a long period of time, and that’s the sole reason I chose to make a change in ministerial arrangements.”

When quizzed about whether he would have launched the same inquiry in 2019 if he had known about the alleged rape before it reached the press, Morrison told the court there was no indication Higgins took issue with its handling at that point.

“Ms Reynolds and [Reynolds’ chief of staff] Fiona Brown had supported Higgins to make a complaint to the police, but she didn’t wish to do that,” he said.

“To my mind, [Higgins] hadn’t previously suggested that the process was deficient.

“If [I had been told] there was an inhibitor to someone bringing the complaint to the police, which was always facilitated, or issues with support, I would seek to address it with the importance it deserved.”

Morrison also used his evidence to shut down claims of any plan to cover up the alleged rape.

And Reynolds’ handling of Higgins’ alleged rape by colleague Bruce Lehrmann following a night out in March 2023 has become a critical part of Higgins’ defence.

It has been more than a year since the former defence minister commenced suing Higgins for damages and aggravated damages over a series of social media posts in which she claims Higgins defamed her by claiming she mishandled her rape allegation and used the media to harass her.

Higgins is defending the action on the basis the substance of her posts were true.

Lehrmann has maintained his innocence since the 2022 criminal trial against him was aborted due to juror misconduct.

Morrison also recalled watching Reynolds, his friend of more than two decades, suffer a public breakdown in parliament after several days of questioning and his fear her cardiac issues might prove fatal.

“[The questioning] was intended to discredit her,” he told the court.

“It was the weaponising of this issue for political purposes to discredit her and the government and, by extension, myself, and it was causing her distress and anguish.

“Claims the government was involved in a cover-up of this issue [were] completely and utterly false, without any foundation.”

He said he himself didn’t emerge unscathed, saying for weeks he was subjected to a barrage of questions levelled by the Labor Party and the media that appeared “strangely co-ordinated”.

The claims back an important pillar of Reynolds’ claim against her former staffer: that she was the victim of a “premeditated” attack levelled by Higgins and Higgins’ now-husband, David Sharaz.

Reynolds’ former staffer Alexandra Kelton also took the stand, recounting a meeting with Higgins as the office fielded its first media inquiry about a security breach on the night of her alleged rape, 18 months before Higgins went public with the allegation.

Kelton told the court she was called to a meeting with the former defence minister and her acting chief of staff in October 2019 where she was told they had received a media enquiry from The Canberra Times about “an incident” in the ministerial office.

Kelton said Reynolds directed her to meet with Higgins because she held concerns for her welfare and did not want the matter to play out in the media.

After handing the enquiry to Higgins and asking how she would like it dealt with, Kelton told the court the former staffer became visibly upset, whispering “how would they know this” before requesting her colleague join them.

After summoning another colleague and asking Higgins whether she was OK, Kelton reported back to Reynolds.

The story about what happened in the early hours of March 23, 2019, would not see the light of day until February 2021.

And Kelton spoke of Reynolds’ shock as those media reports claiming the alleged rape had been mishandled swept the office and how she described feeling powerless during question time because she did not want to say anything that might prejudice any future police investigation.

The bombshell testimony comes as Reynolds’ month-long defamation trial against Higgins enters its second week, with former foreign minister Marise Payne and other staffers expected to take the witness box in the coming days.

It is the second high-profile defamation action since Lehrmann’s failed pursuit of Network Ten over The Project interview, which resulted in Federal Court Justice Michael Lee finding the rape allegation to be true on the balance of probabilities.

Lehrmann is now appealing that judgment, which also concluded there was no evidence to support allegations of a political cover-up.

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