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The Liberal senator Linda Reynolds says she may raise a government compensation payment made to her former staffer Brittany Higgins with the new anti-corruption commission, highlighting concerns about the speed of the process and the “fairness” of the Labor government’s handling of the case.
But the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said the government managed the settlement by the letter of the law, rebuffing Reynolds’s claims she was silenced through the mediation process.
Higgins, the former Liberal staffer, was employed by then defence industry minister Reynolds at the time she alleges she was raped by fellow staffer Bruce Lehrmann in the senator’s Parliament House office. Lehrmann was charged but vehemently denied the allegations and maintained his innocence, including in a Seven Network interview on Sunday where he claimed the assault “simply didn’t happen”.
The initial trial was aborted last year due to jury misconduct and prosecutors dropped the charges against Lehrmann amid concerns about the impact a second trial could have on Higgins’ mental health.
In December, Higgins settled a personal injury claim against the government for an undisclosed amount. The amount had been reported as high as $3m, but Higgins has said it was substantially lower.
In a lengthy statement on Wednesday, Reynolds claimed the matter “demands the attention of the National Anti-Corruption Commission”.
“If this isn’t done by others, I am prepared to personally bring it to their attention,” she said.
Reynolds claimed the payment to Higgins was finalised in an “unusually swift” manner, “raising serious questions about how this significant sum of public money was determined and allocated”.
The senator also raised concerns about the conduct of Dreyfus. Reynolds, who was given taxpayer-funded legal assistance for her defence on Higgins’ civil claim, said the attorney general had told her not to make public comment or attend mediation sessions.
“I was initially granted legal assistance to defend the civil claim made by Ms Higgins against me (as well as Senator Cash and the Commonwealth) but, on 6 December 2022, I was advised that the Commonwealth has a discretion to control the conduct of my defence and that the Attorney-General had decided to exercise that discretion,” Reynolds’ statement read.
“The result of this was that the Attorney-General did not want me to attend the mediation or make any public comments about the mediation or the civil claim made by Ms Higgins.”
Reynolds went on to claim Dreyfus, the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, and the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, had a “potential conflict of interest” based on their previous public statements about the matter.
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“This raises further questions about the fairness, transparency and impartiality of the entire process,” she said.
But a spokesperson for Dreyfus said the government’s handling of the case was appropriate and usual.
“Ms Higgins’ claim was managed consistently with the Commonwealth’s obligations under the Legal Services Directions 2017,” they said in a statement.
“The terms of settlement and the claim was managed in accordance with legal principle and practice and informed by external legal advice.”
“The Commonwealth cannot provide any further comment on the specifics of the claim or settlement.”
In audio recordings of Higgins’ interactions with Channel 10’s The Project, broadcast by Seven, her partner, David Sharaz, described Gallagher as a “friend”, in a discussion about which Labor MPs could ask questions about the matter in parliament.
Gallagher told Radio National on Wednesday that she had “no role” in negotiations around the payout.
“I have nothing further to add to this. I’ve been very clear with those that are reporting this story about my responsibilities … Particularly it’s been raised in relation to a settlement or a compensation package in relation to Miss Higgins and that I had absolutely no role in that at all,” she said.
“I knew Mr Sharaz from my previous role, he was a journalist here in Canberra when I was chief minister, so I knew him. But I have nothing further to add. My statements are all on the record, and I’m comfortable with those.”
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, whose name was also mentioned on the recording, told Sunrise on Monday: “it’s no surprise that they would be working out how to get questions raised about an alleged very serious crime that occurred in Parliament House when we couldn’t get straight answers out of the prime minister or any of the senior ministers that had questions to answer about how this incident had been responded to.”
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