Another day, another round in The Scandal That Keeps on Giving. If revenge is a dish best served cold, then Linda Reynolds is laughing all the way to the deep freeze. Hot on the heels of winning her defamation suit against Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz, with both served bankruptcy papers, Reynolds is slow-roasting the revenge against the vile opportunists on the government benches.
The millstone of comeuppance is grinding all the way to the top of the Albanese government.
Ex-defence minister Linda Reynolds has warned Anthony Albanese that he does not have the cover of parliamentary privilege, after accusing the prime minister of using Brittany Higgins’ rape to deflect from two judges’ findings that there was no Liberal cover-up in an angry press conference.
Which is a not-at-all-subtle hint that anything Albanese says outside parliament is subject to defo law, too.
But, as always with political scandals, it’s the cover-up wot gets you in the end. In this case, the meta-scandal of trying to cover up for false claims of a cover-up that never was.
The prime minister on Wednesday engaged in a tense and at-times angry exchange with journalists as he insisted he would not be drawn on the role of two senior ministers in amplifying cover-up claims that have now been discredited by two courts.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher in 2021 accused then-defence minister Linda Reynolds of engaging in a political cover-up of Ms Higgins’ rape. In 2023, his attorney-general at the time Mark Dreyfus signed off on a $2.4m payout to Ms Higgins in part due to alleged mishandling of her complaint by Ms Reynolds and her chief of staff Fiona Brown.
Except that two judges in succession have ruled that the claim of a cover-up was a lie. Indeed, one judge listed at least 25 lies from Higgins.
That didn’t stop Labor’s ‘Mean Girls’ triumverate of harpies, Kristina Keneally, Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher, repeatedly hammering the then-Morrison government, and Reynolds in particular, with the lie. Keneally was finally arseholed out of politics for good by voters, but the other two remain key frontbenchers and allies of the PM.
A PM who is, once again, dodging accountability.
First, he tried the Jacinda approach:
Q: ‘Should your senators who led the charge over a Liberal Party cover-up over the Higgins case apologise to Linda Reynolds?’
Albanese: ‘I don’t accept that characterisation’
Q: ‘What don’t you accept?’
Albanese: ‘I don’t accept that characterisation’
This is the ‘I’m going to try and sound smart while making a goose of myself’ gambit.
And the dodges keep coming.
In August, WA Supreme Court judge Paul Tottle also found there was no cover-up of the rape allegation by the Liberal Party. Asked if he accepted the findings of those judges, Mr Albanese initially attempted to brush off the question by saying he did not comment on legal matters.
When it was pointed out that the matter was no longer before the court, and Mr Albanese was asked whether the process that led to Ms Higgins’ payout should have been more rigorous to protect the reputations of Ms Reynolds and Ms Brown, he said: “Those things are hands-off from the government. I had no role in it as prime minister.”
Except that Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus oversaw the settlement process, which very much meant the government’s hands were on it.
Ms Reynolds savaged the Prime Minister’s handling of the questions, and said his response reinforced the need for a full investigation into the government’s involvement in Ms Higgins’ settlement. She also highlighted that he was not speaking in parliament and it may take “yet another court” to uncover his party’s role in the false claims of a cover-up.
“The fact that he again refused to accept the views of two distinguished Australian judges reflects precisely the importance of an independent judiciary maintaining the rule of law,” Ms Reynolds said. “It also demonstrates why a wide-ranging parliamentary or independent inquiry is essential. Mr Albanese continues to conflate the allegations of the assault with the allegations of a political cover-up – this time not under the cover of parliamentary privilege. He and the Attorney-General can still end this justly and transparently. But his comments today indicate that is unlikely.”
Labor dug this hole, and they just can’t help digging themselves in deeper by the day.
