The fallout from the Scandal That Keeps on Giving continues – now reaching all the way to the top. Proving, yet again, that those who unleash the dogs of scandal risk being mauled in their own turn: PM Anthony Albanese is squirming and dodging new questions about the Higgins-Lehrmann scandal.
At issue in this case is whether the PM will hold the prime actors in his own government accountable for their role in spreading lies. After all, Albanese likes to brag about his government’s ‘integrity’ and ‘accountability’ (and other great political one-liners). So, in the interests of integrity and accountability, he was asked, are his ministers Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher going to apologise to Linda Reynolds and former senior public servant Fiona Brown, whom they wrongfully accused of orchestrating a ‘coverup’ that never happened?
Albanese’s response?
Thank you for reading that question. A judge found the issue of Brittany Higgins very different from the way that you characterise it.
Except that both judges who’ve rendered verdicts on this case have precisely stated that there was no coverup. The PM is effectively calling both judges liars.
Anthony Albanese has dismissed two court rulings that Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape was never the subject of a political cover-up, while refusing to be drawn on whether Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher needed to apologise for their roles in the saga.
The two judges are Federal Court judge Michael Lee and WA Supreme Court judge Paul Tottle.
Lee found that “there is no evidence that anyone was suggesting to her to not proceed to act in a way contrary to her own settled, informed and communicated judgment as to what was best for her (let alone pressuring or threatening her to do so)”. Lee also characterised Higgins as, like Bruce Lehrmann, a liar (even if he ruled “on the balance of probabilities” that Lehrmann did rape her). Higgins, he said, had made “objectively untrue and misleading” statements about a political coverup.
Tottle was even stronger in his language: “Specifically, (Brittany Higgins) emphasised the allegation she was silenced as part of a coverup for the good of the Liberal Party. In truth, there was no such coverup.” Tottle also called Higgins “dishonest”.
In truth, there was no such coverup – WA Supreme Court judge Paul Tottle
Besides Albanese lying about what the two judges found, he’s also facing a growing scandal over his most senior ministers’ complicity in both the ‘coverup’ lie and a suspicious multi-million-dollar payout to Higgins. Wong and Gallagher both repeated Higgins’ lies repeatedly in parliament.
Leaked communications from Higgins’ husband, David Sharaz, show him bragging about his friendship with Gallagher, and that he had given the then-shadow minister the ‘context’ of Higgins’ coverup claims, before they were made public. Yet, Gallagher told a Senate hearing that she had no prior knowledge – meaning she has potentially misled parliament.
Minister for Finance Gallagher oversaw the department responsible for awarding Higgins millions of dollars, in a dodgy, secretive, process.
Mr Albanese’s comments follow revelations by the Australian last week of a secret cache of commonwealth documents that lifted the lid on how the government awarded Ms Higgins $2.4m in a settlement that ensured former Liberal minister Linda Reynolds would be unable to defend herself against her ex- staffer’s claims.
In one letter, the commonwealth’s lawyers – purportedly acting on Ms Reynolds’ behalf, after forcibly taking control of her defence – effectively gave Ms Higgins an extension of time to begin her claim, which Ms Reynolds alleges was against her instructions and done without telling her.
Another letter revealed Ms Higgins’ lawyers then provided the commonwealth with new claims against Ms Reynolds and “an increased quantum proposed for settlement”, none of which the former senator was told about.
This scandal is far from played out yet – and may yet help bring another government to its knees. After all, it’s all-too-often not the crime that brings down the mighty, but the coverup (real or imagined).
