The Scandal That Just Keeps on Giving is giving some more. Who’d have thought a drunken root in the boss’s office would be causing headlines and lawsuit after lawsuit nearly five years after? But, as I’ve written many times, let those who loose the dogs of scandal beware lest they cop a mauling themselves.
Brittany Higgins has already got a tough lesson in just that, having been forced to declare bankruptcy for defaming former Defence Minister Linda Reynolds. Her husband, David Sharaz, has also been served bankruptcy papers. Dear, dear: it’s all a long way from that French maison paid for by the Australian taxpayer.
The dogs of scandal are also fast turning on the Albanese government. It was the then-Albanese opposition, remember, who weaponised Higgins’ claims, especially the blatant lies about a ‘coverup’, in order to bring down the Morrison government. As soon as they got into government, Labor awarded Higgins a $2.4m payout, in an opaque single-afternoon process.
A process that is only now being exposed to the harsh light of scrutiny. And it’s not looking good for the government.
A secret cache of documents has lifted the lid on the Albanese government’s manoeuvring to award Brittany Higgins $2.4m in a settlement that ensured former Liberal minister Linda Reynolds would be unable to defend herself against the former staffer’s claims.
Those claims were that Reynolds orchestrated a cover-up of Higgins’ rape allegations. Reynolds’ defamation case exposed that that was a lie. Now, we’re finding out just how much Labor greased the rails to give Higgins millions of our dollars.
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 commence her claim – which Ms Reynolds alleges was against her instructions and done without telling her.
Another letter reveals that 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.
All of this would have remained hidden from public scrutiny, had not Reynolds’ lawyers subpoenaed documents.
Ms Reynolds alleges the commonwealth and the law firm were in breach of their duty to act in her best interests when they settled Ms Higgins’ claim after a one-day mediation from which the MP was excluded by then-Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.
“By taking away my right to defend myself, when the Attorney-General took over my defence in the civil claims Brittany Higgins made against me, he denied me the right to defend what three courts have now demonstrated were lies,” Ms Reynolds told the Australian.
“So for me, making it right means putting me in a position, financially, they can’t restore the last five years, but in a place where I would have been had all of this not happened” […]
Ms Reynolds’ lawyers had sent a detailed letter to HWL Ebsworth protesting against the government taking over her defence, given the clear conflict of interest for Mr Dreyfus, who had publicly supported Ms Higgins’ version of events.
The documents also show just how far the government bent over backwards to make sure that Higgins’ got a fat payout.
The new documents show that at 10.06pm on December 6, 2022 – one hour and 54 minutes before Ms Higgins’ claim would have been barred by the limitation period – the commonwealth’s lawyers at HWL Ebsworth emailed Ms Reynolds’ lawyers telling them it was taking control of her defence.
It’s all quite the twisted legal web. One thing’s for sure, though: the scandal is far from done and it’s all sure to just keep getting worse for the people who unleashed it in the first place.
Well, live by the sword of scandal…
