The former Liberal staffer accused of rape by three women and sexual harassment by another has checked himself into a private clinic after being stood aside from his job at a large corporation.
Former government staffer Brittany Higgins has alleged the man raped her in the office of their boss, then-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds, in March 2019, three weeks after she started the job. Three other women have since come forward with allegations of assault or harassment by the same man.
More women have come forward with allegations of sexual assault and harassment by the same man Brittany Higgins said raped her in Parliament House.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen/The Project
Ms Higgins intends to make a formal statement to police on Wednesday afternoon to reactivate an investigation into the incident.
Numerous former employers, colleagues, and university peers have described the man as ambitious, self-important and “a real lad’s lad” but said they were shocked by the revelations of the past week.
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have confirmed the man is in a private rehabilitation clinic, days after staying overnight in a Sydney hospital.
A spokesman for the large corporation has confirmed the former staffer started working for the company in July 2020. He would not confirm whether the company was asking its staff if they had experienced any misconduct.
“Given the nature of your inquiry it is not appropriate to comment further,” the spokesman said.
Since Ms Higgins went public with her allegations last Monday, The Australian has reported two more women have made allegations of sexual assault by the same man, one relating to an incident during the 2016 federal election campaign and the other in 2020. On Monday, ABC’s Four Corners reported another woman had made a complaint to police over the weekend alleging the same man had stroked her thigh under the table at Canberra bar Public in 2017.
The man worked for four federal Coalition politicians over four years before landing in Senator Reynolds’ office.
One former politician who knew the man, but spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the man was among the ranks of staffers who filled the corridors of Parliament House “like clones with their pointy shoes and skinny ties”.
Another politician said the man was “uber-ambitious” and had moved on quickly to another job, giving only one day’s notice of his departure.
Ms Higgins said last week the alleged perpetrator had been a “rising star” in Senator Reynolds’ office and a favourite of the minister, but others painted a picture of a man who had moved swiftly between offices.
One said he had been reasonably good at his job but probably a rising star only in his own mind.
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have established the name of the alleged rapist but have chosen not to name him on legal grounds. In a series of interviews with politicians and advisers, those who knew him in Parliament House described him as ambitious but relatively junior.
He began his career in Parliament as a staff member for a Coalition backbencher in 2014 before moving into a low-ranked position in a cabinet minister’s office, where colleagues said he manned the front desk and answered phone calls.
By the end of 2017 he had moved out of the cabinet minister’s office and into a position with a minister outside cabinet, a transfer that did not appear to be a promotion. He moved quickly to another minister’s office before joining Senator Reynolds.
Senator Reynolds became Assistant Minister for Home Affairs at the end of August 2018, starting a process to hire her first ministerial team. She was made Minister for Defence Industry the following March, then Defence Minister in May.
He was sacked on March 26, 2019, four days after the alleged rape, for breaching security at the office.
Labor challenged Senator Reynolds over her handling of the matter last week by asking whether she had stayed in touch with the staffer after his termination, a question she side-stepped in the Senate on Wednesday but answered the next day.
Defence Minister Linda Reynolds says she did not provide a reference for the accused after he was sacked from her office for a security breach.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
“Since the individual in question left my office I have had no contact with him and I have provided no references,” she said.
Others who knew the accused at Australian National University in 2016 said he had more confidence in his own skills than warranted.
“He was not a nice person overall, he didn’t work hard, he just wanted ... all the praise for doing pretty much nothing. A real lad’s lad,” said one former student who fell out with him.
“He just thought more of himself than any of us did, he did literally nothing, just showed up for the drinking, the socialising.”
A second person who knew the man during the same era at university said he was “quite socially awkward” around women.
“He definitely had a fair few friends but no female friends whatsoever,” they said.
On Monday, Senator Reynolds told Parliament she had sought a meeting between Ms Higgins and Australian Federal Police after she learned of the rape allegations.
“It was the assistant commissioner who came up to my office and met briefly with me, alone,” Senator Reynolds said. “Then I took all advice, again, I took all advice, and then the AFP met with Brittany and that was the conclusion of my engagement.”
The minister said she had not told Prime Minister Scott Morrison about the rape allegations, but did not directly answer questions about whether she had told his staff or any other ministers.
“It is not my story to tell and I have always, and I continue, to respect [Ms Higgins’] privacy and her story,” she said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced an independent inquiry into the workplace culture of Parliament House, with Finance Minister Simon Birmingham speaking to Labor, the Greens and crossbenchers to seek a consensus on its terms.
But Mr Morrison side-stepped questions on Monday about whether he would release results to the public, given he has four inquiries under way and one of them is into his own office.
The four reviews are into Liberal Party culture; the federal department structure for handling complaints; the workplace in Parliament; and when Mr Morrison’s office knew of the incident. The last of these is being done by Phil Gaetjens, the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and Mr Morrison’s former chief of staff.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese asked Mr Morrison if he would release the Gaetjens review as soon as it was received, but the Prime Minister would not say. When Labor health spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek asked what steps he had taken to make sure he was informed of serious crime in Parliament in future, the Prime Minister said he had instructed his staff that he would expect to be told.
“That’s what you’d expect me to do and that’s what I have done,” he said.
Mr Morrison expressed frustration last week that he had not been told of the rape allegation even though Senator Reynolds had known of it in April 2019.
Professor Kim Rubenstein and Trish Bergin, the co-directors of the 50/50 by 2030 Foundation at the University of Canberra, called on Mr Morrison to name Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins to the independent inquiry into the workplace in Parliament.
Katina Curtis is a political reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based at Parliament House in Canberra.
Nick Bonyhady is industrial relations reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based between Sydney and Parliament House in Canberra.
Alexandra Smith is the State Political Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.
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2021-02-22 18:00:00Z
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