The recorded evidence of a former chief of staff to Liberal senator Linda Reynolds was released by the Federal Court this morning as Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case enters its final days.
Fiona Brown, who was chief of staff to the then defence industry minister in 2019, completed giving evidence on Tuesday in Lehrmann’s defamation suit against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson over an interview with his former colleague Brittany Higgins, aired in February 2021.
Fiona Brown, the former chief of staff to then defence industry minister Linda Reynolds, outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Tuesday.Credit: Steven Siewert
The lawsuit
Lehrmann is suing Ten and Wilkinson over an interview with Higgins, broadcast on The Project on February 15, 2021, that he alleges defames him by suggesting he is guilty of raping Higgins in Reynolds’ office. Lehrmann has denied raping Higgins and has told the Federal Court there was no sexual contact between the pair at all.
The court will not sit on Wednesday, but the trial will resume on Thursday and Friday for closing submissions.
Livestreaming paused
The trial has been livestreamed on YouTube but Brown’s evidence on Monday and Tuesday was not broadcast live owing to mental health considerations. Journalists were permitted to observe her evidence in the courtroom and report on it at the time.
Her recorded evidence, released on YouTube at 10.15am on Wednesday, started on Monday afternoon and continued late into the evening. It concluded on Tuesday.
Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said that he had determined it was in the interests of justice for Brown’s evidence to be recorded and streamed, but not livestreamed, “based on available medical evidence adduced before me”.
He said that everything upon which he made his decision would be in the public domain, but streaming the evidence after Brown had left court was an appropriate safeguard.
‘Covering themselves’
Brown told the court on Tuesday that Reynolds and then special minister of state Alex Hawke had wanted her to make a police report after she disclosed a conversation she had with Higgins in March 2019.
Brown told the court Higgins had “blindsided” her when she told her on March 28: “I remember him being on top of me.”
“I didn’t take it as an allegation,” Brown said. She said Higgins “still had not given me an allegation” but had told her about a recollection.
Bruce Lehrmann outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Monday.Credit: Edwina Pickles
Brown has told the court that by this stage she had been told Higgins had been found naked in Reynolds’ office in the early hours of Saturday, March 23, 2019, and that both she and Lehrmann, who had worked as advisers to Reynolds, had come to Parliament House after hours.
Asked by Wilkinson’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, if she had “thought to yourself, ‘f---’ ” after hearing Higgins’ comment, Brown said: “Something like that, yeah, I thought, ‘wow’.”
Brown said the ministers “felt it was best if it went to police” but “there was no consideration for Ms Higgins”.
“I didn’t have the right; Ms Higgins had the right,” she said.
“So they were covering for themselves, you felt?” Chrysanthou asked. “Yes,” Brown replied.
Assault ‘not ruled in or out’
During her evidence on Monday, Brown agreed that it had entered her mind after speaking to Lehrmann on March 26, 2019, that Higgins may have been sexually assaulted on March 23, but she couldn’t rule it in or out. She agreed she also thought it was “possible” they had sex.
Brittany Higgins arrives at the Federal Court in Sydney on December 1.Credit: Steven Siewert
She said her “antenna went up” when Lehrmann told her that he had come back to Parliament House to drink whisky.
But Brown denied that Higgins told her in their first meeting on March 26, after her conversation with Lehrmann earlier that day, that she had woken up in Reynolds’ office and Lehrmann had been “on top of me”. She did say that she was semi-naked, Brown said.
Brown agreed she had given Higgins the number for the national domestic family and sexual violence counselling service, 1800 RESPECT, at the first meeting. She told the court the department of finance had advised her to do so before she had spoken to Higgins.
“It was part of the advice they provided because of the state of undress, I presume,” Brown said.
The court has heard Brown took Higgins to meet internal Australian Federal Police agents in Parliament House on April 1, 2019, but did not attend the meeting. Ultimately, Higgins opted not to proceed with a complaint until 2021.
On April 5, 2019, Lehrmann’s employment was formally terminated for accessing the office out of hours, but not for the alleged assault.
‘There was no cover-up’
Asked about allegations there was an attempt to suppress Higgins from making a complaint, Brown said Higgins and Lehrmann were in their early 20s and “there was no cover-up”.
The police and department of finance were consulted, the department of parliamentary services knew, and “there was no cover-up”, she said.
Lehrmann not named
Lehrmann was not named in Ten’s interview. A preliminary issue in the case is whether he was identified because of the details provided in the broadcast.
If the court finds Lehrmann was identified in the interview, Ten and Wilkinson are seeking to rely on defences of truth and qualified privilege. Qualified privilege is a defence relating to publications of public interest, which requires a media outlet to show it has acted reasonably.
Sexual assault charge dropped
Lehrmann’s ACT Supreme Court trial for sexual assault was aborted last year due to juror misconduct. The charge against Lehrmann was later dropped altogether owing to concerns about Higgins’ mental health.
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2023-12-19 23:02:09Z
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