The former chief of staff to Liberal senator and then defence industry minister, Linda Reynolds, has told the Federal Court that she contacted the ASIO director-general about Bruce Lehrmann after he accessed the parliamentary office after hours.
In an affidavit filed in Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson, Fiona Brown, who was chief of staff to the then defence industry minister in 2019, said she understood Lehrmann was “keen for a promotion or allocation of ongoing tasks which involved ASIO and security matters”.
Bruce Lehrmann outside the Federal Court in Sydney on December 15.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
But Brown, whose affidavit was released publicly by the Federal Court on Thursday, said that ASIO matters were “not relevant to the Defence Industry portfolio”.
She said that when Lehrmann, an adviser in Reynolds’ office, “learnt that the job offer in the Defence Industry Minister’s office was going to be straight Parliamentary and Budget with some policy, he indicated he was not interested in staying on and said he wanted to pursue opportunities in ASIO”.
“At some point, Mr Lehrmann told me he’d had a job interview, or was pursuing work, with ASIO,” Brown said.
The court has heard Lehrmann had decided to leave Reynolds’ office for a new job when he was instructed on March 26, 2019, to pack up his things after Brown was alerted to a security incident involving Lehrmann accessing the Parliament House office after hours. His role was formally terminated on April 5 over the security breach.
The court has heard Brown was advised by the Department of Finance on March 26 that Lehrmann and fellow Reynolds staffer Brittany Higgins had entered the office in the early hours of Saturday, March 23, 2019, and Higgins had been found later by a security guard naked and passed out.
Brown said Lehrmann told her she came back to the office to drink whisky.
“I asked ‘what else did you do whilst in the office?’ He said ‘I don’t wish to get into that’,” Brown said in her affidavit.
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
She said that she contacted the ASIO director-general on about March 27 and “informed him that the Minister had asked me to contact him about Bruce Lehrmann as it was our understanding that Mr Lehrmann was in the process of getting a job with ASIO”.
“Mr [Duncan] Lewis [the then ASIO director-general] told me he did not recall Mr Lehrmann and asked me to spell his name. He advised that he was not aware of him being in the process of getting a job with ASIO.
“I told him that the Minister asked that he consider revocation of his security clearance should Mr Lehrmann ever be looking for a job with ASIO. I subsequently informed the Minister of my conversation with the director-general,” she said.
Brown said she told Lewis about the unauthorised after-hours office access and an earlier incident in March in which Lehrmann had left a top secret document on his desk.
She said in her affidavit that after the first incident she was “starting to form the opinion that Mr Lehrmann was too immature to hold such highly classified material”.
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 on March 23, 2019, when they were both working as staffers to the minister.
Lehrmann has denied raping Higgins and has told the Federal Court there was no sexual contact between the pair at all.
The court is expected to hear closing submissions from Lehrmann’s barrister on Friday before Justice Michael Lee delivers his decision at a later date.
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.
The truth defence
Under the truth defence, Ten must prove on the balance of probabilities that Lehrmann raped Higgins.
While this is less onerous than the criminal standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt, the so-called Briginshaw principle applies in civil cases involving serious allegations and requires courts to proceed cautiously in making grave findings.
Qualified privilege
Qualified privilege relates to publications of public interest and requires a media outlet to show it acted reasonably. Wilkinson’s evidence was directly relevant to that defence.
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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