Andrew L. Urban
Two judges, Justice Lee and Justice Tottle, have found Brittany Higgins lied about a political cover up of her alleged rape in then Minister Linda Reynolds’ Parliament House office. Yet Justice Lee accepted her word over Bruce Lehrmann’s to find on the balance of probabilities that Lehrmann had raped her.
This scenario raises troubling questions about Justice Lee’s finding about the rape: does Higgins evident unreliability, amplified by Justice Tottle’s finding, infect, undermine, her rape claim? In a criminal trial held now, it certainly would.
The consequences of the findings against Higgins’s credibility about the cover up are now rolling out and damaging Labor as the Prime Minister and the two “Mean Girls” (aka Attack Girls) Katy Gallagher and Penny Wong, dangle on the hook, denying reality. Have they stepped on a rake?
Labor senators Wong and Gallagher repeatedly accused Reynolds and the Morrison government of engaging in a political cover-up of the incident. Albanese on Wednesday repeatedly refused to answer questions on whether his government and those senior ministers should apologise to Ms Reynolds over their attacks, which were made under the cover of parliamentary privilege.
“Linda Reynolds and (her chief of staff) Fiona Brown are owed better treatment by their government and they continue to be denied basic answers to basic questions,” says Opposition Leader Sussan Ley. “Given Anthony Albanese was happy to make all sorts of claims about Linda Reynolds when he was Opposition Leader, it’s time for him to stop ducking and weaving, show leadership and directly answer questions.”
The consequences include the $2.4 million compensation payout to Higgins, with the PM trying to wash his hands as if anyone would believe that it has nothing to do with him or the Government.
“Yesterday,” said Linda Reynolds, “in response to a question about the settlement process, he was quoted as saying, ‘Those things are hands off from the government. I had no role in that as Prime Minister and that’s entirely appropriate’. Either that statement is true and it is highly alarming, or that statement is false – which will be borne out by the discovery, subpoena and evidence processes in the Federal Court.”
Albanese’s answer is perhaps best characterised as adding insult to injury. Stay tuned, this storm continues.