Lisa Wilkinson launches dispute into Logies speech advice
TV presenter Lisa Wilkinson has lodged a new submission to an inquiry into how the rape trial against Bruce Lehrmann was handled, with a focus on the circumstances surrounding her controversial Logies speech.
The probe was announced in 2022 by the ACT government and was to be fronted by Walter Sofronoff KC. At the time of the announcement, it was also stressed that the probe would was about not recontesting Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation, but instead about the conduct of the criminal justice agencies.
And in April 2023, news.com.au confirmed that Lisa Wilkinson had made a submission, which had not yet been made public, that outlined her experience with Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold prior to her speech at the Logie Awards - the same speech that ultimately saw the trial be delayed.
As the publication noted, Channel 10 and their lawyers have disputed allegations that the DPP “expressly warned” Wilkinson against her address at the awards ceremony.
This was reportedly seen in a letter leaked after the trial - one sent to the ACT Supreme Court - that saw Channel 10’s Executive Vice President Beverly McGarvey declare “neither Ms Wilkinson nor the Network Ten Senior Legal Counsel present at the conference with the DPP on June 15 2022 understood that they had been cautioned that Ms Wilkinson giving an acceptance speech at the Logie Awards could result in an application being made to the court to vacate the trial date.
“Had they understood that a specific warning had been given, Ms Wilkinson would not have given that speech.”
Wilkinson had been accepting an award for ‘Outstanding News Coverage or Public Affairs Report’ for her coverage of Brittany Higgins’ sexual assault allegations, and in the wake of the former The Project host’s words, the trial was delayed from June until October.
Lucy McCallum, ACT Chief Justice, moved the dates “with gritted teeth” after Lehrmann’s defence team made a request following the speech and the intense media coverage that followed.
“Unfortunately, however, the recent publicity [of the speech] does, in my view, change the landscape,’’ McCallum said.
“Because of its immediacy, its intensity and its capacity to obliterate the important distinction between an allegation that remains untested at law.
“For those reasons, regrettably and with gritted teeth, I have concluded that the trial date of 27 June towards which the parties have been carefully steering must be vacated.”
Wilkinson had reportedly sought advice from DPP Shane Drumgold in 2021 to go over the evidence that she would present at trial, with a note from the meeting stating that Wilkinson had been given an opportunity to ask any questions she might have had.
It was then that Wilkinson brought up her Logie nomination, though she reportedly noted that she didn’t believe she was in with a real chance of winning, as the show was being held by a ‘rival’ television network.
As news.com.au reported, the DPP stopped Wilkinson from presenting her speech then and there, as he could neither approve nor offer her any advice regarding it, telling Wilkinson that “we are not speech editors.”
“Notwithstanding that clear and appropriate warning, upon receiving the award, Ms Wilkinson gave a speech in which she openly referred to and praised the complainant in the present trial,” Justice McCallum said of the situation.
“Unsurprisingly, the award, and the content of the speech have been the subject of further commentary.”
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