"This is absurd": PM mocks bizarre Higgins conspiracy
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has denied claims Senator Katy Gallagher misled Parliament over what she knew about Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations, dubbing it a “bizarre conspiracy”.
Amid the Coalition preparing to target the Finance Minister and Labor during question time, Albanese is backing the Senator completely.
He said the real questions were around how the Morrison Government mishandled the issue and not about how Higgins’ boyfriend tipped off Senator Gallagher.
“This is absurd,” Albanese declared.
“It’s a bizarre conspiracy theory – this concocted issue by what is a desperate Liberal opposition looking for any issue.
“Katy Gallagher has been transparent.”
The uproar follows the leaking of a six-hour audio tape that hears Higgins’ partner David Sharaz bragging to The Project that he had a connection with Senator Gallagher and in turn, she would drive the story forward in Senate estimates.
Network Ten has lodged a police complaint over the leak after a tape of Lisa Wilkinson and Brittany Higgins was seen on a rival channel.
Thomson Geer law firm partner Marlia Saunders, who is currently acting for Network Ten in the defamation proceedings, has confirmed she has filed a complaint to Australian Capital Territory Policing.
Ten has complained that the material used was obtained via coercive subpoenas for the criminal trial and should have remained under wraps.
“Last Wednesday, Ten made a complaint to the AFP requesting they investigate an apparent contempt of court,” Saunders told news.com.au.
It relates to material produced under an AFP warrant and a subpoena issued in the ACT Supreme Court which Saunders said “appears to have been disclosed to the media in breach of the implied undertaking.”
“The AFP yesterday confirmed the complaint has been received for consideration,” she said.
The leaked audio tape first aired on Channel Seven during a televised interview on the Spotlight program, it has since been leaked to The Daily Mail, The Australian and Sky News.
The ACT Supreme Court did not release the entire audio at the trial, but parts of it were played to the jury.
The audio hears Wilkinson describing former Defence Minister Linda Reynolds as “a nobody” and an “idiot”, and saying “who is this f***king woman”.
It also recorded the group war gaming the story and suggested Albanese would “definitely” raise the issue in time. Wilkinson has confirmed she never contacted him to do so.
The leaked texts show private discussions with Wilkinson’s husband Peter Fitz-Simons regarding a $325,000 book deal and Sharaz describing then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison as a “c***t”.
Higgins’ private text messages were provided to the police and lawyers during the criminal trials, and have since been leaked by sources unknown to media outlets.
In the text messages, Sharaz suggested he had forwarded the entire transcript of Higgins’ interview with Lisa Wilkinson to Senator Gallagher before the story aired.
Channel 10 were seemingly unaware that Sharaz had forwarded the transcript, which was also a signed statutory declaration, to other parties before the broadcast.
In June 2021, Senator Gallagher was in a state of fury when the then-Defence Minister Linda Reynolds proposed she “knew where this started”, adding she had been tipped off by a Labor Senator before the story broke about what the ALP was planning.
“No one had any knowledge. How dare you! It’s all about protecting yourself,” Senator Gallagher said at the time.
Speaking at an ALP conference in Fremantle, Senator Gallagher was asked if she would stand aside or resign.
“Why would I?" she said.
“I was responding to an assertion that was being made by the minister Reynolds at the time that we had known about this for weeks and had made a decision to weaponise it,” she continued.
“That is not true. It was never true. I explained that to Senator Reynolds that night and she accepted that explanation.”
“Mr Sharaz provided me with information, I think we’ve seen that in the paper in the last couple of days,” she said.
“I did nothing with that information. And I was clear about that at the time.
“There’s absolutely no issue here at all,” she insisted.
“I’ve been clear, I’ve been honest. And at all times, I’ve been guided by the bravery and courage of a young woman who chose to speak up about her workplace. And from that we have had massive changes to that workplace because of the problem.”
Image credit: Getty