By now, Linda Reynolds’ PR team at the Murdoch press would have rendered their readers lifeless.
Essentially, it’s a three-pronged media mission to buttress Lovely Linda as she takes on the Commonwealth: the “stitch up” plot over Brittany Higgins’ compensation; the “Mean Girls” fusillade; and Albo’s “amnesia”.
It kicked off with Planet Janet and the Rice Pudding insisting they have “a secret cache of documents” revealing that Linda was excluded by the Commonwealth from the Higgins’ compensation mediation.
This was so secret that most of it was in Reynolds’ earlier statement of claim months ago, which we reported in July: A Girl Called Sue.
The nub of the complaint is that the Commonwealth should not have settled Brittany Higgins’ claim without Reynolds’ input in the mediation.
Reynolds’ most recent statement of claim relies heavily on Justice Paul Tottle’s decision in Reynolds v Higgins and the earlier findings from Justice Lions Den Lee in Lehrmann v Network Ten – both judges could not find a political “cover-up” of the rape allegations or that Brittany had been mistreated by Senator Reynolds.
The Commonwealth’s $2.4 million settlement on December 10, 2022, was made well before any findings by Tottle (August 27, 2025) and Lee (April 15, 2024).
Tottle released subpoenaed documents from the defamation case against Higgins for use by Reynolds in her negligence case against the Commonwealth and HWL Ebsworth – the next phase of her tireless reputation-restoring litigation spree.
Nothing explosive has come to light following the emergence of this “new” material.
By February 2021, it had been widely published that Higgins had been allegedly raped in Parliament House during the early hours of March 23, 2019.
Government lawyers, regardless of what Reynolds demanded, decided that the Commonwealth owed responsibility to a staffer who had been sexually harassed, and subjected to unlawful conduct by one of its employees.
At this stage, it was known that Higgins had been suicidal and her mental health severely compromised.
HWL Ebsworth, or “Haitch” WL Ebsworth, as the Planet refers to the firm, acting for the government, told Reynolds after Labor came to office in May 2022 that it did not want her taking part in the process and that the terms of settlement may not be in her interests if they are not the same as the Commonwealth’s.
When all is said and done, this was a Labor government paying damages to a Liberal staffer for what happened on the Liberal government’s watch.
Reynolds has even claimed that she had to sue Higgins to restore her reputation that had been damaged by the Commonwealth’s settlement.
She has complained to her favourite hacks at The Australian about how “bitterly disappointed” she was that the NACC had not supported her “corruption” complaint against former Attorney General Mark Dreyfus for authorising Higgins’ payout.
Linda has also shown other kindly qualities to Brittany, such as successfully suing her over a bunch of long-forgotten posts on social media and then seeking to bankrupt her and her husband.
While Justices Lee and Tottle may not have seen enough evidence to point to a “cover-up”, this doesn’t mean that Brother Scott’s government wasn’t on a mission of damage control after the rape allegation hit the headlines.
Factors to consider:
• Linda’s selective memory as to whether or not she knew about the sexual assault before a meeting in her office on April 1, 2019 – her evidence at the criminal trial c.f. her interview on Spotlight;
• John Kunkel, the PM’s chief-of-staff, said he was “not in a position to make a finding that the PM’s office was briefing against Higgins’ partner, David Sharaz – yet Scott falsely claimed that his staff had been “cleared”.
• Even though people at the PMO knew about the sexual assault as early as April 3, 2019, Morrison claimed he was not told about the alleged rape until February 15, 2021, nearly two years after it took place. He lettuced Reynolds for not letting him in on something that everyone else knew about.
• Linda Reynolds issued a statement on February 18, 2021, saying she was “deeply sorry” she added to Higgins’ distress – explaining she had not passed on information about the sexual assault out of “concern for [Higgins’] welfare and safety”.
• Fabulous Phil Gaetjens, secretary of the Department of PM & C, was commissioned to investigate who knew what about the rape. He paused the investigation after a friendly chat with AFP boss Reece Kershaw. Later he fearlessly resumed the task, only for his report to disappear.
• Lehrmann was sacked from Reynolds’ staff for a “security breach”. Yet, when Lehrmann was asked on April 4, 2019, to show cause why he should not be terminated, Linda already knew there had been a sexual assault allegation. “Security breach” became officialese for “the couch incident”.
• Linda came up with the idea that it should be an offence for alleged sexual assault survivors to talk publicly about their experience prior to any criminal proceedings.
That’s enough breadcrumbs for now but, for heaven’s sake, don’t call the fallout from the “couch incident” a cover-up.
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In the solemn belief that too much is never enough, PM Albanese has been dragged into it. Linda insists that he is supposed to embrace the judicial findings about no cover-up and “acknowledge he got it wrong”.
It seems like the PM had embarked on a deflection to a question, possibly referring to the findings in the Lehrmann defamation action, rather than getting anything “wrong”.
Hacks at The Australian managed to resurrect retired WA Supreme Court judge Ken Martin, who agreed that there was a difference between the rape and the cover-up allegation:
“I suspect he’s [Albo] quite an intelligent man, and that seems to me to be a failure to engage with the proposition. It’s classical deflection basically.”
By this stage, only the most dedicated lovers of Linda’s various causes have a clue what is going on. The decimated Liberal Party has brilliantly hitched its broken wagon to the embittered, superannuated Reynolds.
No one had ever heard of someone called Andrew Wallace until his claim that the Prime Minister must start grovelling because he must have known what went on at the mediation.
Mr Wallace turns out to be from the Sunshine Coast and, as of last month, is the shadow attorney general. Previously, he was notable as the co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of the Australian Seafood Industry.
Anyway, Wallace is calling for “justice”.
“The appalling parliamentary weaponisation by Labor of Ms Higgins’ claims, under the cover of parliamentary privilege, helped put (Mr Albanese) in the Lodge.”
Quite possibly, the abuse of women in parliament’s harassment free-for-all makes rape in a ministerial office a legitimate issue to be “weaponised”. Anyway, Andy looks to have a long and distinguished stint in the Opposition’s justice zone.
Fortunately, Larissa Waters from the Greens and leading Teal Zali Steggall have come up with a sensible suggestion: that Reynolds and her former chief-of-staff, Fiona Brown, donate any payouts the Commonwealth might make to sexual violence support services. That might put an end to the unremitting whinging.
The Planet, nowadays an official monitor of community standards, and the Rice Pudding were also on the war path of the ‘Mean Girls’ – furiously scribbling notes dictated from Perth by Linda.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher have been removed from Reynolds’ claims against the Commonwealth, but that doesn’t mean they should be ignored. Linda wants to know “what they may have to hide”.
One of numerous allegations is that the Mean Girls “belittled” ALP senator Kimberly Kitching when “she opposed Labor’s plan to weaponise the rape allegations against the Morrison government”. Linda is wasting more oxygen and time by insisting on a parliamentary investigation into the Mean Girls.
More ink and forests will be invested in this dogged, repetitive, and eye-glazing campaign that already has readers turning to Greg Sheridan for light relief.
It looks like former Solicitor General Justin Gleeson and former NSW bar president Dr Ruth Higgins (no relation) will be saddling up for the Commonwealth.
I’ll leave it to an over-excited Planet to guide you through the thickets.
Links
Secret documents reveal Labor’s alleged plot stitch up Reynolds over Higgins payout
What do the ‘Mean Girls’ have to hide, asks Reynolds, as Wong and Gallagher erased from claim
Anthony Albanese dodges Brittany Higgins cover-up question
‘No parliamentary privilege here, PM’: Linda Reynolds’ warning on Anthony Albanese’s ‘amnesia’
Liberals won’t rest till ‘Mean Girls’ Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher say sorry
Judge pans Anthony Albanese over Higgins’ case ‘deflection’