Linda Reynolds vs Brittany Higgins day two: Senator takes cryptic swipe at Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus

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Linda Reynolds vs Brittany Higgins day two: Senator takes cryptic swipe at Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus

Senator Linda Reynolds has taken an out-of-court swipe at federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus as she arrived for the first day of her evidence in her defamation claim against former staffer Brittany Higgins.

Ms Reynolds’ case against Ms Higgins, centring around three social media posts from 2022 and 2023, began on Friday — with extensive focus on the compensation payout Ms Higgins’ received following a complaint to the government about her ***** allegation.

That ***** by Bruce Lehrmann is claimed to have occurred in 2019. Ms Higgins went public with that allegation in 2021. And in December 2022 she agreed to a $2.4 package with the Labour government after just one day of mediation.

That payout was signed off by Mr Dreyfus.

And it was various claims made by Ms Higgins to secure that payout that lawyers for Ms Reynolds focused on during their evidence on Friday.

On Monday, as she entered court, Ms Reynolds said she was “very much looking forward to finally after three-and-a-half years having the opportunity to tell the truth”.

She also cryptically said that she was “glad” the attorney general “did not have reach” into the WA Supreme Court, where the five-week trial is taking place.

Ms Higgins is using the defence of truth to ****** Senator Reynolds’ defamation claim, with her lawyer Rachael Young SC scheduled to deliver her opening submissions on Monday.

And it was formally revealed on Monday that she will be the only witness called in that case, while Ms Reynolds will be relying on more than 20 — including former PM Scott Morrison next week.

Senator Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, robustly defended his client’s actions following Ms Higgins’ alleged ***** by then-colleague Bruce Lehrmann at Parliament House in 2019 on the first day of the trial on Friday.

He said accusations of ill-treatment, ostracism, bullying, harassment and threatening conduct by the senator were a fiction concocted by Ms Higgins and her now husband David Sharaz.

“Every ****** tale needs a villain” and Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz “cast Senator Reynolds in that role for their fictional story of political cover-up of the *****,” he told the Western *********** Supreme Court during his opening.

“She was cast in … critical light and none of it was true.”

He noted Senator Reynolds had never disputed Ms Higgins’ ***** allegation and pointed to Ms Higgins’ personal injury claim, over alleged mishandling of the incident, which the Commonwealth settled for $2.4 million in late 2022.

“The claims made by Ms Higgins were false and Senator Reynolds was denied the appropriate venue, the appropriate time, the appropriate funding by the Commonwealth to defend the actions of herself and her staff,” he said.

Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz created a detailed plan in 2020 and 2021, which she recorded on her phone as “the cult of politics, the media lens of a political **** scandal, anatomy of a political **** scandal”, Mr Bennett said.

“The fact she had been ****** was traumatic and terrible but it needed something more to attract … media interest … so she made it a political **** scandal,” he said.

The couple courted journalists Lisa Wilkinson on Network Ten’s The Project and Samantha Maiden from News Corp amid a “sophisticated” campaign to inflict maximum damage on Senator Reynolds, Mr Bennett said.

Former defence minister Marise Payne, and WA ******** Senator Michaelia Cash are also expected to appear.

Senator Reynolds is scheduled to take the witness stand on Monday after Ms Higgins’ lawyer completes her submissions.

Ms Higgins is expected to give evidence in the last week of August.

Bruce Lehrmann has always denied ********* assaulting Ms Higgins. His ********* trial was aborted because of juror misconduct and Ms Higgins’ mental health was cited as the reason for no retrial.

In a separate defamation case a judge in 2024 found Mr Lehrmann did ***** Ms Higgins but there was little evidence of a cover-up.

With AAP

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