The reanimation of claims and counter-claims about a cover-up by the Morrison government is one of the more absorbing aspects of the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case, now about to enter its fifth week before the Federal Court in Sydney.
Was there clear and reasonable evidence of a political conspiracy to hush up a high-profile rape allegation in the weeks before the hotly contested federal election of 2019?
Lisa Wilkinson and her barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC, outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Friday.Credit: Louise Kennerley
Or did Network Ten’s producers, and star presenter Lisa Wilkinson, too readily accept Brittany Higgins’ stated belief that she was a victim of powerful forces inside the Liberal Party, pressuring her to stay silent at the risk of losing her career?
These key questions have dominated the last few days of sword play in the defamation action brought by Bruce Lehrmann against Ten and Wilkinson, as the spotlight veered away from him, and his alleged victim, Higgins, and onto the actions of the network as it bedded down the story.
Lehrmann’s less than stellar performance in the witness box last month may have led some observers (who’ve been viewing the court livestream in their thousands) to assume Ten’s victory was all but assured.
Most notably, he’s failed to offer a convincing account of why he’d arrived with Higgins at 1.30am at Parliament House, went with her to the suite of their then employer, defence industry minister Linda Reynolds, and then left alone some 40 minutes later without (he claims) wishing Higgins even a good night as he departed. Indeed, he denied ever speaking with or seeing her again in those early morning hours, after they’d entered the office together.
But Higgins’ own story – while consistent over time on the gut-wrenching details of the alleged rape itself – has foundered in some other respects, particularly on her interpretation of actions and words from ministers and senior staff, which she construed as pressure on her to maintain her silence in the weeks and months afterwards.
Network Ten is relying on twin defences in the case before Justice Michael Lee. The first, truth, leans heavily on the evidence of Higgins, her parents, two fellow staffers, a former boyfriend, police officers and a rape crisis counsellor. The second – in effect a back-up defence – is qualified privilege, which goes to how reasonably Ten handled and researched the story before Wilkinson’s explosive interview with Higgins went to air on February 15, 2021.
Key questions about cover-up claims dominating Lehrmann case
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15.12.2023
The reanimation of claims and counter-claims about a cover-up by the Morrison government is one of the more absorbing aspects of the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case, now about to enter its fifth week before the Federal Court in Sydney.
Was there clear and reasonable evidence of a political conspiracy to hush up a high-profile rape allegation in the weeks before the hotly contested federal election of 2019?
Lisa Wilkinson and her barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC, outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Friday.Credit: Louise Kennerley
Or did Network Ten’s producers, and star presenter Lisa Wilkinson, too readily accept........
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