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Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the fourteenth of August. I'm zara, i'm emma wa. Senator Linda Reynolds is suing former Liberal staff for Britney Higgins for defamation. Now. It's the latest in a very long string of lawsuits that have been unfolding since Higgins first came out publicly with allegations against her former colleague Bruce Lherman. In today's deep Dive, we're going to explain why a senator is suing her former staffa the case has heard
so far, and what could happen next. But first, m what's making headlines.
Wage growth has outpaced inflation rising prices for the third consecutive quarter, according to new national data. The latest Wage Price Index from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows annual wages grew by four point one percent over the year to June, ahead of the current rate of inflation, which
is three point eight percent. This suggests more Australians are seeing an increase in their real wage, which is how much their pay has increased compared to rising prices, but wage growth is predicted to slow over the next year as the government and Reserve Bank continue efforts to lower inflation. Wages for workers in the private sector row zero point seven percent in the three months to June, the equal lowest quarterly rise for the sector since December twenty twenty one.
The federal government will introduce legislation aimed at strengthening Robodet investigations and holding current and former public service leaders to account. Robodet was an unlawful automated debt collection system that was designed to recover funds from welfare recipients. Under a government proposal announced this week, the Australian Public Service Commissioner would be given additional powers to investigate senior officials involved in robodet.
Public Service Minister Katie Gallahas said the bill will give the Commissioner unambiguous power to investigate former agency heads.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport won't consider new evidence relating to an Olympic bronze medal dispute. USA Gymnastics has announced US gymnast Jordan Chiles originally placed fifth in the women's floor final, but her score was revised up to third after her coach appealed it. The Court of Arbitration and Independent Global body ruled in favor of a complaint from two Romanian gymnasts, who argued the appeal was submitted
outside the required time frame. USA Gymnastics submitted video evidence urging the court to reconsider, but the CIS has refused to do so. US officials said they would pursue every possible avenue and appeal process to let Chiles keep her medal. This could include appealing to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, where the cas IS based.
And today's good news. In a first of its kind discovery, scientists have found water on the surface of Mars, bringing them a step closer to understanding the planet's past. A pocket of liquid with large volumes of water was found up to twenty kilometers deep in the rocky outer crust of the planet, where it's believed to have been for more than three billion years. Scientists have found water on Mars before, but it was previously in a frozen or
vapor state. Just a quick heads up that this deep dive does deal with matters including sexual violence, so if you're not in the right head frame to listen to this today, feel free to jump back on tomorrow now. And we have spoken many times about Britney Higgins on this podcast before. Those episodes were mostly around at first the criminal case against Bruce Lherman that was later dropped, and then Lehman's defamation case against Network ten that he lost.
But today we're talking about a different case, and that is because a new case has been brought by WA Senator Linda Reynolds. Linda Reynolds is suing her former staff for Britney Higgins for defamation.
All right, so lots to unpack there, and I think off the bat Worth acknowledging that this is a really complicated one. So before we talk about this latest case, for the sake of all of us who might be feeling a little bit lost, can you run us through some of the background and how we got here.
Yes. So, in twenty twenty one, Britney Higgins publicly alleged that she had been raped by at that point an unnamed co worker in Parliament House. That coworker turned out to be Bruce Lherman, and Lhman's criminal trial later failed due to dura misconduct. A retrial was eventually abandoned due to concerns about Higgins's mental health. So that was the criminal elements of the case that was kind of put
on hold, never really to be revisited. But then you might remember more recently that Lehman launched a defamation case in the federal court. So this was a civil case. He was claiming that he was identifiable in the initial coverage of Higgins's allegation, so he was suggesting that he had been defamed.
And that was in a series of interviews with Higgins relating to the allegations.
It was and that was a really long case. There were many twists and turns. I think we did two or three episodes on it. Ultimately, the judge in that civil case found that it was more likely than not and that's the threshold that had to be met that Lehman raped Higgins, and therefore Lehman lost that case. You might remember Justice Lee, who was presiding over the case. He told Lerman that having escaped the lions Den, he made the mistake of going back for his hat. That's
the case. Just to jog people's memory. Lehman, who maintains his innocence, has since lodged an appeal. So criminal case they weren't continuing civil case. There was an outcome, but Bruce Lherman is now appealing. Now we have another case.
Okay, So that civil defamation case wrapped in April, or for now wrapped in April, and I think many of us might have presumed that that was going to be the last time this story would be in the headlines. As you mentioned, the criminal proceedings were abandoned, the defamation case seemed to have been wrapped up. But now this story has taken another turn. We have a third player entering the story. At this point, YE talk to me about Linda Reynolds and this case.
Yeah, So, as I said at the top, Linda Reynolds is suing Britney Higgins for defamation and that's over some of Higgins's social media posts, and we'll go into what those posts are a little later, but before we do, I think that it's just a very important context to explain the relationship between the two women, because I had almost forgotten Linda Reynolds was the boss of Britney Higgins
when Higgins alleges that she was raped. Importantly, it was also in Linda Reynolds's office that Britney Higgins alleges that the rape occurred.
After Britney Higgins went public with those allegations, I remember there being criticism about Reynold's handling of the alleged incident at the time, particularly Higgins criticizing Reynolds in a few social media posts. Ye does that tie into these proceedings?
Yeah, exactly. So those are the social media posts that Reynolds is basing this defamation case on. So there are a number of posts, and I'm not going to kind of read them word for word, but essentially at a high level. In one of those posts, Higgins alleged that
Reynolds continues to harass her through the media. In another one, which was an Instagram story, Higgins shared an article that had been written about Reynolds and added text on top of it on the Instagram story that said, instead of solving the problem, there are people who would prefer to just silence victims.
Okay, So with that in mind, Linda Reynolds is then arguing that these social media posts have tarnished her reputation. Is that the crux of.
It exactly, That's the essence of what a defamation case is. And so this trial has now begun it's before the WA Supreme Court at the moment. I will just add that there were attempts to settle it out of court, but all of those attempts failed, so it's made its way into court. After Luhman's failed defamation case in April, Higgins did issue a statement apologizing to Reynolds. It said, I hope we can resolve our differences with a better
understanding of each other's experience. However, Reynolds didn't back down. She said at the time that she was continuing with a legal challenge to clear her name.
Also, probably worth flagging here that Linda Reynolds is a federal senator, so in her capacity as Britney Higgins boss when Higgins was a Liberal staffer, we're talking about Linda Reynolds being a senator. Reynolds has indicated she will not seek re election yet next year, so she will be stepping away from politics in the near future.
Correct.
This case has been going on for a little while now in the WA Supreme Court. As you mentioned, what have we heard from Linda Reynolds and her lawyers? What have they been arguing?
Yeah, well, there's been a lot to be frank and I think that sometimes in the reporting of not just this defamation case, but the two other cases that have come before it, there has been a tendency to cover every single detail, and I think that that says actually to confuse a bit, So I do just want to
keep it really high level here. Essentially, Reynolds's case is predicated on this idea that she believes the Britney Higgins and her now husband David Scharraz had a plan to publicly bring down Linda Reynolds and the government that she was a part of, and she's saying that these social media posts really just built that narrative. Reynolds has expressed to the court that she, and I'm going to quote here, felt like one of those punching clowns at the fairground.
You get punched down and punched down again, and you have to get up smiling. The court heard that Reynolds's health deteriorated quite dramatically after Britney Higgins's allegations were first made public. She said that she was in pain from a heart condition, she wasn't sleeping, and that at one point she had to leave the Senate chamber she was having a breakdown and sobbing uncontrollably. She was then hospitalized and this was reported at the time. She then proceeded
to take three weeks away from her job. She said that she has put her house on the line, everything she's worked for forty years, putting everything on the line to be able to be here and tell the truth. So she is really here, suggesting that the effect of Britney Higgins's allegations about the way that she handled the situation had really seeped into all parts of her life, not just her professional life. We had also heard from
Reynolds's partner who testified in the case. He said, the whole saga has had an immeasurable impact on Linda, on myself, It's affected every part of our life.
And so central to Reynolds's case then is this idea that the saga has impacted her physically, mentally, in every aspect of her life. And also this es that Higgins and Schiraz had a calculated plan to bring her down to damage her reputation exactly. And I saw headlines yesterday about former Prime Minister Scott Morrison and this case. What was that about?
Yeah, So yesterday former PM Scott Morrison was asked to give evidence in this case. So he testified, and he appeared via videolink, and he told the court that he believed that he had witnessed the quote weaponizing of the issue for political purposes to discredit Senator Reynolds, the government and by extension myself. Very strong language there from the former Prime Minister.
Who was of course leader at the time of the alleged.
Rape exactly, and this was something that really ended up defining his prime ministership and in some ways really determining the election. And so when he was asked about when he found out about Higgins's allegations, which again was this really big point in the process, he said to the court, and I'm quoting here, as events transpired, Senator Reynolds chose not to tell me out of respect for the confidence
that she had entered with miss Higgins. He also told the court that Reynolds couldn't continue in her defense portfolio because of health concerns, and that those health concerns were related to the allegations and the fallout that followed. He said, in reference to her cardiac condition. For a period there, we were very concerned that this could be a fatal outcome for her there he's referring to Senator Reynolds.
So some quite strong evidence from Scott Morrison. So we've spoken about Linda Reynolds and why she has brought this case against Britney Higgins, but what about higgins defense, How has she responded and what have her legal team said.
Yes, so Britney Higgins as lawyers are partly relying on the truth defense, and the truth defense is essentially that you can't defame someone if the content of what you're saying is true. So essentially, in this case, it will require lawyers to prove higgins comments were substantially true, including that Linda Reynolds failed to provide adequate support or harassed her.
And so we've seen an example of this kind of defense play out with the Lerman defamation case exactly, so that he claimed he had been defamed, but that Network ten argued he hadn't been defamed because the comments in question were true. That they argued that he had raped Britney Higgins and therefore aligning him with that offense was not defamatory.
Yeah, exactly, And so that's what Higgins as lawyers are in part trying to do here, suggesting that Linda Reynolds was not supportive had continued to engage in a certain way with Higgins and her partner. But Britney Higgins hasn't had the opportunity yet to give evidence that is coming later this month, so we haven't heard directly from her
in this case. One of her lawyers did say to the court though, that the defamation proceedings are retraumatizing her and there has been some conversation about whether a case like this should be pursued by a senator against her former staffer. And you know, both women have come under significant financial stress as a result of this.
And we also know significant emotional distress based on Reynold's hospitalization, Higgins' own hospitalization and her personal struggles that she has detailed. So it certainly doesn't feel like there are really any winners in this one, But we know that Britney Higgins is expected to give evidence later this month. Proceedings are expected to continue to September, and then who knows how long a judgment could take before we get a final decision on this. Regardless, we will stay across it and
keep you updated on the daily ODS. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Ods. If this one brought up any issues for you, you can contact one eight hundred. Respect will pop some links to further resources in our show notes. We'll be back with another episode tomorrow. Until then, have a great day.
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bugelung Calcoton woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.