In a world where there is no nuance, no shades of grey, where angry logic lives in echo chambers of prejudice, the news that rape survivor Brittany Higgins has been ordered to pay her former boss, Linda Reynolds, a hefty penalty for a defamation may tempt some to relocate her from the victim to the villain column.
That would be a mistake.
On March 23, 2019, Higgins was entitled to feel safe when she accompanied Liberal defence adviser Bruce Lehrmann to the Parliament House office of then defence minister Reynolds after a night out on the tiles. Security vision shows her in a pretty white dress and bare feet walking unsteadily alongside her male colleague before disappearing. We know now she was raped. She went to her managers, to police and then to the media.
As entrenched institutional wrongdoing was revealed, what followed was a tornado of toxic claim and counterclaim played out across the front pages of News Corp papers. It dragged on for years. Higgins was belittled and undermined and her supporters were characterised as manipulators who could not be trusted. Lehrmann was characterised sympathetically.
Victim blaming
Higgins was portrayed as a politically manipulative attention seeker. She was just 24 and had been working in what she thought was the job of her dreams as a Liberal Party media adviser in Canberra, Australia’s democratic heartland. She’d had no desire to have her mental health destroyed or her life trawled over. She’d had no wish to see her face splashed across TV screens every night, her integrity and character deconstructed by strangers and malevolent actors. She did not want to become a punching bag for powerful vested interests who sought to silence her and who briefly drove her out of Australia. She was the traumatised victim of a violent assault drowning in a firestorm.
And so, against that backdrop, she made a series of defamatory social media posts falsely imputing that Reynolds had pressured her not to proceed with a genuine sexual assault complaint and was a hypocrite. She falsely implied the minister had engaged in a campaign of harassment and had mishandled the rape allegation. The distress sent Reynolds’ health on a downward spiral and derailed her career.
On Wednesday, the WA Supreme Court awarded her $341,000 in damages and interest after a four-year legal battle. Outside the court she told reporters:
“I was falsely accused of conspiring with the then prime minister to cover up the rape of a young woman in my office. This lie was so shocking, it was so despicable and so devastating that I had no choice but to stand up tall and keep fighting.”
Rape trauma
Tellingly, Supreme Court judge Paul Tottle also noted Higgins’ motives needed to be assessed against the background of physical and psychological rape trauma.
In 2024, after an aborted criminal trial, Justice Michael Lee found in civil proceedings on the balance of probabilities that Lehrmann had raped Higgins. The irony was that Lehrmann had brought the proceedings against Network 10 and journalist Lisa Wilkinson in an attempt to clear his name.
Tottle wrote in his finding that Higgins:
“… was a rape victim struggling with the long-term effects of the crime. She perceived the perpetrator had been able to get on with his life. I accept she felt this was a grave injustice and that sense of injustice was accompanied by feelings developed over time that she had not only been let down but was also silenced by the Liberal Party. By early 2021 the defendant had persuaded herself there had been a cover-up, even though that conclusion was not supported by the facts.”
The traumatic effects of sexual assault can play out for years. There were no winners when this young woman stepped up to reveal the injustice done to her. It’s clear there is a mental health battle she is still fighting after enduring a rape that was then weaponised against her. She did not appear in court to give evidence during the proceedings on medical grounds. It is also clear she does not want her future to be defined by that night in 2019.
Strong heart
The Australian Financial Review reports that she has a new job in Melbourne in advocacy and public relations and has signed a book deal. She told the paper:
“There was this general feeling of ‘how long do I have to be the story for?’ At what point do I get to put it to rest and actually get on the tools and be a working person again and have my own identity outside this narrative of Brittany Higgins? To feel sidelined and forever be living in your trauma is really reductive.”
And there’s the kicker. The awful crime which was committed against her has been a wrecking ball through so many lives, including Reynolds, but none more so than Higgins. She has been picked apart in multiple court hearings and inquiries (Lehrmann is appealing against the rape finding) and is still a handy target for the attack dogs at News Corp.
It takes backbone to be a young female whistleblower and then to decide against the tide of opinion that you’ll pick up your career and reclaim your identity away from those who like to brand you the Liberal staffer who was raped in Parliament House. Time and again, powerful forces who like the system working just as it is will crush women who speak out against sexual assault. It is the price of courage.
Regardless of what she has lost and the mistakes she has made, that quality characterises Higgins above all others.
Brittany Higgins is an inspiration – Linda Reynolds should be ashamed of herself having to have some kind of public victory over her!
Fortunately for us she has left the house … never to return
Lovely article, Nicole. Thank you.
The initial incident in Parliament House has resulted in us seeing the true colours of a lot of people. Brittany’s colour shines the brightest – she has been very courageous amidst such unfair treatment by so many.
My heart weeps for a system that would act so punitively against a victim of sexual assault. A maximum payment to a victim of crime via the respective state system Is $50,000. So under the law, a victim of crime is so valued, but a person who plays in the big people’s sand pit, and has his or her feelings hurt, is able to extract over $350,000 from a sexual assault victim.
Senator Reynolds through her successful court action has permanently cemented her reputation.
Thank goodness for an article showing the trauma of sexual assault. Thank you Nicole. My mother was raped by her stepfather when she was in her teens. It was front of mind on her deathbed at 94. Bravo Brittany.
Such an empathetic and strong case for Brittany’s courage! I am so moved by you giving a voice to Brittany’s integrity and all of our hopes for real justice.
Thank you Martin
Seemed the judge missed the experience of the victim of the heart of this crime . The power relations of the workplace as they were experienced by the young victim and as these were carried over into the court room in Reynolds case .
The whole LNP cesspit, and all who swim in it, are complicit in what happened to Ms Higgins… and the culprit remains at large, thanks to a juror’s cynical sinking of the case… all very convenient for the ‘conservatives’ to play games with the laws they claim to believe in
Good luck to you Brittany Higgins! Courage personified.
No wonder there is difficulty in recruiting women to the LNP let alone gaining the women’s’ votes
👏👏👏
‘…thanks to a juror’s cynical sinking of the case…Above.
Why has this juror and the incident never been investigated publicly? That matter which as stated above had such serious consequences and so many parties with vested interests is a crucial plank of the incident. Such a conclusive way of shutting down inquiry is ripe for inquiry! But not a whisper. Same on whoever plastered over this one. And shame on the supine passivity of the press.
With all these cost flying around I would like to know who paid who’s legal costs and what did it cost the Taxpayer ?
Is thats what it cost to stay out of goal what does that say about the legal system ?
We will ,no doubt draw our own conclusions about this decision, but Reynolds, a third rate Minister in the worst government this country has ever had, under the worst, most dishonest hypocrite of a Prime Minister we’ve ever endured,who caused no end of damage to Higgins, as well as the country at large.
To me,Reynolds comes across as a professional victim.The law, as someone said, can be an ass.
I could not have put it better!
Well said
Right again, Harry. The historically dodgy Libs’ concern for justice? Just us.
Bravo. Well said.
Here here! What reputation was she protecting! The woman who went for the victim because she could – this act is an example of the government of which she was a member.
In claiming such a hollow victory Linda Reynolds might claim she has been vindicated, but she is likely now feeling even more hollow. It’s probably only now that she can begin to see the irony in her vindictive actions… that taking this legal action for injuries done to her public image has resulted in her public image sinking even lower. Sad really, but like Lehrman she brought it entirely on herself.
Yes, Mark, ex-Minister Reynolds has done so much damage to her reputation with this pyric victory that she should seek legal advice about a potential defamation case against herself and her (legal) advisers!
Walking beside Brittany from the start, alongside too many other women disempowered by the system.
So the judge makes these remarks about the ordeal Higgins went through and its effects on her and then he proceeds to add to the trauma by awarding Reynolds a hefty sum as compensation?
And Reynolds… yes, she’s been falsely accused by a rape victim of mishandling the case. And so she sues the rape victim to clear her name, in a way confirming that shes prepared to sacrifice the traumatised woman’s wellbeing to save her own ‘good name’ (she’s a Liberal politician and a minister in the Morrison government). So does she now feel like her reputation has been restored? Will the $300,000 be enough to get over the
“shocking” and “despicable” accusations?
I understand that it must have been distressing for Reynolds but how she thinks that suing Higgins for damages makes her “stand tall”… I’m sure that there are other ways she could’ve pursued that would’ve resolved the issue without making her look like she doesn’t care one bit about the damage this court case would inflict on Higgins on top of the damage already done to her. But no – let’s see if we can upend Higgins’ life again. Let’s see if we can keep her name in the headlines for a little bit longer.
I doubt she’ll get her political career back. But she sure has confirmed the perceptions many people already had of her.
Who would I like my daughters to be like, Brittany or the Senator?
Whatever the result of the case, Reynolds will be remembered for her slavish devotion to Morrison and her willingness to prosecute the basest causes of his government. No more need be said.
Presumably the ‘good’ former senator will now donate her win to a rape crisis centre. That might redress some of the pettiness she has exhibited.
I look forward to the upcoming sbs robodebt documentary.
Reynolds may think she has retrieved her reputation but in my opinion she has stepped further into the mire.
Maybe she could donate the awarded funds to a rape crisis centre.
Excellent nuanced piece Nicole. Thank you. Really enjoy your podcast too. Doing great work.
Has there ever been a legal payout more tainted, futile and gratuitous in this country?
The chasm between legality and morality in this case would swallow an aircraft carrier.
Whatever achievement or vindication Linda Reynolds thinks she’s earned here can only be found in the space between her ears.
This whole ordeal is a blight on all of us. We elected the LNP in (not me), they totally destroyed our country in many ways.
Suing a rape victim is one of the lowest things any human can do.
Lying Cow proved time and again only person she was interested in was herself.
Plus using parliamentary privilege to do another did at Brittany shows how pathetic she really is.
‘Poor Fellow My Country’, stated Xavier Herbert in his novel. A country that won’t or can’t achieve justice for a rape victim is poor indeed! Politicians should hang their heads in shame. We should all hang our heads in shame!
Brittney Gets Raped. Have I got that right? Linda is the true victim of injustice. Have I got that right? Therefore Brittney must pay Linda? It doesn’t feel like that is right. So what have I got so wrong?
Too hard to even think about this. The “crime” was disgusting. Some of us will never get an apology, not a cent to cover our pain and shame, and justice…well, never to be seen. Best wishes to Brittany…a
But why do forces like those at work in News Corp get off completely free when they have done their utmost to smear Ms Higgins’ reputation?
Excellent article – thank you The Politics
Still waiting for the name of the steam cleaning company that cleaned the sofa !
Three weeks out of an election and ScuMMo didn’t know ?
Sending a rape victim to the other side of the country away from cameras …
and we were never to mention the rapist’s name on social media who was in a clinic for HIS mental health … ! 😩😡
Reynolds appears to have safely retrieved her hat.