A former West Australian Supreme Court judge, Ken Martin, has strongly criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over his handling of the Brittany Higgins case, particularly rejecting claims of a political cover-up. Martin called Albanese’s comments a form of “deflection,” suggesting the Prime Minister failed to acknowledge the distinction between the sexual assault finding and the contested cover-up allegations.
Although on the balance of probabilities the Federal Court judge Justice Michael Lee had found that Bruce Lehrmann had raped his co-worker Ms Higgins but he had also found that there was no evidence of a cover-up.
And over in WA, in the defamation case of former Senator Linda Reynolds against Brittany Higgins, the West Australian Supreme Court judge Paul Tottle also found no merit in the cover-up accusation when he found earlier this year that Ms Higgins had defamed former Liberal senator Linda Reynolds.
Linda Reynolds is now suing the Commonwealth over mishandling, has called for the truth to emerge through legal processes, accusing the government of delay tactics.
In a very tense press conference, Mr Albanese said he did not “accept that characterisation” when asked whether his government should apologise to Ms Reynolds. Mr Albanese refused to accept that senior Labor ministers had amplified claims of a cover-up, despite court rulings finding no political cover-up occurred.
The press conference sparked backlash as the Liberals continue to pressure Mr Albanese for an apology.
Ken Martin, a former judge in the West Australian Supreme Court, said the Prime Minister’s comments amounted to “deflection”.
“He (Mr Albanese) seemed to be incapable of grasping the difference between A, the fact of a sexual assault, which nobody seems to be arguing about anymore, and B, the ‘cover-up’ by several years later trying to run the line, accepted by The Project, that in fact, this poor young woman was forced to make a choice between her career and all that sort of thing if she sort of bleated it out,” Mr Martin told The Australian.
“As Justice Lee said, this is the only cover-up where everybody involved on the other side was advising the person to go to the police.
“I suspect he’s (Mr Albanese) quite an intelligent man, and that seems to me to be a failure to engage with the proposition.
“It’s classical deflection basically.”
All this arrogant obstinance, despite not just rulings by two of the country’s very respected courts, but also there being the video evidence of the two ministers recorded on camera amplifying the false claim of cover-up in the parliament.
Linda Reynolds say the “truth” would eventually come out.
“Putting aside his (Mr Albanese’s) complete failure to grasp the findings of two separate judgments of superior courts of this country, yesterday demonstrated either a complete lack of understanding of his government’s role in the settlement of Ms Higgins’ claims against me, or a blatant lie,” Ms Reynolds said.
“Rest assured the truth will surface and the Australian public will be able to form their own views about the transparency of the Labor government’s process after seeing the exhibits for themselves when this matter gets to trial.
“I will not be dissuaded by the government’s delay tactics and I am not afraid to keep taking this all the way to expose the truth.”
Clearly, the PM is poorly advised. The parliamentary privilege protects the members of parliament from being sued, but that does not render their statements and utterances meaningless in the eyes of the public.
In all this, former Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, is also being dragged into and accused of rushing to settle and pay $2.4 million to Brittany Higgins.
It will be interesting to scan the correspondence (emails and text messages) between the office of the then Attorney General, the PM’s and those two Ministers in question.
Other than the payout and settlement, which the culmination of the alleged deal between allegedly the PM (then Opposition leader) and the ‘mean girls’ on one side and the Brittany Higgins camp on the other, Mark Dreyfus does not surface anywhere. If that is correct (which seems to be the case), was he forced to clean up the mess? If yes, by who?
There is also a question mark over how the ad hoc handling of the issue by the former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who was very quick to accept the alleged rape, might have contributed to the perception of the alleged cover-up.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley criticized Albanese for not providing clear answers about whether Labor ministers used the matter for political gain, asserting that Linda Reynolds and her chief of staff deserved better treatment.
As the case filed by Linda Reynolds progresses, there will be more dirty linen in the public laundry. For some on the Liberal side, perhaps with a strong stench of a classic political conspiracy which catapulted the Labor party onto the Treasury benches in 2022.
Stay tuned.