Last week, The Federal Court’s Justice Michael Lee found that on the balance of probabilities Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins at Parliament House in 2019.
In his judgment, he found the pair had sex in the office of Senator Linda Reynolds, but that Higgins did not consent and that Lehrmann was indifferent to whether she had consented or not.
Following the verdict, Lehrmann scurried off to a regional NSW police station for protection from the masses while Higgins, finally vindicated after two abandoned criminal trials against Lehrmann, spoke out.
In a post shared on X, Higgins said:
“I was raped. No judgment was ever going to change this truth. I lived with shame, humiliation, and fear of what telling my story would mean for my life and career, like so many other victim-survivors”.
She also noted that “for decades, women working in Parliament House have not been heard.”
Higgins went on to thank Justice Lee for his “trauma informed approach, recognising that reactions to assault can vary wildly.”
She also conceded that her “health, memory and relationships have been impacted by my rape.”
It was a courageous statement from a person whose life was brutally turned inside out, scrutinised and smeared over the past three years. Even more honourable was her olive branch to Senator Linda Reynolds and chief of staff, Fiona Brown who were accused by Higgins of attempting to cover up the rape in the weeks following.
In her statement posted to various social media accounts, Higgins apologised, saying that Reynolds and Brown “have also been hurt and for that I am also sorry”.
“My perceptions and feelings about what happened in the days and weeks after my rape are different from theirs. I deeply regret we have not yet found common ground. I hope we can resolve our differences with a better understanding of each other’s experience.”
But resolving differences seems an option removed from the table by Reynolds who has confirmed her intent to continue defamation proceedings against Higgins.
In a statement, Senator Reynolds said she appreciated the apology to her and Brown and hoped the findings would bring Higgins peace.
“My legal action against both Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz were never about the allegation of rape,” Senator Reynolds said.
“My action deals with what Justice Lee exposed as false allegations raised two years after the rape. Allegations that I and my staff, specifically Fiona Brown, not only failed to support Ms Higgins but subjected her to a dreadful and damaging political cover-up.”
While legally, Reynolds likely has a compelling case, the question– as a leader and woman– is whether winning a defamation trial against a young woman raped in your office, in a workplace well documented as unsafe for women, is the moral thing to pursue?
Surely, it would be the prime opportunity for Linda Reynolds to recognise the deep pain and trauma now proven to have occurred to Higgins and accept this apology. If she were to approach the situation with compassion and solidarity, her image would be restored in full; incidentally exactly what she’s aiming to achieve through a defamation win.
And then, of course, there’s the very real possibility of her losing. An outcome that would not only decimate her political career and anything thereafter, but also render her with a harrowing ghost for the rest of her life.
It’s frankly a bet I wouldn’t be making. Reynolds should take the apology, issue a statement of understanding and action toward victim-survivors and move on with her life.