2021 Australian Parliament House sexual misconduct allegations
In February and March 2021, a number of allegations involving rape and other sexual misconduct against women involving the Australian Parliament and federal politicians were raised, causing controversy especially for the federal Liberal–National Morrison government.
2019 rape in Parliament House allegation
Background and allegation
On 15 February 2021, Liberal Party junior staffer Brittany Higgins alleged to two media outlets, news.com.au and The Project, that she was raped in the early hours of 23 March 2019 in then-Defence Industry Minister Senator Linda Reynolds' office in the ministerial wing of Parliament House by a colleague, later named as Bruce Lehrmann, after security guards admitted the pair into the building. Higgins said she became heavily intoxicated at a work party and left with her colleague in a taxi, believing they would both be dropped at their respective homes; instead she said she was taken to Parliament House and raped while slipping in and out of consciousness, waking to find her skirt around her waist. In contrast, Lehrmann told police that he and Higgins returned to Parliament House because he needed to pick up his keys, and as Higgins indicated she also needed to return to the office he offered to share his Uber ride. Once they arrived in Reynolds' suite, Lehrmann said he "turned left towards his desk, while Ms Higgins turned right and went to a different part of the office". After working "on a briefing for Parliament's question time," Lehrmann said he left the office without seeing Higgins again. Higgins was later found naked, inebriated and disoriented in the early hours of the morning in the minister's office.Three days later, on 26 March 2019, Lehrmann was told by Fiona Brown, Reynolds' chief of staff, to "collect his belongings from the office and leave" because of his late-night entry into the office at 1:48am on the previous Saturday, and an earlier unrelated incident of him mishandling a classified document, with Reynolds consequently terminating Lehrmann's employment formally on 5 April 2019. On 1 April 2019, Reynolds called Higgins to her office to discuss Higgins' late-night entry into the office, which Reynolds "believed to be a security breach describing the decision of two staff to come into the office at 1:40am as 'highly unusual' and not appropriate". Higgins went to the police after the alleged rape, but dropped the complaint in April 2019, fearful the report would result in termination of her employment. Eventually Higgins transferred to work for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business Minister Michaelia Cash for a year before resigning a month before going public with her allegations.
File:Senator Linda Reynolds.png|thumb|upright|Senator for Western Australia Linda Reynolds, who was criticised for her handling of the alleged rape within her office.
Higgins has accused Reynolds of not supporting her due to the politically sensitive nature of the incident in an election year, and claims to have "repeatedly told her superiors in the offices of Cash and Linda Reynolds" about the alleged rape; "Reynolds and Reynolds' chief of staff, Fiona Brown, soon after the alleged rape, including in a meeting on 1 April 2019". However, "Brown disputes Higgins' timeline", and during the trial Reynolds told the court "that she did not know of a sexual assault allegation when she called Brittany to her office", the office where the alleged rape occurred.
Controversy also arose following Higgins's public announcement regarding Scott Morrison's awareness of the allegations. Morrison, the Prime Minister at the time, denied any knowledge of the assault until Monday 15 February 2021. In late February 2021 it emerged that Scott Ryan knew about the security incident on 27 March 2019, and Tony Smith found out about it on 8 April 2019. Ryan, who was Senate President at the time, and Smith, who was Speaker, were jointly responsible for security in Parliament House at the time and only became aware of Higgins and the alleged sexual assault on Friday 12 February 2021, with Ryan saying he only knew the full details on that Friday. Higgins also claims to have "told Cash multiple times", and recorded a February 2021 conversation with Cash to collect "evidence that Cash had known about her alleged rape since 2019". However, during the trial Michaelia Cash said she knew about a security incident in late 2019 when Higgins began working for her, but only became aware of the rape allegation on 5 February 2021. Peter Dutton, Home Affairs Minister at the time, also knew about the allegation on 11 February 2021 but sought no further action, nor did he alert the prime minister. The prime minister's office seemed to have known details on Friday 12 February 2021 when it first got questions from news.com.au, but staff did not tell the prime minister until Monday 15 February 2021. Higgins criticised Morrison's response and cast doubts over his claim of ignorance.
Response to allegation
Reynolds publicly apologised to Higgins, as did Morrison. Morrison also announced two investigations into the workplace culture at Parliament House. Morrison issued a formal apology on 16 February 2021 and penned a letter to Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, agreeing to develop an independent review into the workplaces of federal parliamentarians and their staff, as well as ordering an internal review into workplace culture and complaints handled within the Liberal Party.Over the following weeks, three more women alleged they had been sexually harassed or assaulted by the same man, still not publicly named at the time, between 2016 and 2020. One woman alleged on 20 February 2021 she was raped in 2020 by the man after the pair had dinner and drinks. On 22 February 2021, a second woman alleged she was sexually assaulted by the man in 2016. A third woman also accused the man of unwanted advances and stroking her thigh under the table at a Canberra bar in 2017. After the story went public, and even though the accused was not named in publications, the accused was stood aside from his job at a large corporation where he had worked from July 2020. He checked himself into a Sydney hospital and the next day he was in a private rehabilitation clinic.
On 4 March, it was reported that Reynolds had referred to Higgins as a "lying cow" after the initial media reports. The Australian reported Senator Reynolds made the comment in the open part of her office and was heard by several staff members, including public servants on secondment from the Department of Defence. Reynolds did not deny using the slur against Higgins, but said it was not about the rape allegation itself, but about reports of the level of support provided. Higgins threatened legal action against Reynolds. Reynolds and Higgins later reached a settlement in a defamation claim under which Reynolds apologised and agreed to pay damages to Higgins, which Higgins intended to donate to a sexual assault support group in the Canberra area.
Reynolds was pressured to reveal what she had known about the incident. On 16 February, Morrison publicly rebuked Reynolds for not telling him of the incident at the time.
Reynolds was due to address the National Press Club on 24 February, but that morning she cancelled the address and was admitted to Canberra Hospital. It was announced that she had taken medical leave related to a pre-existing condition. Reynolds continued to be on medical leave until 2 April on the advice of her cardiologist, and was not questioned during that time in or outside Parliament on the circumstances or of her knowledge of the alleged rape.
Reynolds's sick leave was initially for two weeks, but on the weekend before she would have returned to work, she was advised by her cardiologist to extend her medical leave to 2 April 2021, a total of six weeks. Labor senator Kristina Keneally called for Reynolds to resign, saying "Is the Minister of defence, Linda Reynolds, trying to pretend she is well enough to continue as Defence Minister, but not well enough on the other to front up and answer to questions in parliament and the estimates?" Keneally also called for an independent investigation into allegations against Porter.
On 30 April, Higgins met with Morrison and said she had a "frank and honest" discussion with him. Higgins said the pair also talked about reforming the legislation under which staffers are hired, known as the Members of Parliament or MoPS Act.
On 22 May 2021, the ABC's Four Corners reported,
Legal proceedings
The man accused of the rape, Bruce Lehrmann, appeared by telephone at the Magistrates Court of the Australian Capital Territory on 5 November 2021 and pleaded not guilty. He was committed for trial in the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. In April 2022 the defence team for the accused applied to have his trial halted indefinitely as Morrison's apology to Higgins "imputed the accused with guilt of the offence or at least implicitly assumed the truthfulness of the complaint", and could endanger Lehrmann's right to a fair trial. The judge dismissed the application, saying that a jury member being aware of pre-trial publicity "is not of itself problematic". Higgins made a complaint against the Australian Federal Police for unlawfully giving Lehrmann's defence team protected evidence, including counselling notes and video recordings. The trial was further delayed in June 2022 following the judge warning that the line between allegation and a finding of guilt had been "obliterated" in an acceptance speech by Lisa Wilkinson at the Logie Awards of 2022 and in commentary following the speech.The trial of Lehrmann began on 4 October 2022. It concluded on 19 October, and the jury retired to consider its verdict. On 27 October, the trial was abandoned after it was discovered that a juror had conducted private research and taken their findings into the jury room. Higgins subsequently criticised the criminal justice system on live television, saying it "has long failed to deliver outcomes to victims of sexual assault". Lehrmann's lawyer said "We have brought comments to the attention of the court and the Australian Federal Police... as to whether the complainant's statements might amount to a contempt of court or offences against the ACT Criminal Code".
The matter was relisted for 20 February 2023, although a senior barrister soon after said it remained to be seen if the case is retried, given the extent of comments by politicians and media personalities now making Lehrmann virtually untriable. In December 2022 the case was dropped by Shane Drumgold, the Director of Public Prosecutions, stating it was "no longer in the public interest to pursue a prosecution" after receiving evidence "that the ongoing trauma associated with this prosecution presents a significant and unacceptable risk to the life of the complainant". On 3 December 2022 it emerged that police assessed the evidence as insufficient to prosecute, and "expressed a number of concerns about the case". The accused "consistently maintained his innocence and the case against him was not proven", with the Director of Public Prosecutions declaring that "this brings the prosecution to an end." However, the manner in which the case transpired was criticised.
On 4 December 2022, it was reported that both Higgins and Lehrmann were considering compensation claims. Higgins reportedly intended to sue Reynolds, Cash and the Commonwealth for about A$3 million. On 13 December, Higgins and the Commonwealth reached agreement and Higgins was awarded an undisclosed sum in compensation. This was later disclosed as being $2.3M, and was negotiated in controversial circumstances with the Federal Attorney General specifically excluding Senators Reynolds and Cash and former staffer Fiona Brown from appearing or providing any evidence for the mediation.
The Guardian reported on 8 December that a letter sent in November by Drumgold to the ACT police chief asked for a public enquiry into the case to look at "both political and police conduct". The letter also alleged that police investigators were 'clearly aligned with the successful defence of this matter". The Australian Federal Police Association published a statement calling the allegations a "smear" and unproven while also calling for an investigation into the case. The ACT government subsequently announced an independent inquiry into the case. The results of the inquiry were strongly condemnatory of the behavior of Drumgold, resulting in his resignation.
In January 2023, Reynolds commenced defamation proceedings against Higgins' partner over two tweets that he made.
On 26 October 2023, it was revealed that, in December 2022, Lehrmann was charged with two counts of rape in an unrelated matter that allegedly occurred in Toowoomba in October 2021. He is awaiting trial on that matter. Lehrmann's identity had been the subject of a suppression order in the interim.
In 2023, Lehrmann sued Lisa Wilkinson and Network Ten for defamation over the interview with Higgins which aired on The Project in 2021. Lehrmann told the court that Wilkinson destroyed his right to a "fair criminal trial". Lehrmann claimed in court that he felt isolated and ostracised after Higgins' interview on The Project. He said "I became severely isolated," and admitted to a private hospital suffering emotional distress. The defamation case was judged in favour of Network Ten on 15 April 2024, with Justice Michael Lee concluding that there was "substantial truth" to the allegation that Lehrmann raped Higgins.