Brittany Higgins has come face to face with her former boss, Senator Linda Reynolds, in a Perth court for mediation talks. Senator Reynolds is suing Ms Higgins and her finance David Sharaz, alleging she was defamed in a series of social media posts. Today’s talks concluded a short time ago, Senator Reynolds confirming the mediation was still ongoing.
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00:00 Braced by a phalanx of lawyers, they arrive to a media pack outside the WA Supreme Court.
00:08 The couple flying in from France after being ordered to appear in person.
00:12 It's a difficult place for me. It's beautiful, but just personally, it's hard being back
00:16 in Perth.
00:17 The last time Ms Higgins was in Perth, she was photographed with her then-employer Senator
00:21 Linda Reynolds in 2019.
00:24 They're now locked in a bitter dispute over a series of social media posts that Senator
00:27 Reynolds argues are defamatory.
00:30 The posts were written in the aftermath of Ms Higgins going public with her allegation
00:33 that she was raped at Parliament House by former staffer Bruce Lerman.
00:38 Mr Lerman has always denied the accusation.
00:41 A criminal trial was abandoned in October 2022 following Durham misconduct, and a planned
00:46 retrial was later dropped by the prosecution.
00:49 I think everyone's acting in good faith, trying to get an outcome.
00:51 The retiring Liberal Senator claims Ms Higgins defamed her in an Instagram post and a subsequent
00:56 tweet in July last year.
00:58 She also alleges Ms Higgins breached a non-disparagement clause in a settlement contract she entered
01:02 into in 2021, which prohibited her from speaking negatively about Senator Reynolds.
01:08 Justice Marcus Solomon, who's been overseeing proceedings to this point, taking the unusual
01:13 step of becoming involved in mediation, which recuses him from presiding over any trial.
01:19 The hearing came on the heels of a win for Ms Reynolds, with another defamation action
01:22 yesterday resolving in her favour.
01:25 The ACT government ordered to pay $90,000 and issuing an apology for comments made by
01:30 former Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold.
01:33 The defamation trial between Senator Reynolds and Ms Higgins is set down for late July and
01:37 is expected to take six weeks.
01:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]