Senator Linda Reynolds gives evidence in defamation trial
Liberal MP Linda Reynolds has told a Perth court about the moment she realised the extent of an alleged "pre-meditated" plan, by her former staffer Brittany Higgins, to damage her. The senator is suing Ms Higgins over social media posts she claims defamed her in an almost five-week trial underway in the WA supreme court.
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00:00Well, Senator Reynolds is suing her former staffer, Ms Higgins, over the suggestion that
00:05these posts defamed her by suggesting the senator failed to support Ms Higgins when
00:11she made public, sorry, when she came to her in 2019 after she alleged she was raped in
00:17Parliament House. Now, the senator says the post suggests she mishandled the situation
00:23and was in fact part of a political cover-up to try to suppress the allegation in the lead
00:27up to the 2019 federal election. There were concerns that she wasn't supportive and didn't
00:35provide help to Ms Higgins. Now, the senator says Ms Higgins acted maliciously and she
00:41says that these posts were in fact part of a plan that Ms Higgins and her partner had
00:47to use the allegation of rape as a weapon to inflict political damage against her and
00:51the Liberal Party. Now, Ms Higgins argues her rape allegation was mishandled and she's
00:57relying on a defence of truth in this case.
01:02And so what happened in court today?
01:04Well, today is the first time Ms Higgins' lawyer has had the opportunity to cross-examine
01:11Senator Reynolds. So, she's chosen to focus initially on the infamous lying cow comment.
01:17Now, Senator Reynolds was watching, you'll have to, your viewers will have to cast their
01:21minds back, but in 2021 the allegations, the bombshell allegations that Ms Higgins
01:27made about being raped in Parliament House were made public for the first time. They
01:32were aired on The Project. Now, Senator Reynolds was watching that TV show in her office when
01:39she first learned about these allegations. Now, the senator says she made the comment,
01:44the lying cow comment, in relation to the claims that Ms Higgins was making about how
01:50Senator Reynolds and her staff handled the allegations. She's told the court today that
01:55she wasn't, she rather wasn't making those comments about Ms Higgins' allegation that
02:01she was raped. And in fact, Senator Reynolds has told the court that she's never doubted
02:05that Ms Higgins was raped and that she believes her. However, she was angry that Ms Higgins
02:11was making the allegations publicly in the media, that the senator failed to support
02:17her in 2019 in the aftermath.
02:21And so Rebecca, is it expected that Senator Reynolds or former Senator Reynolds is going
02:25to be in the witness stand for a couple of days yet?
02:29Well, Joe, this is a five-week trial and the entire first week is set down for Senator
02:35Reynolds. So we've just finished her giving evidence, being examined by her own lawyer.
02:40We've moved to cross-examination. So she's expected to be in the witness stand for at
02:45least, until at least the end of the week.