Former Liberal staffer Fiona Brown defied two Coalition ministers’ orders to report an incident involving Brittany Higgins to police in 2019 because she believed Higgins needed control over the situation, the federal court has heard.
Brown agreed with a suggestion by defence barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC, for Lisa Wilkinson, that Senator Linda Reynolds and special minister of state, Alex Hawke, were “covering themselves”, or protecting themselves, by instructing her to make a police report.