Lisa Wilkinson told Brittany Higgins and her partner, David Sharaz, that she was motivated to report on the alleged rape as she wanted to be a “champion for women who are being suppressed”, court documents show.
A 268-page transcript of a five-hour conversation Higgins and Sharaz had with Wilkinson and The Project producer Angus Llewellyn in 2021 was released by the federal court on Thursday.
It provides an extraordinary level of detail about the mindset of Higgins and the journalists in the weeks immediately before The Project interview was aired in 2021, revealing Higgins’ allegations she was raped in Parliament House.
Lehrmann is suing Wilkinson and her employer Network Ten in the federal court over the interview with Higgins that was broadcast on The Project in 2021. He alleges the story, which did not name him, defamed him by suggesting he raped Higgins in 2019.
Lehrmann has denied raping Higgins and pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual intercourse without consent. His criminal trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct and the second did not proceed due to prosecutors’ fears for Higgins’ mental health.
In the transcript, Wilkinson describes her working class background as a girl from Sydney’s western suburbs as part of her motivation for pursuing the story.
“The inequality that exists out there, whether it’s white privilege, whether it’s male domination, whether it’s criminal activity that is suppressed,” she said. “I’m a girl from the western suburbs of Sydney, I’ll always be motivated by exactly the same thing. People who deserve to be heard not being heard.”
When discussing who else could appear on the upcoming Project, the group discussed approaching the former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop for an interview.
Wilkinson said Bishop wanted to “up her price on the corporate speaking circuit” so had started making speeches about the need to lift women up to banks and corporations at the price of about $40,000.
“She shat all over the Liberal party at a Women’s Weekly Women of the Future awards,” Wilkinson said. “I’ve seen her give the same speech about four times and she always talks about the same stuff.
“So, if we worry that Julie will not play ball with us, then we just need to get those grabs.
“Because that’s when we got … the truthful Julie. Every other time she was asked to speak for the sisterhood, when it didn’t work for her financially, she wouldn’t do it.”
The transcript also shows that all parties involved in the conversation were acutely aware weeks before the program was broadcast that Lehrmann could sue for defamation, even if he was not named.
Higgins said it would be possible for people within the Liberal party to put “two and two” together about the allegations, given it was known Lehrmann had worked in the same office as Higgins and had been dismissed shortly after the alleged rape occurred.
While Higgins said she did not expect Lehrmann would ever be named, she also said she would “love” the chance to contest a civil case against him. But she expressed doubt about the likelihood of ever being able to prove a criminal charge of rape against him.
“If he wants to go me after, like on a civil basis, I think, on the balance of probabilities, I think I could win,” Higgins said.
“I think it’s, if the onus of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt, I think that would be different. I don’t think I could win that.”
Llewellyn, who produced the interview by Wilkinson for The Project, comments shortly before Higgins that “when it comes to defamation, [his] reputation is clearly going to be lowered by being called a rapist. And whether people could identify him … by the story.”
Earlier in the conversation, the group discussed the prospect of Lehrmann legally “coming after” Higgins.
“It’s … usually the broadcaster and it’s a very bad look,” Llewellyn said.
“So who’s got assets worthwhile going after? It’s the broadcaster who didn’t do their due diligence and haven’t got their facts right, so, and it’s also a very bad look to go after someone who’s clearly, yeah, suffering the impacts.”
The transcript also details how Higgins explained her decision to make the allegations public and her motivations for doing so.
This included the Four Corners program about the “Canberra bubble” and seeing the then prime minister, Scott Morrison, award the Australian of the Year to Grace Tame.
“[Morrison was] side-stepping any sort of accountability on the basis that it wasn’t his government,” Higgins said.
“I just found it infuriating because I was like your entire team fundamentally were involved in my entire case so I just, it got to the point where I just, every story was like a re-traumatising experience and so that was kind of the last personal straw.”
Higgins was speaking to the pair while she was still employed by the Coalition government but she intended to quit before the interview was aired about four weeks later.
“I don’t want money,” Higgins said. “I’m not going after them with a lawyer for anything. I don’t want anything. I’m not fired, I’m not a disgruntled employee, I’m quitting.
“I’m not gaining anything in this and I’m just trying to make sure I’ve dotted my is and crossed my ts in every way, where they can discredit me.
“Because I know they will, they’ll find ways. But I’m trying to just sort of make sure that everything’s done the way where I’m not seen to be profiteering in any way, shape or form. Because I’m not.”
Higgins also articulates what the coverage of her case would be like, should it become public, particularly given she worked for a government that was perceived as having a problem with how it treated women.
But she also said she was committed to her work and wanted to maintain her career, saying she had been a fan of The West Wing and aspired to become like the press secretary on that program, CJ Cregg.
“On the basis of who it was, on the basis of where I worked, I knew the moment I went to the police it would be a media story,” she said. “I was always very cognisant of the fact that, the moment this was reported, this will be a story.
“Not because of me, not because of Bruce, but on the basis of a) where it happened and b) who I worked for.
“And I was always hyper-conscious of the media commodification of my story and I was scared of it.”
Wilkinson responded shortly afterwards that Higgins would have become “the cherry on the top of the women problem cake” within the government.
In June, the Australian federal police were asked in June to investigate the leaking of a recording of this conversation and other material after it was used in reports by media outlets including the Australian and Seven Network.
The defamation hearing continues.
