Lisa Wilkinson says she was “largely out of the picture” in the days leading up to the broadcast of The Project’s interview with Brittany Higgins in 2021, a federal court has heard.
Wilkinson and Ten are co-respondents in a defamation trial brought by Bruce Lehrmann who says he was defamed by a rape allegation made by Higgins on Ten’s The Project. Lehrmann was not named but says he was identifiable.
In her second day of evidence on Friday, Wilkinson was asked a series of questions about why the response from the then prime minister’s adviser Andrew Carswell did not prompt her to ask Higgins to explain any contradictions in her account.
“At that point, it had been taken to a point where others more senior than me were making those sorts of big decisions,” Wilkinson said.
Lehrmann’s barrister, Matthew Richardson SC, asked: “Did [producer Angus Llewellyn] tell you that [Carswell] had said [Reynolds’ chief of staff Fiona] Brown kept extensive notes?”
Wilkinson replied: “No, I wasn’t told.”
Richardson asked: “Did you receive a sort of detailed summary of this call or not?”
Wilkinson said: “No.”
Richardson then asked: “Were you told that the spokesperson had said that Ms Higgins had not been treated dismissively and that she’d been offered support on multiple occasions?”
Wilkinson replied: “No.”
The former Sunday Project presenter said that while these discussions were going on she was preparing to present the show and working on other stories.
Earlier in the trial Llewellyn gave evidence about a conversation with Carswell about Higgins’ treatment by Reynolds’ office.
Wilkinson said she was briefed that it was an angry phone call from Carswell but she wasn’t aware of all the points he made.
Wilkinson said she had seen “the official responses” and she was satisfied they were published on The Project’s website.
“At that point in the afternoon, I would have been in the hair and makeup department,’’ she said.
After she finished her cross-examination by Lehrmann’s team, Wilkinson’s own barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, asked her if she wrote the introduction to the Project story, which referred to “a young woman forced to choose between her career and the pursuit of justice”.
Wilkinson replied: “No.”
Wilkinson said she “trusted” Ten’s legal department when it gave advice about The Project’s decision to identify that Higgins’ alleged rapist worked in the same office.
“I left those decisions to others more qualified than me to decide whether or not it was appropriate to keep those details in the broadcast,” Wilkinson said.
“I knew that the Channel Ten legal department was across this story. And I trusted that it was appropriate for those details to be in there.”
Wilkinson was asked to explain what she meant when she sent a text to Llewellyn on the day of the Project broadcast while she was watching parliamentary question time saying Reynolds was “lying through her teeth”.
“Okay. Have you been watching question time?” Wilkinson said in the text.
“Lots of focus on the story. Penny Wong magnificent. Reynolds lying through her teeth.”
Wilkinson identified the lie as Reynolds saying that, at the time of her initial meeting with Higgins, she was “not aware of the details or the circumstances of the alleged incident in my office. Had I known, I would have conducted the meeting elsewhere.”
Higgins had alleged she was raped on the couch in Reynolds’ office.
Before Wilkinson left the witness box, Justice Michael Lee asked her some questions about her relationship with Higgins’ fiance, David Sharaz, and whether she considered him a good friend.
He began by asking her if victims of sexual assault were vulnerable to being manipulated.
Wilkinson agreed.
Lee asked: “Speaking of your own view at the time, do you think it was a good idea to use someone like Mr Sharaz as a conduit for communications with Ms Higgins rather than deal with Ms Higgins directly to the extent that he was being used as a conduit?”
Wilkinson said her “preference was for Ms Higgins to be the main contact” but in the latter stages she left it up to her producer to keep in contact with Higgins.
Ten’s legal team told the court earlier that Sharaz has not been called as a witness because he “was not on the scene 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.
The trial will continue next week.
