Former prime minister Scott Morrison has denied he intended to mislead Parliament over his government’s handling of the Brittany Higgins case.
Ms Higgins alleged she was raped in the office of former defence minister Linda Reynolds, for whom she was working as an adviser.
This weekend the former defence minister’s chief of staff, Fiona Brown, alleged Mr Morrison had given a misleading account to parliament in which he claimed to have spoken to her about the issue.
“I reject […] any suggestion of deliberate intent in any possible inaccuracies and timing matters to the house,” Mr Morrison told the House on Tuesday.
“While I believe my response to be accurate at the time, I cannot fully discount her recollection of events with a more accurate one.”
Meanwhile, the Finance Minister, Katy Gallagher, has also denied misleading the Senate in a June 2021 hearing where she said “no one” from Labor had “any knowledge” of Ms Higgins’ allegation beforehand.
Her statement to the Senate on Tuesday, at almost the same time Mr Morrison rose in the House, related to an unsourced transcript of text messages published by The Australian newspaper sent by Ms Higgins’ partner David Sharaz.
They reportedly showed he had contacted Senator Gallagher days before Ms Higgins gave a bombshell interview airing the allegations, which were the subject of a mistrial.
“I take my responsibilities to this place as a senator very seriously,” Senator Gallagher told the Senate.
“I was provided with information in the days before the allegations were first reported, and I did nothing with that information, absolutely nothing.
“I did not mislead the Senate at Senate estimates on June the 4th, 2021.”
Senator Gallagher said leaked personal communications and scrutiny over her statement at estimates had potentially undermined the broader goal of making Parliament a safer place
“I feel that the message out of this for women who want and need to come forward is watch out,” she said.
“Women [may now] choose to keep allegations of serious sexual or violent abuse silent to suppress the trauma.”
In her weekend interview, Ms Brown alleged that Mr Morrison had knowingly misled the parliament.
“I remember him coming back after question time on that Thursday … and for the first time [after the interview],” she said
“The only thing he says in relation to this matter ever, is: ‘We’ve spoken’. That’s it. ‘We’ve spoken, haven’t we?’.”
Mr Morrison said on Tuesday that allegations of sexual assault should be prosecuted in the legal system.
“It was and remains my strong view that Ms Brown did all she could to support Ms Higgins at that time,” Mr Morrison said.
