Lisa Wilkinson believed The Project had an “explosive political story” after being pitched an “extraordinary cover-up”, but her producer has admitted in court he did not have proof of some of the key claims.
The Project claimed in a 2021 broadcast that Brittany Higgins was “forced to choose between her career and the pursuit of justice” after she was allegedly raped in 2019 by a Liberal staffer on senator Linda Reynolds’ couch in Parliament House.
Bruce Lehrmann, who was not named by Ten, brought the defamation case against Network Ten and journalist Wilkinson over the interview with Higgins. Network Ten and Wilkinson are defending the case.
Lehrmann has denied allegations that he raped Higgins and his criminal trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct. A second trial did not proceed due to prosecutors’ fears for Higgins’ mental health.
On 19 January 2021, Wilkinson sent a text to Project producer Angus Llewellyn saying she had a “huge” story about an “extraordinary cover-up involving Linda Reynolds, Michaelia Cash and the PMO”.
Wilkinson’s texts were released by the federal court on Wednesday, ahead of her expected two-day testimony in the witness box on Thursday.
The court heard Wilkinson had been briefed in a telephone call and an email about the so-called cover-up by Higgins’ partner David Sharaz, who was an acquaintance.
In the email Sharaz said “sending this on behalf of Britt, purely because, and this sounds paranoid, we just don’t know who might be keeping a close eye on her”.
A number of documents were attached to the email, including a list of people who knew about Higgins’ allegations, and a timeline of what unfolded after the alleged assault.
Llewellyn, who has spent two days under cross-examination, said he “did not have proof” before the program aired that if Higgins pursued the rape allegation she would lose her job.
Justice Michael Lee asked Llewellyn: “At the time the program was broadcast you had, to use your words, no proof of that allegation that she was being told that if she proceeded with police charges, that is pursued the rape allegation, that she’d lose her job?”
Llewellyn said: “I didn’t have proof … I did not have proof.”
Lehrmann’s barrister, Matthew Richardson SC, then asked: “Mr Llewellyn, the opening words of this program were ‘Tonight, claims of rape, roadblocks for police investigation and a young woman forced to choose between her career and the pursuit of justice.’ You remember that? And you approved that, didn’t you?”
Llewellyn said “it wasn’t me that wrote that introduction”, but he agreed with it.
Llewellyn, however, did not agree that there were inconsistencies in Higgins’ account.
Richardson: “So I want to suggest to you, Mr Llewellyn, but that by this point, there were serious inconsistencies in Ms Higgins’ account of what Reynolds and [Fiona] Brown were saying: agree or disagree?”
Llewellyn: “Disagree.”
Richardson accused Llewellyn of giving Lehrmann “absolutely minimal time” to respond to Higgins’ accusations and of not making a “genuine effort to obtain information”.
Llewellyn disagreed, saying: “I sent him a very detailed request on the Friday and asked for an interview/” The questions were sent late on the Friday afternoon ahead of the program’s broadcast on Monday night and The Project received no reply.
Richardson: “I want to suggest you didn’t really want to reach Mr Lehrmann.”
Llewellyn disagreed.
Llewellyn said he worked on the story for three weeks and it was “the biggest thing The Project’s ever done”.
