Allegations of more than $10,000 for cocaine, fine dining, rounds of golf, massages and sex workers in exchange for a television interview.
The leaking of an alleged rape victim’s private text messages to national media.
Internecine feuds within Australia’s blokey TV media.
The defamation trial brought by former Australian political staffer Bruce Lehrmann, in all its “sordid” mess (to quote the judge), has gripped Australia this week.
It is a rare federal court trial that attracts tens of thousands of viewers on YouTube, especially one linked to a case that is so long-running and complex..
It began when Brittany Higgins, a political staffer, alleged that her colleague Bruce Lehrmann raped her in parliament house after a night out in 2019. Higgins gave a TV interview – on Channel 10 – and her allegation became totemic for the broader #MeToo movement in Australia.
Lehrmann was charged, but has always denied the allegation and his criminal trial was delayed, first by an public speech given by one of the journalists involved in the Higgins’ interview, and then derailed by juror misconduct.
After the trial was abandoned, prosecutors declined to pursue a re-trial because they feared for Higgins’s mental health.
In the aftermath of the criminal trial, Lehrmann sued Channel 10 over the interview for defamation.
A rival television channel – Channel Seven – then broadcast an interview with Lehrmann in 2023. This week the defamation trial heard allegations from the story’s producer – a now former Channel Seven employee – that Seven paid more than $10,000 (£5,211) for, among other things, sex workers and cocaine, in order to secure Lehrmann’s agreement to interview. The network also claimed “no one was paid” for the interview, until it was discovered it had footed the bill for Lehrmann’s rent for a year – more than $100,000.
Former Channel Seven producer Taylor Auerbach – a last-minute surprise witness – this week testified he was given the job of being Lehrmann’s “babysitter”, and to coax him into signing an exclusive interview agreement.
The pair golfed in Tasmania, and dined on $361 steak, all paid for by the TV station, the court heard. When Lehrmann allegedly bought cocaine during one dinner in Sydney, and then started Googling sex workers, Auerbach claims he texted his concerns to his bosses.
“He’s on the warpath again.
“This is fucked.”
In his closing statement to the court, Matt Collins KC, for Ten, described the alleged tactics used to get Lehrmann to sign on for the interview as part of a “perverse universe”.
“And somehow, in the perverse universe in which this program was apparently operating, Mr Auerbach was not terminated for spending more than $10,000 on the company credit card on illicit activities in connection with getting the story of the year,” Collins said.
Tawdry as that all may be, there is an even more serious allegation: that Lehrmann leaked sensitive information - private text messages and sensitive documents belonging to Higgins - that he obtained as part of the criminal trial, and that he was bound not to share or use for any other purpose. Lehrmann has testified, under oath in court, that he did not share the documents with Channel Seven.
Auerbach has sought to condemn Seven in his testimony, but he has been accused of similar: the court was played a bizarre video of him breaking all of the golf clubs of a former colleague he testified he now hates.
Seven has denied all claims made by Auerbach, dismising him as a disgruntled ex employee.
“The person involved admitted to the misuse of a Seven corporate card and all unauthorised expenses were immediately reimbursed. Seven has acted appropriately at all times.”
Save for the occasional intervention of a bemused Justice Michael Lee, the trial has been a bleak, if compelling, spectacle.
The judgment is expected shortly.
