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Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker

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Speaker 1: every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play

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Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian Keyes, what's

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Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Monday, August five.

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Speaker 1: There's a giant shakeup coming for aviation as the federal

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Speaker 1: government vows to crack down on anti competitive behavior and

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Speaker 1: make it easier for new airlines to use Australia's biggest airport, Sydney.

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Speaker 1: One of the nation's most senior Indigenous leaders is accusing

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Speaker 1: Anthony Albanesi of breaking an election promise after the PM

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Speaker 1: said he won't establish a Macarata Commission for Treaty and

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Speaker 1: Truth Telling ULARU Dialogue co chair Pat Anderson says Albanese's

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Speaker 1: position is confusing and a breach of his vow to

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Speaker 1: enact the Uluru Statement in full. Former Morrison government minister

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Speaker 1: Linda Reynolds will enter the witness box in Perth this

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Speaker 1: week in her defamation case against former employee Brittany Higgins

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Speaker 1: and her husband David Chiraz. Reynolds says Higgins and Schiraz

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Speaker 1: deliberately plotted to make her the villain in higgins account

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Speaker 1: of being raped in Parliament House today. Who can possibly

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Speaker 1: win such a personal and expensive legal battle. On July four,

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, Brittaney Higgins fired up her Instagram and

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Speaker 1: published this story.

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Speaker 2: This is from a current Australian senator who continues to

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Speaker 2: harass me through.

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Speaker 1: The media and in the Parliament.

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Speaker 2: My former boss, who publicly apologized for mishandling my rape allegation,

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Speaker 2: who has had to apologize publicly after defending me in

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Speaker 2: the workplace, who had a whole bunch of questionable conduct

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Speaker 2: during my rape trial, who was suing my fiance for

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Speaker 2: a tweet. This has been going on for years now.

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Speaker 2: It is time to stop.

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Speaker 1: We're using a voice actor to bring you Higgins's words,

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Speaker 1: the meaning of which are totally denied by that boss,

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Speaker 1: Senator Linda Reynolds. Included in that Instagram story were two

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Speaker 1: headlines from that day's news reporting that Senator Reynolds, Higgins's

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Speaker 1: former ministerial boss, was objecting to a two point four

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Speaker 1: million dollar compensation payout Higgins had received from the Commonwealth.

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Speaker 1: On twenty July twenty twenty three, Higgins quoted a story

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Speaker 1: from The Australian that said Senator Reynolds was suggesting an

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Speaker 1: amendment to the Act's Crimes Act to deter individuals from

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Speaker 1: using the media or Parliament to refer to an alleged

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Speaker 1: criminal offense that ought properly to be the subject of

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Speaker 1: the criminal justice process. She's what Higgins said on Twitter.

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Speaker 2: Imagine being the person earnestly attempting to change the Crime

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Speaker 2: Act to make it illegal for alleged sexual assault survivors

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Speaker 2: to talk about their lived experience, as opposed to, you know,

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Speaker 2: reforming the justice system to actually prosecuting perpetrators. This proposal

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Speaker 2: completely undermines all the crucial work done by the Let

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Speaker 2: Her Speak campaign and the March for Justice movement. Instead

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Speaker 2: of solving the problem, there are people who would prefer

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Speaker 2: to just silence victims.

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Speaker 1: Now, Reynolds is suing Higgins and her husband David Cheraz

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Speaker 1: for defamation. On Monday, Reynolds will enter the witness box

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Speaker 1: that the truth is about to be told. It voluntarily

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Speaker 1: time for the truth.

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Speaker 3: She sees this very much as her chance to set

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Speaker 3: the record straight in her eyes.

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Speaker 1: Paul Garvey is a senior journalist with The Australian who

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Speaker 1: was in court on Friday when Reynold's lawyer opened the case.

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Speaker 3: She feels like she's been marginalized silence through this process

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Speaker 3: that hasn't had her side told properly and certainly listening

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Speaker 3: to the opening remarks of her lawyer, Mutton Bennett, it

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Speaker 3: was clear that this was almost as much about finally

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Speaker 3: giving her her say as it was about pursuing the

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Speaker 3: defamation matter in itself.

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Speaker 1: Reynolds is also alleging that David Scharraz, now Higgins's husband,

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Speaker 1: defied her on twenty seven January twenty twenty two by tweeting.

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Speaker 4: This, there is a very real chance Linda Reynolds will

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Speaker 4: be called to court this year to answer questions on

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Speaker 4: her involvement in Brittany Higgins. Feeling pressured by her office

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Speaker 4: not to continue with a complaint to police, she uploads

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Speaker 4: this to her official website.

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Speaker 1: Charraz included a screenshot of Reynolds's website, which described the

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Speaker 1: senator as a passionate champion for gender equality and female empowerment.

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Speaker 1: Reynolds says that tweet defined her by implying she was

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Speaker 1: a hypocrite.

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Speaker 3: The content of those posts barely cracked dimension through the opening.

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Speaker 3: The opening was devoted to a large chunk that was

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Speaker 3: devoted to discussing the Commonwealth settlement that was paid to

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Speaker 3: Britney Higgins. Now, Linda Reynolds was frozen out of that

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Speaker 3: process and that's been a big bone of contention for

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Speaker 3: her throughout this whole saga.

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Speaker 1: So a quick recap. Britney Higgins has previously said in

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Speaker 1: an interview with The Project, in a criminal trial and

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Speaker 1: in a civil trial, that she felt ignored, ostracized, and

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Speaker 1: discouraged from going to police after telling her bosses she'd

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Speaker 1: been raped on a sofa in Reynolds's office. The federal

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Speaker 1: courts found, on the balance of probabilities, Higgins was raped

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Speaker 1: on that sofa by fellow staffer Bruce Lammon. He's appealing

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Speaker 1: that finding. Reynolds and her former chief of staff Fiona

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Speaker 1: Brown have always denied discouraging Higgins and have insisted actually

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Speaker 1: they encouraged her to go to police.

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Speaker 3: What we heard from Martin Bennett, reynolds lawyer, was a

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Speaker 3: lot about the efforts that Reynolds and her immediate team

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Speaker 3: went to to try to support Higgins, to try to

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Speaker 3: make sure that she had options open to her, but

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Speaker 3: that she remained the master of her own destiny. Around

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Speaker 3: whether or not she went to police, So not exploring

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Speaker 3: whether or not Higgins was actually raped, but whether or

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Speaker 3: not Linda Reynolds deliberately and callously neglected and made Higgins

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Speaker 3: suffer through this process.

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Speaker 1: Linda Reynolds case seems to allege a really quite significant

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Speaker 1: level of premeditation and planning by Brittany Higgins and David

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Speaker 1: Shiraz in the way that they were going to portray

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Speaker 1: Linda Reynolds in the Project interview and obviously subsequently in

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Speaker 1: these social media posts. That's an interesting take on this case.

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Speaker 1: It's a new one we haven't necessarily heard before, isn't it, Paul?

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Speaker 4: It is.

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Speaker 3: I mean, typically when we're talking about defamation cases, we're

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Speaker 3: looking at the publication and the impact that it has

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Speaker 3: had on an individual's reputation. Here, we're going much more

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Speaker 3: granular and forensic in a way to look at the

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Speaker 3: base motivations and the deliberate tactics that Reynolds and Bennett's

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Speaker 3: say were employed by Higgins and Scharraz.

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Speaker 1: Here, Reynolds has plenty of material to work with the

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Speaker 1: epic defamation trial where Bruce lemm ensued Network ten and

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Speaker 1: presenter Lisa Wilkinson yielded all tens notes, emails, and recordings,

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Speaker 1: including a five hour conversation between Higgins, Charaz, Wilkinson, and

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Speaker 1: producer Angus Llewellyn in which Sharaz cracked jokes about Reynolds

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Speaker 1: and Higgins said things like this again, we've used a

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Speaker 1: voice actor. And Higgins is talking about her belief she'd

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Speaker 1: be more likely to win a civil trial where her

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Speaker 1: allegation against Bruce Lherman were tested.

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Speaker 2: I would love to have a court case on like

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Speaker 2: civil if he wants to go after me on a

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Speaker 2: civil basis, I think on the balance of probabilities, I

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Speaker 2: think I could win. I think if the owners of

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Speaker 2: proof is beyond reasonable doubt, I think that would be different.

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Speaker 2: I don't think i'd win that.

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Speaker 3: That's really at the crux of this argument from Reynolds,

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Speaker 3: that there was a deliberate plan to drag her into this.

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Speaker 3: That transcript you see the parties discussing in that the

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Speaker 3: exact timing of things, trying to line it up with

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Speaker 3: a sitting week, discussing which friendly journalists to drop it to,

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Speaker 3: which friendly laybor MP's to brief on the saga, to

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Speaker 3: ensure that this went as far and as wide as possible,

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Speaker 3: and what Bennett and Reynolds would say is this effort

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Speaker 3: to make sure it wasn't just about a young woman

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Speaker 3: allegedly getting raped it in her workplace, that it was

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Speaker 3: about a political cover up of that incident too, which

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Speaker 3: I think Bennett and Reynolds are both arguing that Higgins

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Speaker 3: and Chiraz knew that it needed to have that broader

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Speaker 3: aspect to it, that extra dimension to make it a bigger, spicier,

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Speaker 3: more dramatic story.

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Speaker 1: Linda Reynolds had to deal upfront with her own attack

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Speaker 1: on Brittany Higgins, a moment when she called Higgins a

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Speaker 1: lying cow and then had to apologize and settle a

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Speaker 1: defamation action brought by Higgins.

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Speaker 3: For those who missed it early on in the saga,

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Speaker 3: I think it was us that the Australian who broke

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Speaker 3: this story about Nnda Reynolds using that phrase lying cow

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Speaker 3: to describe Higgins when she was watching the project interview.

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Speaker 3: So Bennett, basically his argument is that it wasn't suggesting

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Speaker 3: that Higgins was lying about whether or not she was raped,

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Speaker 3: it was lying about Reynolds's efforts to support or protect

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Speaker 3: her in the aftermath.

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Speaker 1: So Reynolds is saying she did call Higgins a lying cow,

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Speaker 1: but only because she object so passionately to the claim

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Speaker 1: Reynolds had ignored or tried to minimize her rape.

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Speaker 3: So Bennett explained it that the comments lying was, he said,

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Speaker 3: utterly appropriate given what Higgins was saying Reynolds had done

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Speaker 3: in her handling of that saga. He said the cow

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Speaker 3: line was unfortunate, but was basically a byproduct of the

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Speaker 3: anger that Reynolds had at that time hearing the allegations

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Speaker 3: were made about her, and then the portrayal of her

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Speaker 3: as someone who was quite sort of brutal towards this

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Speaker 3: vulnerable young woman. So it's all part of what seems

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Speaker 3: to be an element of this case, which is giving

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Speaker 3: Linda Reynolds a voice after all these years.

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Speaker 1: Coming up after years of pre troll wrangling and a

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Speaker 1: hugely expensive court hearing. Who can possibly walk away from

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Speaker 1: this a winner? Something that won't bankrupt anyone is a

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Speaker 1: subscription to The Australian. It's a dollar a week for

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Speaker 1: the first four weeks to get the nation's best journalism

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Speaker 1: twenty four to seven. Check us out at the Australian

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Speaker 1: dot com dot a U. This week, Linda Reynolds will

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Speaker 1: give evidence and next week she'll call witnesses, including former

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Speaker 1: PM Scott Morrison. I don't know if it's just that

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Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time covering the Bruce Lamon

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Speaker 1: defamation trial, and I know that that costs millions and

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Speaker 1: millions of dollars for both sides. But I can only

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Speaker 1: think this must be costing Linda Reynolds a.

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Speaker 3: Fortune, absolutely, and it's something that has left a lot

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Speaker 3: of people quite baffle confused around this whole saga, and

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Speaker 3: that both Reynolds and Higgins don't have a whole bunch

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Speaker 3: of assets to throw at this right the Lerman t

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Speaker 3: while Network ten it's a corporate behemoth. Linda Reynolds is

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Speaker 3: funding this out of her own pocket. Her lawyer has

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Speaker 3: already said that she has had to re mortgage her

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Speaker 3: house to fund this. Now. I don't think Linda Reynolds

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Speaker 3: would mind me saying this, but she's not a young woman, right,

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Speaker 3: She's at the very end of her career. She's retiring

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Speaker 3: at the next election. She is not a prime example

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Speaker 3: of someone who should be driving themselves into hock to

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Speaker 3: fund a legal action. But it shows that for her,

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Speaker 3: she sees this very much as her legacy, her reputation

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Speaker 3: on the line here, but the cost of that is

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Speaker 3: significant financially. If she wins, she can get some money

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Speaker 3: from Miss Higgins in theory, but that will then involve

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Speaker 3: delving into the trust that Miss Higgins has set up,

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Speaker 3: whether that's achievable or not, whether there'll be anything left

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Speaker 3: by the time it comes to that as well. And

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Speaker 3: then from miss Higgins's side, she was, as far as

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Speaker 3: the federal court determined, at least she was actually raped

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Speaker 3: that day, and she would be left in the position

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Speaker 3: where she suddenly has to write a check to the

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Speaker 3: boss of the office in which she was raped, which,

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Speaker 3: if you put yourself in her shoes, that's quite an

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Speaker 3: uncomfortable thing to say the least, so as really lose

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Speaker 3: lose for all concerned. It seems apparent from the outside

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Speaker 3: that that's always going to be the end result here.

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Speaker 3: The pleadings of judges who have handled this case to

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Speaker 3: date to both parties saying, look, please find a way

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Speaker 3: to set all this. Don't take this trial. It won't

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Speaker 3: work out for you. We can all see the end result.

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Speaker 3: It doesn't look pretty for other party. Yet here we are,

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Speaker 3: and it's going all the way.

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Speaker 1: Of course, now Britney Higgins and David Schaaz are the

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Speaker 1: defendants in this matter, which means they have to come

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Speaker 1: up with some defenses to the alleged defamation. We see

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Speaker 1: publishers use the defense of truth and also attempts to

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Speaker 1: show that their journalism was reasonable. I can only imagine

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Speaker 1: in this case, and reading your report of Martin Bennett's opening,

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Speaker 1: that Britney higgins defense is going to be truth, that

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Speaker 1: this was true. What do you think her defense is

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Speaker 1: going to be?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, from what we've seen so far, it's very much

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Speaker 3: about her trying to establish that Reynolds did isolate her,

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Speaker 3: that there was this, as she calls it, harassment of

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Speaker 3: her through that process. We will hear from miss Higgins

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Speaker 3: later in the trial. I think she started down to

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Speaker 3: give about three days of evidence. I think Martin Bennett,

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Speaker 3: for Reynolds, has already shown a little bit as to

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Speaker 3: how he's going to approach that. A lot of what

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Speaker 3: Higgins has said over the journey has been about I

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Speaker 3: felt that I was neglected, I felt that I wasn't supported.

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Speaker 3: He gave a line during the proceedings a couple of

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Speaker 3: times on Friday, saying that feelings are not facts that

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Speaker 3: just because you feel something doesn't make it true. He

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Speaker 3: will be very much focused on where's the documentary evidence,

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Speaker 3: how do you show this? And that's why I think

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Speaker 3: there was a lot of time spent on Friday going

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Speaker 3: over the text messages and the photographs of Brittney Higgins

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Speaker 3: during her time in Perth. So, just to go back

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Speaker 3: a step, when Higgins negotiated that settlement with the Commonwealth,

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Speaker 3: that two point four four five million dollars that she received,

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Speaker 3: part of her claim was that she was sent to

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Speaker 3: Perth where she worked alone in a hotel room seven

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Speaker 3: days a week for six weeks, and that that caused

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Speaker 3: her a deterioration in her mental health. So Bennett on

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Speaker 3: Friday spent hours going through text messages that she was

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Speaker 3: sending to her then boyfriend.

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Speaker 2: It's actually a really nice place and surprisingly spacious, hahuh.

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Speaker 2: Just helping them out with all the campaign launches coming up,

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Speaker 2: fundraising events.

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Speaker 1: It's been pretty fun actually.

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Speaker 3: She talked about how much fun she was having working

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Speaker 3: on the campaign, how she was out and about door knocking,

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Speaker 3: how she was at campaign events and launches and dinners

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Speaker 3: and breakfasts.

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Speaker 2: My day has been awesome spent pool side. It's been

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Speaker 2: really nice liking the WA office. I can't wait for

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Speaker 2: the ANZAC Day festivities.

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Speaker 3: And then this procession of photos showing her doing that

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Speaker 3: door knocking standing with the Prime Minister being a smiley,

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Speaker 3: knotty head in the background of press events and the like.

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Speaker 2: I will be in the back of the PM's announcement today.

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Speaker 2: This is my fifteen minutes of fame.

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Speaker 3: So really sort of signaling that if miss Higgins wants

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Speaker 3: to make that claim that she will need to actually

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Speaker 3: back that up with hard evidence. That seems to be

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Speaker 3: Bennett's aproach at this point in time, and something that

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Speaker 3: he will no doubt thoroughly explore when Higgins does on

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Speaker 3: the stand later this month.

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Speaker 1: Paul Gravey is a senior journalist with The Australian. We'll

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Speaker 1: have live coverage of that trial exclusively for our subscribers

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Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com dot a You