WEBVTT - How Brittany Higgins’ boss was vindicated

0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:08.200
<v Speaker 1>From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.

0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:15.440
<v Speaker 1>It's Thursday, July thirty, twenty twenty six. A new blood

0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.840
<v Speaker 1>test for Alzheimer's disease and it promises to detect the

0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:26.239
<v Speaker 1>condition twenty years before symptoms emerge. Australia's recorded a two

0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:30.000
<v Speaker 1>hundred and fifty percent increase in reported anti Semitic incidents

0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:32.720
<v Speaker 1>in the past two and a half years, the biggest

0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:37.200
<v Speaker 1>surge of any country with a significant Jewish population. Those

0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:41.000
<v Speaker 1>stories alive right now at the Australian dot com dot au.

0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.400
<v Speaker 1>It's more than seven years since Brittany Higgins was raped

0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:52.440
<v Speaker 1>inside Federal Parliament, but the reverberations of that event continue now.

0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.800
<v Speaker 1>Higgins boss at the time, has won a payout from

0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:59.640
<v Speaker 1>the Commonwealth after she accused them of breaching her workplace

0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.560
<v Speaker 1>right and effectively blaming her. So what does it all

0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:07.240
<v Speaker 1>mean for everyone else who works in the emotionally charged

0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:11.560
<v Speaker 1>and hr free political bubble. Stephen Rice is here in

0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:19.240
<v Speaker 1>just a moment. I wasn't a person who'd just gone

0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:21.240
<v Speaker 1>through a life changing traumatic event.

0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:22.600
<v Speaker 2>I was a political problem.

0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:25.200
<v Speaker 3>The worst thing you can say to a woman she

0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:26.520
<v Speaker 3>brought plus another woman's rape.

0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.840
<v Speaker 1>Stephen rice is The Australian's New South Wales editor and

0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.560
<v Speaker 1>for years now he's been covering the saga triggered by

0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:41.760
<v Speaker 1>Britney Higgins allegation of rape against Bruce Lamb and a

0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:43.959
<v Speaker 1>claim that was found in the Federal Court to be

0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:47.480
<v Speaker 1>true on the balance of probabilities. Ricey this case has

0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:51.280
<v Speaker 1>damaged the careers of almost everyone who's come into contact

0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:54.560
<v Speaker 1>with it, and the person whose story is probably the

0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:58.600
<v Speaker 1>most compelling and touching I think is Fiona Brown. She

0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.560
<v Speaker 1>was the chief of staff to Linda Reynolds, the minister

0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:06.040
<v Speaker 1>when this allegation was first raised. There's been a big

0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:08.799
<v Speaker 1>development in Fiona Brown's case against the Commonwealth.

0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:13.720
<v Speaker 4>What's happened well, Fioda Brown had sued the Commonwealth over

0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:17.400
<v Speaker 4>her treatment by the government and the government she was

0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:21.680
<v Speaker 4>talking about it was the Morrison government because Fiona Brown

0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.840
<v Speaker 4>felt that she had not been properly supported by Scott

0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.200
<v Speaker 4>Morrison or any of his senior ministers while she was

0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:32.240
<v Speaker 4>being attacked for these false allegations that she and Linda

0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:37.160
<v Speaker 4>Reynolds were somehow responsible for not taking care of Brittany

0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:40.560
<v Speaker 4>after she'd made these allegations and all that they'd been

0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:42.800
<v Speaker 4>involved in a cover up of the whole thing for

0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:46.440
<v Speaker 4>political purposes. At that point, she could quite rightly have

0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:50.440
<v Speaker 4>expected that the government, her employer would step in and

0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:54.000
<v Speaker 4>protect her, and instead, according to her, they did nothing

0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.040
<v Speaker 4>of the sort. And so she's taken this action. She

0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:01.000
<v Speaker 4>filed it eight months ago. It took the the government

0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.160
<v Speaker 4>six months to even mount a defense, and it's a

0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:08.560
<v Speaker 4>very flimsy defense, and last week the government agreed to

0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:09.600
<v Speaker 4>settle with her.

0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.720
<v Speaker 1>In twenty twenty three, Stephen Rice and Janet al Bretson

0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:18.440
<v Speaker 1>interviewed Fiona Brown about her story. You'll hear snippets of

0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:20.600
<v Speaker 1>that conversation throughout this episode.

0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:22.640
<v Speaker 3>You have is your name.

0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:25.920
<v Speaker 5>That's what you're come in with, is what you go

0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:27.760
<v Speaker 5>out with. You fight for your name.

0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:29.560
<v Speaker 3>So that's what I did.

0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:34.400
<v Speaker 1>This was heading for trial. It would have been a

0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.000
<v Speaker 1>ripping trial, rising because we would have got Morrison to

0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:39.920
<v Speaker 1>give evidence as well as other people. Are you slightly disappointed?

0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:45.240
<v Speaker 4>I'm very happy for Fiona Brown that she's achieved a settlement.

0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:47.960
<v Speaker 4>I don't know what it is, but hoping it's a

0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:51.960
<v Speaker 4>decent settlement. But yes, to be perfectly honest, it would

0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:56.240
<v Speaker 4>have been I think very revealing to have had Scott

0:03:56.280 --> 0:04:01.320
<v Speaker 4>Morrison and his most senior advisors in the witness box

0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:07.279
<v Speaker 4>giving evidence about the way that they conducted that whole episode.

0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.640
<v Speaker 4>Don't forget there was a conflagration going on at around

0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:16.600
<v Speaker 4>the time that Britney Higgins' allegations were revealed. The Morrison

0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:23.000
<v Speaker 4>government was hugely under fire for allegedly not caring about women.

0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:29.400
<v Speaker 4>We cannot trust this place, not while it operates like

0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:34.400
<v Speaker 4>a shameful boy's only locker room. And this blew up

0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:38.800
<v Speaker 4>as the prime example of the way that Morrison and

0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:43.640
<v Speaker 4>his merry men didn't care about women in Parliament, women

0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:48.440
<v Speaker 4>in general, but specifically about Britney Higgins. And of course

0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:51.400
<v Speaker 4>the Prime Minister walked into Parliament and made a national

0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:53.720
<v Speaker 4>apology about what had happened to her.

0:04:54.920 --> 0:05:01.440
<v Speaker 2>I am sorry, we are sorry. I'm sorry to miss

0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:06.560
<v Speaker 2>Higgins for the terrible things that took place here and

0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:11.200
<v Speaker 2>the place that should have been a place of safety

0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:14.960
<v Speaker 2>and contribution turned out to be a nightmare.

0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:20.520
<v Speaker 4>And Fiona Brown, quite rightly, I think, felt that parts

0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:25.240
<v Speaker 4>of this speech implied that she hadn't taken proper care

0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:29.760
<v Speaker 4>of Britney Higgins. In fact, Fiona was the one who

0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:34.039
<v Speaker 4>led Brittany by the hand down to the Police Office

0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:37.839
<v Speaker 4>in Parliament to report this. So at least two judges

0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:41.800
<v Speaker 4>now have expressed the view that there was no cover up,

0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:45.920
<v Speaker 4>that both Linda Reynolds and Fiona Brown treated Brittney Higgins

0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:47.200
<v Speaker 4>with the utmost care.

0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.400
<v Speaker 1>Here's what Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said about that.

0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:57.440
<v Speaker 6>Despite the expression implied criticism of her, Miss Brown went

0:05:57.480 --> 0:05:59.839
<v Speaker 6>out of her way to reassure Miss Higgins and supported

0:05:59.880 --> 0:06:03.039
<v Speaker 6>her and assisted her in contacting the police. As missus

0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:06.040
<v Speaker 6>Brown her self put it, she did her professional best

0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:07.640
<v Speaker 6>with what was given to her.

0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:13.560
<v Speaker 4>So I think for these purposes for fionder Brown, it's

0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:15.440
<v Speaker 4>great that she's come to the settlement.

0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:20.560
<v Speaker 1>Her allegation against Scott Morrison, apart from a general feeling

0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:23.600
<v Speaker 1>that she was excluded and that she was made to

0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:27.200
<v Speaker 1>feel like a hindrance or a paying for the government,

0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:31.039
<v Speaker 1>was that Morrison came past her desk after speaking in

0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:33.400
<v Speaker 1>Parliament about this issue while he was under far from

0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.960
<v Speaker 1>labor and said to her we've spoken, haven't we. What

0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:37.599
<v Speaker 1>did that mean?

0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:42.719
<v Speaker 4>Well, he was trying to imply after the fact that

0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.880
<v Speaker 4>the two of them had spoken about the Brittney Higgins

0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.240
<v Speaker 4>case because he just told Parliament that they had. She

0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:53.200
<v Speaker 4>says that didn't happen. Not only did it not happen,

0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:56.320
<v Speaker 4>but this was the first time after the whole thing

0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:58.960
<v Speaker 4>broke that the Prime Minister had spoken to her at all.

0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:03.719
<v Speaker 4>So she was shocked and I think bewildered, frightened when

0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:07.320
<v Speaker 4>suddenly Morrison appears out of the blue and says, we've spoken,

0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:11.880
<v Speaker 4>haven't we. And it would have been interesting to have

0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:17.239
<v Speaker 4>heard Scott Morrison's recollection of that event on the witness

0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:21.760
<v Speaker 4>stand I and he's publicly said that he doesn't remember

0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.480
<v Speaker 4>the conversation that way, but he's also not willing to

0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:27.720
<v Speaker 4>challenge Fiona Brown's version of it.

0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:32.120
<v Speaker 1>Fiona Brown depicts that inner circle of the Morrison government

0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:34.880
<v Speaker 1>as kind of the boys club closing ranks, and that

0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:38.560
<v Speaker 1>she certainly felt very excluded. There's such an interesting kind

0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:41.720
<v Speaker 1>of circularity to that, isn't there. Because Britney higgins allegation,

0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.320
<v Speaker 1>which has been found by the Federal Court and the

0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.239
<v Speaker 1>WA Supreme Court not to be made out on the facts,

0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.640
<v Speaker 1>was that this was a misogynistic government that had actively

0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:55.560
<v Speaker 1>concealed her rape. Fiona Brown makes a similar accusation of

0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.760
<v Speaker 1>sort of sexism and of old school tie. I don't

0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:03.119
<v Speaker 1>know fear of women, but coming from a very different

0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.120
<v Speaker 1>point of view, doesn't she Where do we end up?

0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:06.880
<v Speaker 5>How do you think about that? Look?

0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:12.600
<v Speaker 4>For me, I think the principal harm done to Fiona

0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:17.200
<v Speaker 4>Brown was done because the government found itself in the

0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:18.640
<v Speaker 4>middle of this maelstrom.

0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:21.559
<v Speaker 5>The me Too movement had reached its peak.

0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:27.400
<v Speaker 4>The government was desperate to appear to be friendly towards

0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:31.640
<v Speaker 4>women and well disposed towards these kinds of claims of

0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:35.920
<v Speaker 4>sexual harassment, sexual assault. So I think those were the

0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:40.760
<v Speaker 4>issues more at play. But yes, it did certainly seemed,

0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.080
<v Speaker 4>and I think quite legitimately to founder Brown may have

0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:46.640
<v Speaker 4>looked very much like a boys club at work.

0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:50.120
<v Speaker 3>She made me in that program with the Project, more

0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:56.120
<v Speaker 3>of the villain than Bruce Lehman. I was framed as

0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:58.840
<v Speaker 3>the perpetrator in that interview.

0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:04.880
<v Speaker 1>Fiona Brown was not the person I think that she

0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.640
<v Speaker 1>was initially depicted as in that original Project story. She

0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.520
<v Speaker 1>was not this sort of hard edged political operative hollow

0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:14.800
<v Speaker 1>man for one of a better phrase. She was new

0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:16.640
<v Speaker 1>to chief of staffing as her first job as a

0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:19.480
<v Speaker 1>chief of staff, Linda Reynolds was kind of making her

0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:21.880
<v Speaker 1>way up in the ministry, but was also not part

0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:24.360
<v Speaker 1>of the kind of inner circle of kind evil liberal

0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:27.360
<v Speaker 1>operative zo they were about to be. And I think

0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:31.360
<v Speaker 1>if you manage people, the bind that Linda Reynolds and

0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.320
<v Speaker 1>Fiona Brown found themselves in feels very real. A young

0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.240
<v Speaker 1>person comes to you and says, something awful has happened,

0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:40.120
<v Speaker 1>but I don't want to go to the police. I

0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:41.800
<v Speaker 1>don't want there to be any more fuss about this.

0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:45.240
<v Speaker 1>I'm moving on. Please don't make me make this into

0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:48.760
<v Speaker 1>a big deal. Despite that, Fiona Brown did take her

0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:52.760
<v Speaker 1>down to the police office Linda Reynolds. According to Fionda

0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.280
<v Speaker 1>Brown in their federal court when she gave evidence there,

0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:58.840
<v Speaker 1>Linda Reynolds was trying to order Fiona Brown to go

0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:01.560
<v Speaker 1>to the police herself one stage, even if Brittany didn't

0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.679
<v Speaker 1>want to go. What do you think you manage.

0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:05.320
<v Speaker 5>People too right? For he?

0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:08.280
<v Speaker 1>I mean, has it? Do you feel some of that

0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:09.240
<v Speaker 1>dilemma that they were in?

0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:13.160
<v Speaker 4>Oh? Absolutely, I mean nothing like this had ever happened,

0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:16.000
<v Speaker 4>not only to them, nothing like this had ever happened

0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:20.360
<v Speaker 4>to Parliament before. And here were these two women trying

0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:24.000
<v Speaker 4>to do their best and to me it was a

0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:28.200
<v Speaker 4>classic situation. On one side, Look, if she's saying that

0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:30.800
<v Speaker 4>she's been secretly assaulted, we have to make her go

0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:33.480
<v Speaker 4>to the police about it. And on the other side, no,

0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.920
<v Speaker 4>she's got to have some agency herself in whether she

0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:40.439
<v Speaker 4>goes to the police. It was a very difficult situation

0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.839
<v Speaker 4>for both of them to be in, and certainly as

0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:46.720
<v Speaker 4>far as Justice Lee, who examined this minutely in the

0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.880
<v Speaker 4>federal court case that Bruce Leman had bought and lost,

0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:53.360
<v Speaker 4>just as Lee found that both those women had acted

0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:56.559
<v Speaker 4>in the best way that they could under the circumstances

0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:58.480
<v Speaker 4>that they found themselves in at that time.

0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:12.640
<v Speaker 1>Coming up, Will all this make any difference to politics.

0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:18.480
<v Speaker 1>I think political staffers live by the assumption that they

0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:20.880
<v Speaker 1>don't have the same workplace protections that the rest of

0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:23.760
<v Speaker 1>us do. They are working in a sector where their

0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:26.080
<v Speaker 1>bosses could get resolved at any time for kind of

0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:28.400
<v Speaker 1>any reason if the prime Minister or the premier thinks

0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.000
<v Speaker 1>they're a liability while they're out, and there's no unfair

0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:34.080
<v Speaker 1>dismissile claims for politicians. That has kind of any assumption

0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.440
<v Speaker 1>for political staffers too, that you could be punted at

0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:38.960
<v Speaker 1>any moment, and bad luck if that happens to you.

0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.480
<v Speaker 1>They all lose their jobs when an election is called,

0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:43.240
<v Speaker 1>and then they just have to hope that they get

0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:48.239
<v Speaker 1>reemployed if the government gets re elected. What is this settlement?

0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:51.160
<v Speaker 1>How does this change our perception of where the political

0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:53.760
<v Speaker 1>staffers do have some rights as employees.

0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:59.199
<v Speaker 4>Well, unfortunately it didn't go to court, so there's no precedent.

0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:02.880
<v Speaker 4>And again it would have been an interesting case because

0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:06.160
<v Speaker 4>one of the claims that the Commonwealth makes in its

0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:11.400
<v Speaker 4>defense against Fiona Brown is that the Prime Minister is

0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:16.520
<v Speaker 4>entitled to make political decisions and have political conversations with

0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:20.960
<v Speaker 4>his staff that aren't workplace conversations.

0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:23.240
<v Speaker 5>Now, I find that absurd.

0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.280
<v Speaker 4>If a Prime Minister comes along to one of his

0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:33.079
<v Speaker 4>vulnerable staff, senior staff in the workplace and says, we've spoken, haven't.

0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:35.640
<v Speaker 5>We about a workplace issue?

0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:39.920
<v Speaker 4>I don't think that the Commonwealth is entitled to claim

0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:42.800
<v Speaker 4>that that's not a workplace issue. But it did. That's

0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.120
<v Speaker 4>what it says in its defense. It's extraordinary.

0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:46.840
<v Speaker 1>It's kind of saying, well, the Prime Minister is not

0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.040
<v Speaker 1>the Seoh he's not really the boss. That's kind of

0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:49.520
<v Speaker 1>the argument.

0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.400
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, but maybe he's not the ultimate boss. Maybe he

0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:56.840
<v Speaker 4>doesn't pay her himself, but he was her manager. He

0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:01.520
<v Speaker 4>was the person that she reported to in this political,

0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:04.600
<v Speaker 4>come administrative, come public service position.

0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:11.760
<v Speaker 1>Linda Reynolds has also feels extremely hard done by. She's

0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.360
<v Speaker 1>very aggrieved and she's and she spent a huge amount

0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:17.080
<v Speaker 1>of money on a deformation action which she won, but

0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:20.360
<v Speaker 1>who knows whether her bills will get paid because Britney

0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:24.280
<v Speaker 1>Higgins has now gone bankrupt. Brittany Higgins had been ordered

0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:27.120
<v Speaker 1>to pay eighty percent of Miss Reynolds's legal costs. She

0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:29.560
<v Speaker 1>will now be required to hand over her estate to

0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:34.760
<v Speaker 1>an appointed trustee. So what's the former Senator Reynolds's case

0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:36.560
<v Speaker 1>against the Commonwealth now and where does that go?

0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:41.040
<v Speaker 4>Well, her case against the Commonwealth is slightly different from

0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:45.560
<v Speaker 4>Fiona Brown's, So Linda Reynolds's issue was really about the

0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:50.199
<v Speaker 4>two point four million dollars that the Albanese government handed

0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:54.600
<v Speaker 4>over to Britney Higgins without so much as a question

0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:58.440
<v Speaker 4>ian Apart from the very short time frames that were

0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:04.120
<v Speaker 4>involved in that case. They literally relied on Britney Higgins

0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:08.840
<v Speaker 4>to tell them what had happened. So Linda Reynolds is

0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:13.600
<v Speaker 4>claiming that the government breached its fiduciary duty towards her

0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:18.480
<v Speaker 4>and that by awarding Britney Higgins this two point four

0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:22.320
<v Speaker 4>million dollars, it was essentially saying she was right and

0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:27.640
<v Speaker 4>that then Senator Reynolds had been involved in something that

0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:29.080
<v Speaker 4>shouldn't have occurred.

0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:32.000
<v Speaker 1>Well, that might result in a settlement. Suddenly, to Rice,

0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:33.080
<v Speaker 1>I wouldn't be surprised.

0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:34.680
<v Speaker 5>I wouldn't be surprised either.

0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:45.120
<v Speaker 1>Thanks for joining me. Stephen Rice is The Australian's new

0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:48.280
<v Speaker 1>South Wales editor. You can read all our journalism anytime

0:14:48.520 --> 0:15:04.040
<v Speaker 1>at the Australian dot com dot au