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Speaker 1: Before we begin. This episode contains detailed allegations of sexual

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Speaker 1: assault from the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christinamio.

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Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, July ninth. The government is upping the Defense

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Speaker 1: Forces drone game, but former commanders say it's not doing

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Speaker 1: enough to protect against airborne attacks. The Historic Defense Strategic

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Speaker 1: Review delivered last year recommended urgent investment in anti drone capabilities,

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Speaker 1: but they say a lack of funding could leave personnel

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Speaker 1: and bases vulnerable for.

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Speaker 2: At least a decade.

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Speaker 1: It's time to change the rules. That's according to Labor

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Speaker 1: Party MPs and officials who've backed an overhaul of century

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Speaker 1: old caucus voting rules. It follows the resignation of Western

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Speaker 1: Australian Senator Fatima Payman, who crossed the floor to side

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Speaker 1: with the Greens on the issue of Palestinian statehood. That

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Speaker 1: story is live right now at the Australian dot com

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Speaker 1: dot AU. An Australian senator alleges Brittany Higgins conspired with

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Speaker 1: David Cherraz to leak false information to some of the

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Speaker 1: government's most senior ministers. Linda Reynolds says the former Liberal

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Speaker 1: staffer and her new husband orchestrated a campaign to ruin

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Speaker 1: her career and bring down the Morrison government following her

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Speaker 1: alleged rape by Bruce Lherman inside Parliament House. That's today's episode,

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Speaker 1: Senator Gallagher.

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Speaker 3: I did answer your questions to the point that you

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Speaker 3: ground me to the ground and ended me ended up

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Speaker 3: in hospital.

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Speaker 4: But I'm answering questions.

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Speaker 1: That's Western Australian Senator Linda Reynolds at a Senate estimates

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Speaker 1: hearing held a couple of years ago. She's being questioned

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Speaker 1: by Labour Senators Katie Gallagher and Penny Wong, and things

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Speaker 1: are getting tense.

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Speaker 3: Well, you just stage that we put you in hospitals.

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Speaker 3: You just said I put you in hospital, Senator Reynolds.

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Speaker 2: Well, if so, you're visitor is Notiggins or Senator wal Nobody.

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Speaker 3: Questions. Nobody takes pleasuring.

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Speaker 1: A few months earlier, a young Liberal staffer named Britney

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Speaker 1: Higgins had publicly alleged she was raped in Linda reynolds

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Speaker 1: Parliament House office by one of her colleagues. We don't

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Speaker 1: now that colleague was Bruce Lhriman. He worked as an

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Speaker 1: advisor to Reynolds, who was the Defense Minister. In twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 1: Brittney Higgins also alleged in that interview with the Project

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Speaker 1: that her assault had been covered up by the government

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Speaker 1: of the day.

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Speaker 4: I would try and raise it and I would try

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Speaker 4: and bring it up.

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Speaker 5: Then it was always it always sort of came back

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Speaker 5: to sort of being a me issue.

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Speaker 2: And if you can't deal with it then then you

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Speaker 2: can leave.

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Speaker 1: It was suggested that the Labor Party, which was in

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Speaker 1: opposition at the time, had seized upon the allegation for

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Speaker 1: political gain. That's because Labor used the Senate estimates process

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Speaker 1: to put the heat on Reynolds.

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Speaker 3: My final question, Senator Reynolds, was it your decision to

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Speaker 3: send miss Higgins to Perth for the duration of the

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Speaker 3: election campaign? Senator Gallagher, again, that's also subject sleech investigation.

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Speaker 3: How hans As that was your final question, Thank Senator Gallagher,

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Speaker 3: that was beneath you.

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Speaker 1: Bruce Lehreman was subsequently charged with rape and stood trial

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Speaker 1: in the Act Supreme Court later in twenty twenty two,

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Speaker 1: but the proceeding was sensationally aborted due to dura misconduct,

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Speaker 1: and the former Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, declined

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Speaker 1: to pursue a retrial out of concern for Britney Higgins's

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Speaker 1: mental health. That means Lehreman was never criminally convicted of

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Speaker 1: rape and has always denied any sexual contact occurred. He

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Speaker 1: sued Network ten and the Project presenter Lisa Wilkinson for

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Speaker 1: defamation earlier this year and lost. Federal Court Justice Michael

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Speaker 1: Lee found on the balance of probabilities that Bruce Larriman

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Speaker 1: did rape Britney Higgins in Linda Reynolds's office in twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 4: Having escaped the lines dead, mister Lehman made the mistake

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Speaker 4: of coming back.

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Speaker 5: For his hat.

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Speaker 1: He also found there was no cover up of the

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Speaker 1: alleged assault by Linda Reynolds or her former chief of

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Speaker 1: staff Fiona Brown, or anyone else in the former coalition government.

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Speaker 4: As we will see when examined properly and without partiality,

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Speaker 4: the cover up allegation was subjectively short on facts, but

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Speaker 4: long on speculation and internal inconsistencies. Trying to particularize it

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Speaker 4: during the evidence was like trying to grab a column

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Speaker 4: of smoke.

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Speaker 1: Now, an explosive legal document filed by Linda Reynolds could

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Speaker 1: flip the whole thing on its head, she says. Higgins

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Speaker 1: and Chiraz were out to destroy her career and bring

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Speaker 1: down the government when they leaked information to some of

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Speaker 1: the PM's most senior ministers. Linda Reynolds is suing Britney

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Speaker 1: Higgins and her husband David Schiraz for defamation in the

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Speaker 1: Western Australian Supreme Court. She says critical comments posted by

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Speaker 1: the pair to social media damaged her reputation and that

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Speaker 1: she suffered from severe anxiety and serious physical symptoms as

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Speaker 1: a result. The matter will go to trial in August

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Speaker 1: after a long and ultimately unsuccessful mediation process. Sharaz has

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Speaker 1: already indicated he doesn't have the funds to defend the claims,

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Speaker 1: meaning his new wife will go it alone. But Reynold's

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Speaker 1: statement of claim, obtained by The Australian's Legal affairs correspondent

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Speaker 1: Ellie Dudley, reveals the senator sees this as much more

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Speaker 1: than a nock to her reputation. She appears to suggest

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Speaker 1: there was a political conspiracy, but she didn't have anything

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Speaker 1: to do with it. A voice actor is reading an

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Speaker 1: excerpt from the senator's statement of claim about the allegedly

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Speaker 1: defamatory social media posts made by Higgins and Charatz.

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Speaker 2: They were published in furtherance of a plan by the

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Speaker 2: defendant and mister Schiraz to use the defendants allegations of

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Speaker 2: a rape and the political cover up as a weapon

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Speaker 2: to inflict immediate political damage upon the plaintiff and the

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Speaker 2: then government.

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Speaker 1: Reynolds also says further posts made by Britney Higgins throughout

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Speaker 1: the mediation process were designed to taunt and harass her,

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Speaker 1: and the Senator claims they breach a deed signed by

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Speaker 1: Higgins in which they agreed not to publicly criticize or

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Speaker 1: disparage each other. Coming up more from Senator Linda Reynolds's

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Speaker 1: explosive statement of claim. Subscribers to The Australian get first

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Speaker 1: access to exclusive stories like this one. Join us at

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Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot au and we'll be back

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Speaker 1: after this break. We know from evidence presented in the

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Speaker 1: defamation action brought by Bruce Leherman against Network ten that

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Speaker 1: it was David Shiraz who pitched Brittney higgins interview with

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Speaker 1: Lisa Wilkinson to the project.

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Speaker 2: At all times thereafter, mister Charraz acted as a conduit

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Speaker 2: for communication between Miss Wilkinson and executive producer Angus Llewellyn

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Speaker 2: and the defendant.

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Speaker 1: The month before the interview went to air, Higgins, Charraz, Wilkinson,

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Speaker 1: and the project's producer, Angus Llewellyn hunkered down for a

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Speaker 1: five hour brainstorming session.

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Speaker 2: One for a chand thanks your gym and tonic. Now, yeah,

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Speaker 2: those friend.

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Speaker 1: Rolls are actions they Recordings made of that session revealed

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Speaker 1: the group kicked around ways to drum up interest in

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Speaker 1: the interview. That included recruiting politicians who they believed could

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Speaker 1: put pressure on the government.

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Speaker 4: Got it. Do you have friendly.

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Speaker 2: And that could find questions at question time?

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Speaker 1: Oh?

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Speaker 2: Certainly, Albo. Yeah, I tell you, curvasyly.

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Speaker 1: Also on that list was Labor Senator Katie Gallagher, who

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Speaker 1: you heard at the top of this episode. A charge

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Speaker 1: of text messages between Higgins and Chiraz published by The

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Speaker 1: Australian last year revealed this was a tactic the pair

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Speaker 1: had explored before. In those texts, Charraz, a former journalist

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Speaker 1: and media advisor, boasted to his then girlfriend about his

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Speaker 1: close relationship with Gallagher. Higgins responded that Chiraz should go

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Speaker 1: ahead and share everything with her. The thing is, Gallagher

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Speaker 1: claimed in that Senate Estimates hearing that nobody from Labor

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Speaker 1: knew about Britney higgins alleged rape by Bruce Laherman before

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Speaker 1: the story broke in an article by Samantha Maiden, and

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Speaker 1: later that night on the Project when the text between

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Speaker 1: Higgins and Chiraz became public. The Finance Minister conceded she

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Speaker 1: did know some of the details, but them to herself,

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Speaker 1: and that meant accusations that she'd misled parliament were unfair.

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Speaker 3: So no, the answer to the question about the allegation

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Speaker 3: of mislead is now, I did not mislead the Parliament.

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Speaker 3: I was responding to an assertion that was being made

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Speaker 3: by the Minister Reynolds at the time that we had

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Speaker 3: known about this for weeks and had made a decision

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Speaker 3: to weaponize it. That is not true. It was never true.

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Speaker 3: I explained that to Senator Reynolds that night. She accepted

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Speaker 3: that explanation.

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Speaker 1: In her statement of claim, Senator Linda Reynolds has kicked

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Speaker 1: things up a notch. She says some of the government's

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Speaker 1: highest ranking politicians were deliberately fed false information by Higgins

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Speaker 1: and Chiraz.

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Speaker 2: It can be inferred that the defendant provided Senators Wong

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Speaker 2: and Gallagher with the information forming the basis of those

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Speaker 2: questions referred to above in circumstances where the defendant knew

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Speaker 2: this information was false.

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Speaker 1: Reynolds also states that messages exchanged by the pair show

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Speaker 1: their strategy was designed to inflict maximum political damage. In

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Speaker 1: one text included in the senator's statement of claim, Sharaz rights.

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Speaker 5: Just need to make sure this whole thing comes out

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Speaker 5: in a sitting week, and she.

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Speaker 1: Says it's backed up by comments made in that five

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Speaker 1: hour Brainstorm session with Lisa Wilkinson and Angus Llewellyn, where

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Speaker 1: Shiraz suggested timing the broadcast of the project interview with

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Speaker 1: a sitting week. Senator Linda Reynolds also says that conversation

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Speaker 1: is proof there was a target on her back. In

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Speaker 1: her statement of claim, she says Higgins wanted Lerriman to

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Speaker 1: be rendered unemployable and for Reynolds to be booted from

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Speaker 1: Parliament as a result of her taking her story public.

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Speaker 5: I asked Britt, ultimately, what do you want out of this?

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Speaker 5: And she goes, well, I want Bruce to forever have

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Speaker 5: it difficult getting a job, like it's going to be

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Speaker 5: difficult for me. And then you said, best case scenario

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Speaker 5: Linda Reynolds.

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Speaker 1: The defamation trial gets underway in WA's Supreme Court on

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Speaker 1: August two. Brittney Higgins is expected to defend the allegations

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Speaker 1: against her. The case continues, and you can read our

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Speaker 1: ongoing coverage of all parties arguments, as well as Elie

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Speaker 1: Dudley's full breakdown of Linda Reynolds' statement of claim right

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Speaker 1: now at the Australian dot com dot au