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Speaker 1: Today's biggest news from The Australian. I'm Claire Harvey with

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Speaker 1: the Front's afternoon headlines. The Federal Court has officially declared

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Speaker 1: Brittany Higgins's estate be sequestered under the Bankruptcy Act, and

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Speaker 1: her husband David Charaz is also facing bankruptcy proceedings. It's

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Speaker 1: all part of Higgins's continuing dispute with her former boss,

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Speaker 1: Linda Reynolds, who was a minister in Scott Morrison's coalition government.

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Speaker 1: Higgins was a junior staffer when a court has found

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Speaker 1: on the balance of probabilities, she was raped in reynolds

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Speaker 1: ministerial office after hours by another staffer, Bruce Lahman. Lahman

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Speaker 1: has always denied wrongdoing, but the full bench of the

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Speaker 1: Federal Court recently threw out his attempted appeal, saying Lahman

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Speaker 1: had raped Higgins and ignored the fact she was not consenting.

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Speaker 1: Reynolds sacked Lairman and encouraged Higgins to go to the police,

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Speaker 1: as did her former chief of staff Fiona Brown, but

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Speaker 1: in a teen TV interview, Higgins accused both Reynolds and

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Speaker 1: Brown of effectively silencing her. Charaz and Higgins both subsequently

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Speaker 1: made social media posts critical of Reynolds. That cover up

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Speaker 1: claim has been found baseless by both the federal and

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Speaker 1: WA Supreme Courts, and now Higgins is facing a bill

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Speaker 1: of well over a million dollars in damages and legal

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Speaker 1: costs after Reynolds successfully sued for defamation. Higgins was not

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Speaker 1: present in court on Friday and was not represented by

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Speaker 1: a lawyer at the hearing. Reynolds lawyer Rachel Ross spoke

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Speaker 1: outside court, telling journalists higgins financial affairs would now be

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Speaker 1: managed by a trustee in bankruptcy who would assess whether

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Speaker 1: any money remains of the two point four million dollar

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Speaker 1: settlement Higgins was paid by the Commonwealth. That's another grievance

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Speaker 1: for Reynolds, who is suing the Commonwealth for breaching its

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Speaker 1: duty to her as an employee by failing to allow

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Speaker 1: her to defend her conduct. Our sign conte used the

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Speaker 1: mortime's inizens. Can we stay firmly long? That's Stephen Sylvanni,

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Speaker 1: the father of convicted rapist Tom Sylvanney, speaking outside called

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Speaker 1: in Melbourne after a suppression order on his son's name

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Speaker 1: was lifted.

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Speaker 2: We will be considering an options to appeal and shall

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Speaker 2: not be.

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Speaker 1: Making any further comments. This takes that goal is the clear.

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Speaker 1: His name of bretnor Con. The Sylvanney family is one

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Speaker 1: of Melbourne football's most prominent, and they hired senior counsel

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Speaker 1: to defend their son against rape allegations made by a

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Speaker 1: woman who said the young man had shattered her trust

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Speaker 1: and her enjoyment of life by tricking her into believing

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Speaker 1: he was her boyfriend, holding her hands behind her back,

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Speaker 1: and raping her twice. Prosecutor said Sylvanni also created a

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Speaker 1: fake Uber receipt to help convince the woman after the

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Speaker 1: attack that he was not guilty. The maximum sentence for

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Speaker 1: rape in Victoria is twenty five years. Silvanni will be

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Speaker 1: sentenced on Wednesday. The parliamentary expenses scandal is heading up,

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Speaker 1: with Attorney General Michelle Roland joining Communications Minister Annika Wells

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Speaker 1: in referring her own use of taxpayer funded travel to

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Speaker 1: the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority. Roland billed taxpayers twenty one

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars to fly her family to Perth during the

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Speaker 1: school holidays in twenty twenty three, under provisions that allow

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Speaker 1: politicians to be reunited with family members when they're traveling

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Speaker 1: on official duties. Anthony Alberanizi says he's open to any

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Speaker 1: advice from the Watchhog on parliamentarian's expenses. Opposition leader Susan Lee,

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Speaker 1: who in twenty seventeen lost her cabinet position as Health

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Speaker 1: Minister over an expensive scandal of her own, says she

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Speaker 1: wants to restore public trust and is volunteering to sit

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Speaker 1: down with the Prime Minister to reform the system. In

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Speaker 1: the meantime, Le says Albanezi must stand Anika Wells down.

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Speaker 2: The Ministerial Code of Conduct holds ministers to a different

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Speaker 2: and higher standard. I made a mistake, I put my

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Speaker 2: hand up, I apologize to the Australian people, and I

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Speaker 2: held myself accountable to the Ministerial Code of Conduct. Anika

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Speaker 2: Wells has not done one of those three things, and

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Speaker 2: this Prime Minister has not addressed his Ministerial Code of

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Speaker 2: Conduct that she has clearly breached, nor has he said

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Speaker 2: she should stand aside.

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Speaker 1: Check out those stories live right now at the Australian

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Speaker 1: dot Com dot u and come back to the front

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Speaker 1: first thing in the morning for something that will really

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Speaker 1: help you get in the Christmas spirit. Our look at

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Speaker 1: Ben Abraham, the Australian musician who's made it big in

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Speaker 1: La then comes home every year to sprinkle a bit

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Speaker 1: of Christmas magic