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Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.

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Speaker 1: It's Thursday August twenty eight, twenty twenty five. Australia Spy

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Speaker 1: Agency and the Federal Police are investigating if an attack

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Speaker 1: on the former Sydney home of Jewish leader Alex Rifchen

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Speaker 1: was orchestrated by the Iranian government. China is making the

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Speaker 1: most of the uncertainty about the future of the Orcust

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Speaker 1: military Pact. Shi Jinping's government says Anthony Albanezi should take

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Speaker 1: the advice of his predecessor Paul Keating and say no

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Speaker 1: to orcus. Those stories alive right now at the Australian

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Speaker 1: dot Com dot AU. A judge has found Brittany Higgins

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Speaker 1: defamed former Liberal minister Linda Reynolds and has ordered Higgins

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Speaker 1: to pay more than three hundred and forty thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: plus potentially legal costs on top. The judge found Higgins

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Speaker 1: was affected by physical and psychological trauma, but was dishonest

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Speaker 1: in some of her claims, but he also rejected Reynolds's

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Speaker 1: claim that Higgins and her husband engaged in a conspiracy.

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Speaker 1: Today exactly what Justice Paul Tottle found and.

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Speaker 2: Why tonight claims of rape roadblocks to a police investigation

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Speaker 2: and a young woman forced to choose between her career

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Speaker 2: and the pursuit of justice.

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Speaker 1: From the moment this story went to air in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty one.

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Speaker 3: As I woke up med rape, essentially.

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Speaker 1: Linda Reynolds believed her reputation was terminal. Brittney Higgins told

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Speaker 1: Network tends The Project that as a twenty four year

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Speaker 1: old Liberal staffer, she was raped by a twenty three

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Speaker 1: year old later identified as Bruce Lahman. That's an allegation.

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Speaker 1: Lahman has always denied. The Federal court found he did

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Speaker 1: on the balance of probabilities rape. Britney Higgins of finding

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Speaker 1: his now appealing. But The Project's story wasn't just an

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Speaker 1: allegation of rape. It was about Higgins's sweeping claim that

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Speaker 1: the then coalition government led by Scott Morrison had actively

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Speaker 1: silenced her. Higgins accused two women of being core to

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Speaker 1: the cover up, her then boss, Cabinet minister Linda Reynolds

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Speaker 1: and Reynolds's then chief of staff, Fiona Brown. Both women

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Speaker 1: have since said they're devastated by the allegation and that

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Speaker 1: in fact, they encouraged Higgins to go to the police

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Speaker 1: and gave her their full support. Linda Reynolds alleged that

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Speaker 1: Brittney Higgins and her husband David Shiraz defamed her on

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Speaker 1: twenty seven January twenty twenty two with this tweet. We've

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Speaker 1: used a voice actor to read David Shiraz's words.

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Speaker 4: There is a very real chance Linda Reynolds will be

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

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Speaker 4: involvement in Britney Higgins. Feeling pressured by her office not

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Speaker 4: to continue with a complaint to police. She uploads this

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Speaker 4: to her official website.

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Speaker 1: She has included a screenshot of Reynolds's website which described

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Speaker 1: the senator as a passionate champion for gender equality and

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Speaker 1: female empowerment. The judge found this conveyed two defamatory imputations,

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Speaker 1: that Reynolds had pressured Higgins not to proceed with a

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Speaker 1: genuine complaint of sexual assault, and that Reynolds was a hypocrite.

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Speaker 3: Both imputations were defamatory. The defendant has not established her

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Speaker 3: defense of truth or any of her other defenses. Damages,

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Speaker 3: including aggravated damages and the sum of one hundred and

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Speaker 3: thirty five thousand dollars will be awarded to the plaintiff.

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Speaker 1: On Instagram on July four, twenty twenty three, Brittany Higgins

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Speaker 1: posted this.

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Speaker 5: This is from a current Australian senator who continues to

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Speaker 5: harass me through the media and in the parliament. Former boss,

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Speaker 5: who has publicly apologized for mishandling my rape allegation, who

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Speaker 5: has had to apologize publicly after defending me in the workplace,

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Speaker 5: who had a whole bunch of questionable conduct.

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Speaker 1: During my rape trial.

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Speaker 5: Who was suing my fiancee for a tweet. This has

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Speaker 5: been going on for years now. It is time to stop.

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Speaker 1: Included in that Instagram story were two headlines from that

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Speaker 1: day's news reporting Reynolds was objecting to a two point

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

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Speaker 1: Justice Tottle said this conveyed the imputations that Reynolds harassed Higgins,

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Speaker 1: mishandled her rape allegation, and engaged in questionable conduct during

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Speaker 1: the trial of Bruce Lamman. The Supreme Court has allowed

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Speaker 1: us to publish Justice Tottle's real voice reading a summary

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Speaker 1: of his judgment.

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Speaker 3: Each of these imputations was defamatory. The defendant has not

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Speaker 3: a stablish her truth defense or any of her other defenses. Damages,

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Speaker 3: including aggravated damages in the sum of one hundred and

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Speaker 3: eighty thousand dollars will be awarded to the plaintiff.

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Speaker 1: On twenty July twenty twenty three, Higgins took to Twitter,

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Speaker 1: quoting a story from The Australian that said Reynolds was

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Speaker 1: suggesting an amendment to the Act Crimes Act to deter

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Speaker 1: individuals from using the media and or Parliament to refer

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Speaker 1: to an alleged criminal offense that ought properly to be

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Speaker 1: the subject of criminal justice processes.

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Speaker 5: Imagining the person earnestly attempting to change the Crime Act

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Speaker 5: to make it illegal for alleged sexual assault survivors to

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Speaker 5: talk about their lived experience, as opposed to, you know,

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Speaker 5: reforming the justice system to actually prosecuting perpetrators. This proposal

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Speaker 5: completely undermines all the crucial work done by the Let

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Speaker 5: Her Speak campaign and the March for Justice movement. Instead

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Speaker 5: of solving problem, there are people who would prefer to

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Speaker 5: just silence victims justice.

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Speaker 1: Toddle found these tweets conveyed the imputation that Reynolds wanted

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Speaker 1: to silence the victims of sexual assault.

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Speaker 3: I have found that this imputation was defamatory, and I

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Speaker 3: have found that defendant has not established her defense of truth,

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Speaker 3: but she has established the defenses of honest opinion, fair comment,

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Speaker 3: and qualified privilege.

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Speaker 1: So Higgins won that one.

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Speaker 3: Turning now to the plaintiff's conspiracy plane. To succeed in

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Speaker 3: her claim for damages for conspiracy, the plaintiff was required

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Speaker 3: to prove that the common and sole or predominant purpose

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Speaker 3: of the defendant and mister Charaz in planning the public

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Speaker 3: disclosure of the defendant's story in early two thousand and

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Speaker 3: twenty one was to injure the plaintiff. The plaintiff has

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Speaker 3: failed to establish this element of her case, and the

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Speaker 3: claim for damages for conspiracy fails.

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Speaker 1: Reynolds claim from the beginning has been that Higgins and Charaz,

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Speaker 1: who boasted of his close links to labor politicians, sought

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Speaker 1: to destroy her. In the Project interview, the judge is

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Speaker 1: saying that Reynolds failed to prove that was Scharaz and

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Speaker 1: Higgins's main purpose in going public with her story. Justice

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Speaker 1: Tottle said Higgins in January twenty twenty one was dealing

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Speaker 1: with the aftermath of physical and psychological trauma. We've used

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Speaker 1: a voice actor to read Justice Tottle's words from the

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Speaker 1: full judgment, which was not read aloud in court.

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Speaker 6: The defendant was a rape victim struggling with the long

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Speaker 6: term effects of the crime. She perceived the perpetrator had

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Speaker 6: been able to get on with him. I accept she

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Speaker 6: felt this was a grave injustice, and that sense of

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Speaker 6: injustice was accompanied by feelings developed over time that she

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Speaker 6: had not only been let down, but was also silenced

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Speaker 6: by the Liberal Party. By early twenty twenty one, the

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Speaker 6: defendant had persuaded herself there had been a cover up,

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Speaker 6: even though that conclusion was not supported by the facts,

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Speaker 6: and had persuaded herself the only way she could address

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Speaker 6: what had happened to her was by making a public

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Speaker 6: disclosure of her experiences.

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Speaker 5: He said.

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Speaker 1: Even though Higgins was dishonest in recounting essential elements of

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Speaker 1: the cover up allegation, it was possible that her motives

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Speaker 1: were altruistic, that she really did want to help others

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Speaker 1: who had suffered sexual violence.

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Speaker 6: I have no doubt the defendant appreciated that making a

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Speaker 6: public disclosure of her experiences would expose her to unprecedented

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Speaker 6: public scrutiny, much of which might be hostile, bringing with

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Speaker 6: it emotional and psychological pain. It is unlikely the defendant

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Speaker 6: would have exposed herself to that scrutiny and pain if

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Speaker 6: her only concern, her sole or predominant purpose, was to

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Speaker 6: harm a plaintiff.

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Speaker 1: The judge found that Linda Reynolds behaved in the witness

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Speaker 1: box like well a politician, an honest witness, but one

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Speaker 1: who tended to answer the question she wanted to have

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Speaker 1: been asked. He made strong findings about Higgins.

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Speaker 6: That the defendant's evidence of the immediate aftermath of the

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Speaker 6: rape was unreliable was entirely understandable. It is more difficult, however,

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Speaker 6: to explain other aspects of the twenty twenty one account

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Speaker 6: given by the defendant, which were objectively untrue and misleading,

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Speaker 6: as being attributable to the effects of trauma.

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Speaker 1: The judge found Higgins's story was so different from the

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Speaker 1: objective facts that.

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Speaker 6: The extent to which the defendant embellished and speculated and

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Speaker 6: passed her speculation of as fact, rendered her account tendentious.

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Speaker 1: In a statement published on Instagram, Higgins said she accepted

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Speaker 1: that Linda Reynold's feelings were hurt by these events and

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Speaker 1: said I'm sorry for that. I wish her well into

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Speaker 1: the future. Higgins, who has recently had a baby, said

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Speaker 1: thank you to the Australian public for their compassion and

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Speaker 1: understanding throughout this journey. My family and I now look

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Speaker 1: forward to healing and rebuilding our lives. Coming up the

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Speaker 1: judge's findings about Brittney Higgins's evidence. So in what ways

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Speaker 1: did the judge find Brittney Higgins had been dishonest? Just

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Speaker 1: as Toddle said, it's important to remember Britney Higgins was

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Speaker 1: a media savvy, strategic thinker when she first aired her allegations.

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Speaker 6: My assessment is the defendant had persuaded herself and mister

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Speaker 6: Charaz of the existence of the cover up. It was

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Speaker 6: her truth when she recounted her experiences in the media interviews.

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Speaker 6: Some of her statements were plainly and objectively untrue, and

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Speaker 6: in some instances she omitted facts that were inconsistent with

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Speaker 6: her truth.

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Speaker 1: Justice Tottle said he'd wrestled with the fact Higgins's recollections

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Speaker 1: had likely been affected by trauma.

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Speaker 6: That said, and after long reflection on this difficult issue,

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Speaker 6: I have concluded that in her concern to lend credibility

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Speaker 6: to the allegation of a cover up. The defendant demonstrated

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Speaker 6: such an indifference to the truth that her account of

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Speaker 6: the essential elements of the allegation can only be regarded

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Speaker 6: as dishonest.

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Speaker 1: The judge said it was essential to Higgins's story that

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Speaker 1: she conveyed the impression she was treated poorly by Reynolds

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Speaker 1: and Brown. Higgins said Reynolds hated her and regarded her

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Speaker 1: as toxic.

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Speaker 6: This was clearly untrue.

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Speaker 1: Justice Tottle said, In fact, Higgins's own messages showed she

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Speaker 1: believed she had bonded with Reynolds and that Reynolds had

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Speaker 1: offered her a job for after the election, things he

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Speaker 1: was sure Higgins did remember, he said. Higgins's own messages

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Speaker 1: also showed that back in twenty nineteen, she felt she

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Speaker 1: had been treated well by Fiona Brown, but in the interviews,

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Speaker 1: Higgins created the impression Brown was unapproachable, on sympathetic and terrifying.

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Speaker 6: The defendant's willingness to speculate and embellish reflected a desire

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Speaker 6: on her part to enhance the credibility of her allegation

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Speaker 6: of a cover up, and her allegation the plaintiff and

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Speaker 6: miss Brown had treated her poorly.

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Speaker 1: He said this was manifested in her statement that Fiona

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Speaker 1: Brown had rejected her request for CCTV footage, her claim

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Speaker 1: Bruce Lehmon was Reynolds's right hand man when in fact

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Speaker 1: he was a junior staffer, and that members of reynolds

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Speaker 1: staff are the lied to her. In total, the judges

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Speaker 1: ordered Higgins to pay Reynolds damages of three hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifteen thousand dollars plus twenty six thousand in interest. Next

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Speaker 1: there'll be a fight about legal costs. If Higgins is

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Speaker 1: ordered to pay Reynold's legal fees, that could easily bump

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Speaker 1: the payout up into seven figures. You can read all

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Speaker 1: our analysis and reporting on this story right now at

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Speaker 1: Beaustralian dot com dot au