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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. She's won a court battle against

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Speaker 1: Brittney Higgins and David charaz Is pursuing the Commonwealth and

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Speaker 1: has slated two of the country's most powerful women. Now

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Speaker 1: former Coalition minister Linda Reynolds has Anthony Albanesi in her sights.

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Speaker 1: Reynolds was Higgins's boss when the young Liberal staffer made

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Speaker 1: an allegation of rape against fellow employee Bruce Lammon, which

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Speaker 1: would later be found by the Federal Court to be

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Speaker 1: true on the balance of probabilities, although Lahman has always

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Speaker 1: denied it. Reynolds sacked Lahman and encouraged Higgins to go

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Speaker 1: to the police, but then Higgins alleged Reynolds was part

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Speaker 1: of a political cover up, something both the Federal and

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Speaker 1: way Supreme Courts have found is not true. Reynolds wants

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Speaker 1: answers and an apology over the way she was pursued

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Speaker 1: by Labour Front benches Penny Wong and Katie Gallagher, but

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Speaker 1: when asked about his minister's actions, Albanesi responded sharply at

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Speaker 1: a press conference earlier this week, should your senators who

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Speaker 1: led the charge of a Liberal Party cover up over

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Speaker 1: the Higgins case, apologized to Miss.

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Speaker 2: Reynolds, well, that's not right. I don't accept that characterization.

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Speaker 1: Accept.

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Speaker 2: I don't accept. I don't accept except that I don't accept.

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Speaker 2: I don't accept that characterization. I don't accept that characterization.

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Speaker 1: Now, Reynolds, who issuing the Commonwealth over its two point

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Speaker 1: four million dollar payout to Higgins, is saying she may

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Speaker 1: seek redress from Albanesi for those remarks. In a statement,

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Speaker 1: Reynolds said Albanese was either showing a quote complete lack

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Speaker 1: of understanding of his government's role in the settlement of

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Speaker 1: Miss Higgins's claims against me, or a blatant lie. Albanese

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Speaker 1: said these things are hands off from government. Reynolds said,

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Speaker 1: quote either that statement is true and it is highly alarming,

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Speaker 1: or that statement is false, which will be borne out

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Speaker 1: by the discovery, subpoena and evidence processes in the Federal Court.

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Speaker 1: The Australians reporting today, a former WA Supreme Court judge

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Speaker 1: Ken Martin says the Prime Minister's remarks indicate he's engaging

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Speaker 1: in quote classic deflection.

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Speaker 3: After five years, it can stop tomorrow if the Labor

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Speaker 3: government in particularly the Turney General says to her department

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Speaker 3: enough we got it wrong, we are sorry and will

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Speaker 3: make it right.

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Speaker 1: That's Linda Reynolds in an exclusive video interview live now

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Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com dot au. The New South

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Speaker 1: Wales Liberals have a new leader in former TV journalist

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Speaker 1: Kelly Sloane, elected unopposed by her parliamentary colleagues to replace

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Speaker 1: Mark Speakman. It comes just days after Victorian Liberals dumped

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Speaker 1: their leader Brad Batton and replaced him with Jess Hill.

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Speaker 1: There's only one federal parliamentary sitting week before Christmas next week,

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Speaker 1: and that means it's a nervous time for Federal Liberal

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Speaker 1: and Opposition leader Susan Lee, as restless colleagues fret about

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Speaker 1: poor opinion polls and a struggle to gain traction with

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Speaker 1: her policy ideas. The Australian subscribers are always the first

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Speaker 1: to know about big politics stories with alert direct to

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Speaker 1: their mobile phones and breaking news around the clock, plus

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Speaker 1: all the best journalism from business, sport and culture. Tomorrow

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Speaker 1: on the front we have a beautiful musical episode to

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Speaker 1: enjoy over the weekend. A rock star violinist, a very

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Speaker 1: adventurous climb and a surprising amount of upper body strength.

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Speaker 1: Catch you right here, first thing, Saturday morning,