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Senator Linda Reynolds is an unreliable witness using a defamation lawsuit to besmirch Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz over her political demise, a court has been told.
Higgins is fighting her former boss over three social media posts in 2023 that the ex-defence minister believes damaged her reputation.
Defence lawyer Rachael Young told a Perth court Reynolds launched the legal case in a bid to restore the reputation she lost in 2021 "by laying the blame … at the feet of one of her most junior staffers, who had been raped" in 2019.
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"Senator Reynolds, feeling distressed and upset by the political accountability placed on her and the allegations made in 2021 about her handling of Ms Higgins' rape … seeks, by a side wind, to claim damages following publications made two years later in 2023," Young told the Western Australian Supreme Court on Monday during closing submissions.
"And in that process, besmirch those whom she blames for her political demise."
Young said the senator had a "dogged focus" over "what she saw as a politicisation of Ms Higgins' rape allegation".
"We say that that focus demonstrates the meritless nature of her claim … against Ms Higgins for publications in 2023," she said.
"The senator's focus has been on the wrong target."
Young said Reynolds should not be found to be a reliable witness on certain topics unless the evidence benefited her or was corroborated by documentary evidence or an independent witness.
"Senator Reynolds was eager to argue her case rather than simply answer questions," she said.
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"She gave numerous non-responsive … gratuitous answers and she was keen to bring in evidence about the conduct of others, in particular, Ms Higgins or the Commonwealth Attorney-General when not asked for."
While explaining Higgins' justification defence for her social media posts about the senator, Young said: "It was substantially true that the senator engaged in the campaign of harassment against Ms Higgins."
She said evidence of the senator's "persistent" harassment was calling Higgins a lying cow, repeatedly backgrounding a journalist by giving her confidential and privileged communications, and public interviews undermining Higgins.
Young said it was substantially true Reynolds mishandled Higgins' rape allegation in 2019 by failing to provide her with support.
She said the senator's attempts to deny this during trial should be rejected by the court.
"The senator must have had a suspicion that Ms Higgins was assaulted or had sexual contact without her consent … prior to meeting with Miss Higgins on April 1st," she said.
"In the light of that knowledge, she met with Ms Higgins … and made statements, which were inappropriate that did not allow Ms Higgins to be fully supported."
"This is reflected in the senator's apology to Ms Higgins in parliament on February 16th, 2021."
Young said Reynolds' own evidence revealed that her hurt, distress and health issues in 2021 had no relationship with Higgins' social media posts in 2023.
"The senator seeks to attribute a sinister and gratuitous improper motive to Ms Higgins and boldly says that the 2023 publications were actuated by malice in pursuit of an alleged conspiracy plan formulated in 2021 … [to] destroy the senator and bring down the Morrison government by weaponising Ms Higgins' rape allegation," she said.
Young said the scrutiny on Reynolds in 2021 had been intense and unwelcome and it was brought on by questions in parliament, the senator's conduct when she called Higgins a lying cow and the fallout that followed.
"It is also a significant factor that the senator had pre-existing mental and physical issues, and … that she was unable to retain the defence portfolio due to her ill health," she said.
She said Higgins' social media posts were also protected by statutory and common law qualified privilege and by the defences of fair comment and honest opinion.
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