He says the broadcasts conveyed the defamatory meaning that he “raped Brittany Higgins on a couch in Parliament House”. He denies the rape allegation.
The lawsuit is the third filed by Lehrmann,who is also suing Network Ten and News Life Media,the News Corp company behind News.com.au,over interviews with Higgins broadcast and published on February 15,2021.
Higgins,also a former political staffer,did not name Lehrmann during her address in Canberra but said:“I was raped on a couch in what I thought was the safest and most secure building in Australia. In a workplace that has a police and security presence 24 hours a day,seven days a week.
“The parliament of Australia is safe – it is secure – except if you’re a woman. If what happened to me can happen there,it can happen anywhere. And it does. It happens to women everywhere.”
Lehrmann’s lawyers argue he was readily identifiable as the person accused of raping Higgins.
He had been named in the media in August 2021 after he was charged with sexual intercourse without consent.