Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has faced questions over when and what she knew about the rape allegation before it was made public.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The former Liberal staffer reached acompensation agreement with the Commonwealth in December 2022 after she launched legal action against her employers in the former Morrison government.
Higgins alleged she was raped by fellow Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann in 2019 inside the office of then-Coalition minister Linda Reynolds,who they both worked for. Lehrmann has always denied Higgins’ allegation.
Gallagher said during a Senate hearing on June 4,2021,that “no one” had any knowledge of Higgins’ claim before it was made public on February 15,2021. She accused Reynolds of trying to protect herself when the then-Coalition minister suggested Labor MPs,including Gallagher and Penny Wong,had been tipped off about the allegations before details were published in the media.
Butleaked text messages between Higgins and her partner,David Sharaz,published inThe Australian,suggest that Gallagher had been made aware of the rape allegations by Sharaz on February 11 – four days before they were aired for the first time on Network Ten’sThe Projectand published bynews.com.au on February 15,2021.
Senator Gallagher told reporters in Perth on Saturday it was “never true” that she had known about Higgins’ allegations for weeks and that Labor had made a decision to weaponise them.
“The answer to the question about the allegation of mislead is no,I did not mislead the parliament,” she said.