'Evasive, uncooperative and manipulative'

Given the immense pressure police are under in the current believe-all-women climate to push alleged rape cases to trial, it is very telling that the AFP would have made it so clear that it didn't think that the case would stand up. And it is of real interest that their advice was not agreed to by Drumgold. No doubt his reasons for rejecting the clear AFP advice will be probed.

Relevant to the issue of why the case went to trial, Moller's boss, The ACT Deputy Chief Police Officer, Michael Chew, reported in his diary notes that, '… if it was my choice I wouldn't proceed. But it's not my choice. There is too much political interference."

Judging from the conduct of Senator Katy Gallagher, the now Finance Minister, it's not unreasonable to suspect she played a key role in that interference.

Lehrman's lawyers played to the court an excerpt of a six-hour recording in 2021 involving staff at Channel 10's The Project and Higgins's partner, David Sharaz, during which Higgins was present.

In the audio, Sharaz is heard saying they wanted the story to break at the start of a sitting week and that he had a "friend" on the Labor side, Katy Gallagher, who would "probe and continue it going".

"So, sitting week - story comes out, they have to answer questions in question time, it's a mess for them," he said.

The Weekend Australian has reported that Senator Reynolds was warned by the late Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching, that Labor was planning to "weaponise" the Higgins' allegation against the Government. Consistent with this claim, Labor Senators Wong and Gallagher tormented Reynolds with questions in the Senate about the incident, a total of 23 questions over three days.

Gallagher followed up in Senate Estimates hearings. See this article where she boasts about using the Higgins' case to put pressure on the government, particularly this absurd question she put to Parliamentary Services asking if it had changed its procedures since the alleged rape had occurred.

Now Gallaher is the newly appointed Finance Minister and was responsible for endorsing the mind blowing decision to award Higgins up to $3 million compensation after a hasty mediation process described as "reprehensible" by Chris Merritt, the respected legal commentator from The Australian. Merritt was referring to the fact that the Albanese government stopped two key government Ministers from attending the mediation and threatened to tear up an agreement to pay Liberal Minister Linda Reynolds' legal fees and costs unless she agreed not to participate. Merritt described this as "an attempt to nobble this process so it would unfairly favour Higgins and financially disadvantage the Commonwealth."

According to The Weekend Australian a key email from the Finance Department which confirmed that all appropriate steps had been taken to protect Higgins was not included in evidence contesting the Higgins' compensation claim.

Given that alleged political interference may well have been a factor in the DPP ignoring police advice to push this case to trial, let's hope Sofronoff sees this enormous amount of compensation as one of the "incidental issues" he is permitted to investigate and comment upon, and perhaps even refer on to the new National Anti-Corruption Commission.

Then there are questions about Drumgold's decision to abandon the trial, citing Higgins' mental health. The Chief Justice has imposed a suppression order on the events leading up to this decision and left that order in place, despite removing all other such orders related to the trial.