Saint Brittany or scheming charlatan?

Get a load of this choice comment from Brittany Higgins speaking about the Prime Minister: "He's about to be f**ked over. Just wait. We've got him". "I still hate the c***," replied Sharaz, whom Lehrmanndescribed as the "puppet master" who used Higgins to bring down the government.

Including that critical audio recording in the Channel 7 television interview was bound to be a turning point – as it has indeed proved to be. That meant subjecting Lehrmann to a grilling, and overall, he's come out pretty well. For the first time, he is being stopped in the street by people telling him they now believe his side of the story. Nothing has undermined Higgins' already shredded credibility as effectively as the image of her in the Seven interview, skipping cheerfully through security, showing no sign of the drunken stupor she claimed in the statements to police.

I can't begin to do justice to the revelations now emerging – the excellent Janet Albrechtsen and other journalists at The Australian are pushing out story after story spelling these out. Here's an extract from her first major piece. Sharri Markson on Sky News is also doing a heroic job on this front – see here and here. This mighty juggernaut has become the political story of the day, with the Opposition vowing to use this parliamentary week to pursue this agenda, Ministers Gallagher and Wong trying to backtrack on their lies, the Prime Minister looking like a rabbit on the railway tracks as he scurries away from press conferences, and finally most of the press starting to ask the right questions.

Paid for destroying a government

With many people now openly speculating that Higgins received her multi-million payout as a reward for helping bring down the Morrison government, Linda Reynolds has promised to refer the compensation to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, claiming the settlement breached rules governing how such claims should be handled. The Australian's legal expert Chris Merritt makes a series of key points in that respect, particularly that this payment was made without any finding of wrongdoing, and that the Albanese government nobbled the mediation by preventing key Ministers, Linda Reynolds and Michaela Cash, from giving evidence at the mediation by threatening not to pay their legal fees. As Merritt explains, this made it impossible for officials running that process to "properly discharge their duty to protect the financial interests of the Commonwealth" - which could result in criminal sanctions.

Albanese is now protecting Gallagher by claiming the decision was made entirely by Attorney General Mark Dreyfus using his "exceptional circumstances provision" – where normal rules need not apply. We'll see how that goes….

Help with the pushback

There's blood in the water and thank goodness, the Opposition is stepping up promising to pursue this agenda this week, with talk about possible Senate inquiries as well as the referral to the Anti-Corruption Commission. Opposition MPs need to hear from us, urging them on. This blog should give you plenty of information you can use for brief letters of support to Dutton and other Coalition MPs backing a concerted attack.

When the Higgins story first broke, back in February 2021, I received a flood of emails from people who felt her story failed the pub test. The last six months have proved that instinct was absolutely right; as Higgins' evidence fell apart in court, the ACT Inquiry revealed the extent of police scepticism at her allegations, and now her malicious scheming is fully on display. It's thrilling watching the mood shift on social media, as people gleefully respond to the concrete evidence about how this whole story was cooked up and weaponized.

The most delicious twist in this endless saga is our former Australian of the Year, Grace Tame, is no longer prepared to share her rape victim status with Brittany Higgins. She has deleted an Instagram post in which she declared Higgins was her friend and a "national hero." This speaks volumes about Brittany Higgins fall from grace.