Extract from The Guardian
AFP
under scrutiny as guidelines say home affairs minister should be
informed of politically sensitive matters ‘at earliest opportunity’
• Linda Reynolds admitted to hospital as controversy over Brittany Higgins escalates
Last modified on Wed 24 Feb 2021 19.47 AEDT
Peter Dutton has confirmed police told him about the alleged rape of former government staffer Brittany Higgins several days before the prime minister, Scott Morrison, says he was made aware of the incident.
The home affairs minister on Tuesday refused to answer questions about when federal police first told him about Higgins’ allegation that she was sexually assaulted by a colleague on a couch in Parliament House in March 2019.
Police guidelines say the home affairs ministers must be informed about politically sensitive matters “at the earliest opportunity”. If those guidelines were followed, Dutton could have been told of the alleged rape two years ago, when Higgins first reported the incident to police stationed at Parliament House in March 2019.
Dutton on Wednesday told parliament police advised him of the allegation on 11 February 2021 – 24 hours before Morrison’s office was alerted to the Higgins case by News Corp journalist Samantha Maiden and four days before the prime minister says he was notified.
“I was advised on 11 February and I received updates last week and this week,” Dutton said. Morrison has said he was made aware of the rape allegation on 15 February.
News Corp Australia reported on Wednesday night that the Australian federal police (AFP) was approached by Higgins on 5 February and she advised them she was considering re-opening the complaint. The Guardian understands that prompted the police to flag the matter with Dutton as politically sensitive. News Corp reported Higgins was not aware Dutton would be alerted in such a manner.
Morrison has said consistently he was unaware of the allegation until 15 February but a number of people inside the government knew about the incident earlier.
Higgins’ then-employer, Linda Reynolds, was made aware of the sexual assault allegation on 1 April 2019. Reynolds’ then-chief of staff, Fiona Brown, knew a couple of days earlier. Brown worked for Morrison before her stint with Reynolds and returned to the PM’s office after the 2019 election.
Higgins worked for Michaelia Cash after she left Reynolds’ office. Cash has said she was aware in October 2019 there had been an incident because of a media inquiry to her office. But says she learned of the alleged rape on 5 February this year.
The Department of Parliamentary Services knew police were involved shortly after the alleged incident because there were requests to view CCTV footage. DPS officials knew there might have been a sexual assault allegation by 18 April 2019.
Anonymous allegations also turned up in correspondence shared with the president of the Senate, Scott Ryan, and the Speaker of the House, Tony Smith, in March 2020, which triggered two separate investigations into the conduct of parliamentary officials.
As well as Brown’s knowledge of events, Guardian Australia this week confirmed that a second staffer now employed in the prime minister’s office knew details about the termination of Higgins’ former colleague because that senior aide was employed as an adviser to Alex Hawke when Hawke was special minister of state.
Late last week, new text messages were reported by the Australian newspaper suggesting that a friend of Higgins got in touch with the prime minister’s office in early April 2019 to alert them to the flawed handling of her case.
After the texts emerged, and after Higgins claimed that one of Morrison’s senior political advisers, Yaron Finkelstein, had also “checked in” with her at the time the ABC’s Four Corners program aired an investigation of Parliament House culture in 2020, Morrison said his department head, Phil Gaetjens, would audit staff communications.
Reynolds had been due to speak at the National Press Club on Wednesday. But after more than a week of escalating controversy about whether or not she showed an appropriate duty of care to Higgins, the minister was admitted to the Canberra hospital and will take a period of medical leave.
Morrison faced questions from Labor in parliament on Wednesday over revelations in the Guardian that the alleged perpetrator had “at least two detailed references” when he obtained a job with a Sydney-based public relations and lobbyist firm in the months after his employment termination.
One of those references came from a lobbyist now with the Liberal-aligned Barton Deakin who had no knowledge of the alleged rape.
Morrison on Wednesday said he had “no knowledge” of any references and the only minister who had knowledge of the alleged rape was Reynolds.
“I’m not aware of any such references and certainly, in relation to staff members, I would have no knowledge of that, of course, indeed ministers,” Morrison told parliament. “I fear the imputation of the question is that ministers had some knowledge of an alleged sexual assault and apart from what has been declared in both this chamber and the other, it has been very clear that minister Reynolds was the one who had knowledge of that event.”
The staffer was, according to the government, terminated for a security breach.
Morrison also issued another veiled threat to Labor about its “political point-scoring” on the alleged rape.
“If this leader of the opposition wishes to continue to seek to points score on politics on this issue, that is a matter for him,” he said. “As he knows, as the former member for Lindsay, Emma Husar, has raised herself today … if the Labor party thinks that they have no issues to address regarding behaviour in their own party, then they are genuinely not understanding the seriousness of this issue.”
Meanwhile, Higgins was on Wednesday planning to speak with police to restart the investigation of her alleged rape. She also took to social media to wish her ex-boss, Reynolds, a speedy recovery.
Four government inquiries have been launched to investigate the controversy, including two into workplace culture and one into the support available for parliamentary staff.
One of the inquiries, headed by Gaetjens, will examine what Morrison’s office knew of the allegations and when. Gaetjens is Morrison’s former chief of staff. Labor on Wednesday accused Morrison of running a “don’t ask, don’t tell” government.
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