Extract from ABC News
Analysis
It was hard not to see some very black ironies in the letter written by Prime Minister Scott Morrison to the President of the Senate, Scott Ryan, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tony Smith.
"Dear President and Speaker," he wrote, "I attach for the information of Members and Senators advice I have received from the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, Reece Kershaw APM, regarding the appropriate process for making complaints or reporting allegations of criminal activity, including sexual assault."
Kershaw had told the Prime Minister in his letter that "in light of recent media reporting, including allegations of sexual assault, I write to advise the manner in which allegations of criminal conduct must be referred to the Australian Federal Police for investigation".
"Members and Senators, and their parliamentary staff and electorate offices, may receive complaints or allegations of sexual assault or other criminal conduct from a variety of sources, including victims themselves.
"Such matters should be reported to the AFP without delay, taking into account the rights and privacy of the victim, and irrespective of the jurisdiction in which the alleged conduct has occurred.
"As these matters can be complex and sensitive, Members and Senators, and their parliamentary staff and electorate offices, are encouraged to contact the AFP for advice in regards to the appropriate process and actions that should be followed."
This was all before the explosive news emerged late on Friday that the AFP have now been notified of a letter sent to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, detailing an alleged historical rape by a Cabinet Minister in the federal government, a move that was in fact prompted by Commissioner Kershaw's letter.
Until that point, the first black irony of the PM's letter was that in a building full of lawmakers, the police have to write to those lawmakers to point out that if a crime has allegedly been committed, they need to either report it, or, if it is a matter like sexual assault, at least seek advice from the police about what to do about their knowledge a crime has allegedly been committed, if the complainant does not want to come forward.
The second irony must be in the Prime Minister circulating this piece of information around the Parliament, given the long list of people in his own government, and his own office, who it appears had reason to suspect a serious crime may have been committed, but didn't say anything.
They didn't say anything to the police. They didn't say anything to the Prime Minister: the proud son of a policeman himself, but a prime minister who seems to have presided over a culture where people don't feel compelled, or are too frightened, to actually tell anybody anything.
Questions remain unanswered
As far as we can tell (and more on that in a minute), the only people from the government to speak to the AFP at the time (apart from Higgins) about this alleged assault were the then defence industry minister Linda Reynolds and her chief of staff who, according to a statement from the AFP, met with "a senior member of the Australian Federal Police" on April 4, 2019, "in relation to allegations of sexual assault in the minister's office".
April 4 was six days after the alleged assault took place. It's not clear whether the AFP approached Reynolds, or she approached them, seeking advice.
We still don't know when the minister (who on Wednesday took sick leave from her job) actually became aware of the alleged assault, since she has only said she had become aware of it "incrementally" over a number of days.
Morrison implied on Thursday in Parliament that Reynolds had tipped off the police.
"The commissioner of the Australian Federal Police has advised all of us that what should be done, in respecting the person who is at the centre of this, is to advise and pass this information on to the police," Morrison told the House of Representatives.
"That is what we've been advised to do. That is the process. That is the process the Minister for Defence Industry followed at the time."
But since we don't know when Reynold knew about any of this, we can't actually say whether that's correct.
The first we definitely know that Reynolds knew of this was when she discussed the incident with Higgins in her office — where the assault had allegedly taken place — on April 1.
Yet Higgins had been interviewed by the AFP at Parliament House a week earlier, on March 27, and gave an informal statement to them that day.
This is just one aspect of this story as it relates to the fact a serious crime is alleged to have been committed in a minister's office in the national Parliament.
There are all the other elements to this story, too, such as the fact no-one acted to support the young woman involved — instead she says she felt ostracised, and that she had become a political liability as a result of the attack on her.
Even if those who did know believed it was up to Brittany Higgins to decide whether to pursue a formal complaint with the police, no one took it upon themselves to show her any duty of care on an ongoing basis, despite the fact she was working for the government for the next two years.
'It cannot be a lawless bubble'
The Prime Minister told Parliament that "the action of the minister at the time had sought to put support around Brittany Higgins, as they did".
So much support that Higgins felt compelled to seek a job in another minister's office after finding herself excluded from travelling with the minister or attending events with her, an arrangement which made her job as a media adviser untenable.
After two weeks of parliamentary questions and media scrutiny, we still don't really know much more about what happened in the wake of this alleged assault, a problem made worse by the Prime Minister contradicting himself, or making statements — like the one about support provided to Higgins — which don't seem to accord with what Higgins has said.
No one, for example, sought to quietly brief her new employer, Senator Michaelia Cash, that the young woman, at the very least, might be suffering some trauma and should be supported.
In the immediate aftermath of the revelations of the alleged incident, the Prime Minister was asked whether it was acceptable that his minister was aware that a reported serious crime had been committed in her office but did not inform the Prime Minister or his office.
"It is not, and it shouldn't happen again," Morrison told Parliament last week.
Yet on Thursday he told Parliament that: "I made no reference to Minister Reynolds."
Maybe that what was because he was recalling the press conference where he had told us that his wife Jenny told him he should think about what happened to Higgins as if it was his own daughters, rather than what he told Parliament.
This government is not a great believer in letting the Parliament — and through it, voters and taxpayers — in on what it's up to. There are already signs that the review of who in the PM's office knew of the incident may not be made publicly available, for example.
Independent MP Zali Steggall, a barrister, told the ABC's 7.30 this week: "Let's be clear, we are law makers and the Prime Minister calls this the Canberra bubble, but it cannot be a lawless bubble".
The fact it has been made to look like one in the past fortnight is perhaps the blackest irony of them all.
Laura Tingle is 7.30's chief political correspondent.
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