Let’s make a deal: Brittany Higgins, Lib Senator in mediation over defamation claim
Liberal senator Linda Reynolds, her former political staffer Brittany Higgins and her fiance are expected to attempt again to resolve a pair of high-profile defamation cases.
Brittany Higgins and her partner David Sharaz (left) are seen leaving the David Malcolm Justice Centre in Perth, . (AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)
The former defence minister, who plans to retire from politics at the next election, is suing Ms Higgins and David Sharaz over a series of social media posts she says have damaged her reputation.
The parties in March attended closed-door mediation in the WA Supreme Court but it’s understood to have failed.They are scheduled to appear in the same court on Tuesday for another mediation session in a bid to resolve the matters.
Mr Sharaz in April tweeted he would no longer fight the case because he could not afford to pay the legal cost associated with going to trial in July.
Senator Reynolds is suing him over tweets he made and a Facebook comment in 2022.
One defamatory imputation claimed against Mr Sharaz’s tweets was that Senator Reynolds pressured Ms Higgins not to proceed with a genuine complaint to police about being raped in her ministerial office.
Other claimed imputations were that the senator “is a hypocrite in her advocacy for women’s interests and empowerment”, interfered in Bruce Lehrmann’s trial and bullied Ms Higgins.
Ms Higgins is accused of posting defamatory material on her Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) accounts.
Lehrmann has always denied the sexual assault allegation. His trial was aborted due to juror misconduct and Ms Higgins’ mental health was cited as the reason for no retrial.
A Federal Court judgment in Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson found in April that on the balance of probabilities he did rape Ms Higgins, but the allegation of a political cover-up “was objectively short on facts but long on speculation”.
