0:01

From Schwartz Media, I'm Ashlyn McGee.

0:03

This is 7am. It's

0:10

now been a week since a federal court judge ruled Bruce

0:12

Lerman raped Brittany Higgins in a minister's office

0:15

at Parliament House back in 2019. In

0:19

other cases, that might have been a full stop. Nothing

0:22

more to see here. But this case

0:24

has been more like a telenovela with

0:27

dozens of characters dragged into a

0:29

plot that's twisted and turned over

0:31

months and months. Heads

0:33

have rolled, reputations have been shredded

0:36

and now an entire TV network

0:38

looks like it could implode. Today,

0:41

Senior Reporter for the Saturday paper

0:44

Rick Morton on why, even though

0:46

Bruce Lerman lost, the media

0:48

hasn't won. It's

0:55

Monday, April 22. Rick,

1:00

you've sat hunched over your laptop watching

1:02

hours and hours of Bruce Lerman's defamation case, but

1:06

so have so many others. I

1:09

wonder what it is about this case that's

1:11

captivated us. Like, why do so many people have a stake in it? I

1:15

actually really love that question because I think

1:17

it kind of goes to the heart of what a lot of

1:19

people experience nowadays when

1:21

you have these debates about right or wrong and kind of moral

1:23

areas where it's all become political. And,

1:26

you know, what happened, we now know, is that the

1:28

Federal Court has found

1:30

that Brittany Higgins was raped on the balance of

1:32

probabilities in Parliament House by Bruce Lerman. Mr

1:37

Lerman raped Ms Higgins. I hasten to stress

1:39

this is a finding on

1:41

the balance of probabilities. This finding should not

1:43

be misconstrued or mischaracterised as a

1:45

finding that I can exclude all reasonable hypotheses consistent

1:49

with innocence. What

1:52

this case has now

1:54

done, I really like to think it's now done,

1:56

ironically it's been a defamation case brought by Bruce

1:58

Lerman to restore his reputation. I've

2:01

actually backfired tremendously. His

2:04

attempt to explain it away by suggesting

2:06

the attraction he felt for his hands

2:08

was just like the attraction where it

2:10

can feel to anyone else in this

2:12

courtroom irrespective of gender what

2:14

is as disconcerting as it was unconvincing.

2:17

And brought us all back to the original Lerman which was that

2:20

Bootney Higgins was raped by him, she

2:22

did not give her consent and

2:25

as Judge Michael Lee found Mr

2:27

Lerman was indifferent to whether or not she had a

2:29

living consent. His

2:32

pursuit of gratification he did not give one

2:34

way or the other whether Mr Higgins understood or

2:36

agreed to what was going on. And

2:40

this has all but destroyed what little reputation he had left

2:42

by the time we even got to this moment. He

2:45

is someone that the judge called a cad, a liar

2:47

and of course now a rapist in this two and

2:49

a half hour verdict which was live

2:52

streamed to at one point almost 50,000 people. So

2:56

many people have been engaged in this. For

2:59

more than a few this dispute has become

3:02

a proxy for broader control and political

3:06

conflicts. This judgement is not written

3:08

for people who have made up their

3:10

mind before any evidence was adduced or

3:12

are content to rest upon preconceived opinions.

3:15

It is written to set out my

3:17

factual findings comprehensively and explain

3:20

my decision to the parties and to the

3:22

open and fair minded. Most

3:27

of it myself included has been watching the

3:29

YouTube feed which Justice Michael Lee has insisted

3:32

on being available so that people could see

3:34

from the start to finish because

3:37

the criminal trial was aborted due

3:39

to juror misconduct. So Chris Lerman was neither found

3:41

guilty nor innocent. There was no

3:43

verdict and as Justice

3:45

Lee said as a result of the inconclusive criminal

3:47

trial Mr Lerman remains a man who has not

3:49

been convicted of any offence but he

3:52

has now been found by the civil standard of

3:54

proof to have engaged in a great

3:56

wrong. And of course Lerman always denied

3:58

that he raped Higgins. that they even

4:00

had sexual contact, it's always open

4:02

to him to appeal. Even

4:05

if he hadn't in this case, Justice Lee

4:07

said that he would only have been entitled to about

4:09

$20,000 in compensation, which wouldn't have covered the

4:11

legal bills, because he is

4:13

only entitled to be compensated for the reputation

4:16

he deserves. And so I

4:18

think this case has hopefully, to a lot

4:20

of people, been a little bit of a wake-up call, that

4:23

not everything is some kind of high

4:25

school debating competition about political coverage

4:28

and all the rest of it, but it's about interpersonal

4:30

relationships and what you can and can't do as a

4:32

human being living in the world. And

4:34

of course, because this thing became

4:36

so blown out of proportion into all these other

4:38

realms and theatres of life, so

4:40

many more people became drawn into it

4:43

and lost their own reputations and

4:45

destroyed their own credibility in even

4:48

having minimal contact with this case, which just kind

4:50

of swallowed everything in its part. Our

4:53

profession didn't exactly come out of

4:55

this case looking great. I mean,

4:57

it's a win for Channel 10,

4:59

for Lisa Wilkerson, but it's not

5:01

really a win for the media at all,

5:04

and particularly not at Seven, one

5:06

of Australia's biggest media organisations. What

5:09

is going on there? Oh, God. I

5:11

mean, some of the biggest fallout

5:13

has been at Channel Seven, a network notably

5:15

not being sued by Bruce Lerman in a

5:17

defamation suit, but which has come out of

5:19

this way worse than Channel

5:21

10. But it's Channel Seven that

5:24

kind of swept in to get what

5:26

they thought was going to be the story or the interview of the

5:28

year with Bruce Lerman. And

5:30

of course, it's dragged almost everybody under.

5:33

Well, it's the most recent, I guess. So late

5:35

last week, after the defamation trial,

5:37

I conclude, we saw the early resignation

5:39

of the CEO of Channel Seven or

5:42

Seven West Media, James Warburton. And

5:44

Justin Breitenew, Seven West Media owner of

5:46

the Seven Television Network, has just released

5:49

to the ASX. That's Chief Executive James

5:51

Warburton will leave immediately. He'll be replaced.

5:53

Because there had been a series of

5:55

these scandals, most notably in the realm

5:58

of financial and expense scandals with the

6:00

Sunrise programme but also the Bruce Lerman

6:02

spotlight TV interview where of course the

6:04

defamation trial had heard sensational at the

6:07

last minute after it had already closed

6:09

that there were potential reimbursements for sex

6:11

workers in cocaine and of course all of

6:14

this information was never

6:16

divulged to the defamation trial despite

6:18

subpoena has been issued twice. Martha

6:21

Welland the executive producer of Spotlight,

6:24

he is no longer employed by Channel 7, the

6:26

specific that 7 maintains it has acted appropriately

6:28

at all times. It really is

6:30

the story that keeps on giving or if you're

6:33

caught in the milestone the story that keeps on

6:35

taking. With 7 confirming today

6:37

that Martha Welland, the EP of Spotlight,

6:39

which ran exclusive interviews with Lerman is

6:41

no longer with the network. It

6:43

was confirmed on the morning of the

6:46

judgement but of course then we've

6:48

got the two people under Martha Welland which

6:50

is Steve Jackson and Taylor Allback who are

6:52

or were I should say really close friends

6:54

and work together at the Daily Telegraph. Now

6:56

of course all of this exploded. Allback essentially

6:59

brought this all up in public

7:01

in signed affidavits to get back at Steve

7:03

Jackson, his former friend with whom he's had

7:05

a falling out, to kill

7:07

Steve Jackson's chance as a $300,000 a

7:10

year New South Wales police

7:12

commissioner media job which worked and

7:15

so this reopened the case and of course now Channel 7 has

7:17

been dragged completely under. And of course

7:20

when you really think about this one

7:22

night in Parliament House in March 2019,

7:24

nobody would have predicted that

7:26

Channel 7 of all places

7:28

would be dragged into the undertow because

7:31

of the behaviour of a bunch of

7:33

their staffers in trying to get an

7:35

interview with an alleged rapist at that

7:37

point. Listening to

7:39

that list of names and the

7:41

list of I guess stuff that's happened

7:43

is probably a bit of an understatement

7:45

to say the network is in crisis

7:47

talks at the moment, right? Can it

7:49

survive this? Is it imploding? by

8:00

their own rules. But I think standards are changing.

8:02

I guess there are two prongs to this,

8:04

right? So there's the Kerry Stokes being a

8:06

proprietor of Channel 7 and having this kind of insatiable

8:09

desire, I guess, to sweep in

8:11

and rehabilitate the reputations of

8:14

some of the worst men in Australia. Ben Robert Smith

8:16

being the most obvious example who is a war criminal.

8:18

And we can say that now because he

8:21

lost the defamation case of being banged by

8:23

Kerry Stokes. And well,

8:25

the entire team that worked in the Bruce

8:27

Lomond story is now gone. And also, how

8:30

long can a proprietor back a loser? I

8:33

mean, the company has obligations to its shareholders

8:36

and to its employees

8:39

from a duty of care standpoint. There

8:41

was enough of a moral scandal that even

8:43

more than to try to rehabilitate Bruce Lomond

8:45

in the first place. But the fact that

8:47

we ever got documentary evidence, A, that Channel

8:50

7 had kind of paid Bruce

8:52

Lomond way more than they'd

8:54

ever publicly said they'd had.

8:57

But also because of the intervention of

8:59

Taylor Royalbach, the producer, we had the

9:01

incontrovertible proof as Justice Michael Lee put

9:03

it, there's no other way to find

9:05

this that Bruce Lomond handed

9:07

over documents that were only available to

9:09

him and only for the

9:11

criminal trial handed them

9:13

over to Channel 7. It's

9:16

like a clown car of bad

9:19

decisions that have emanated from

9:21

this. It's not

9:24

looking good. After

9:30

the break, why almost no

9:32

one involved in this case

9:34

emerged unscathed. As

9:46

a 7am listener, you value the story

9:48

behind the headlines. That's why you

9:50

should read Post, a free daily newsletter bringing

9:53

you the top five news stories of the

9:55

day summarising each of their key points with

9:57

links to full articles from a range of

9:59

sources. Get the news you

10:01

need to your inbox every weekday morning

10:03

with post. Sign up

10:06

at the saturdaypaper.com.au slash

10:08

newsletters. From classical to

10:11

contemporary and everywhere in between,

10:13

Melbourne Recital Centre celebrates 15

10:15

years of living and breathing live music throughout

10:18

2024. To

10:20

join in the celebrations and explore

10:22

what's on visit melberecital.com.au. Rick

10:27

when you began to look at the number of

10:29

people that this case has swept up, where did

10:32

you even start? There's kind of like,

10:34

there's the media quarter, there's obviously the political quarter

10:36

which is kind of where it begins right? It

10:38

begins at Parliament House. One of the first

10:40

people to find out about this was the Chief

10:42

of Staff to Linda Reynolds who was the Defence

10:44

Minister at the time, Fiona Brown and

10:47

then Linda Reynolds and they were both

10:49

technically the bosses of Bruce Lerman and

10:51

Brittany Higgins who were both political advisors

10:53

to the Defence Minister.

10:55

The rape happened in her office on

10:58

her couch. In fact when that became

11:00

public there were immediately stories that Linda

11:02

Reynolds had shouted in

11:05

front of public servants, not just her

11:07

own officers but public servants that Brittany

11:09

Higgins was a lying cow. Now

11:11

Reynolds always asserted that it wasn't in the context

11:13

that people had heard it that she meant it,

11:15

she wasn't alleging that Brittany had made up the

11:17

rape. But in any case it

11:20

was so badly handled that

11:22

she ended up paying compensation to

11:24

Brittany Higgins for even saying it

11:26

in the first place, she apologized. So

11:29

just before the project interview went to air

11:31

in 2021 Brittany Higgins was working for Senator

11:34

McCalley at Cash. Higgins knew that there

11:36

was going to be a lot of scrutiny coming.

11:38

So Brittany Higgins took the extraordinary step

11:41

of covertly recording both the Chief of

11:43

Staff a few weeks

11:45

before having a telephone conference

11:47

with the Chief of Staff and McCalley

11:49

at Cash and she recorded both of

11:51

those incidents essentially as assurance that

11:54

she wouldn't be swept away and there

11:56

seemed to be a lot of certainly

11:58

cross wires depending on the which version

12:00

you believe, but these are the political kind of

12:02

people who are involved in the first instance which

12:04

then gets led to, is

12:07

there a deeper problem here in Canberra? Rick

12:10

when it comes to the people who are

12:12

still grappling with the fallout from all of this,

12:15

what about the people who walked out

12:17

of this as, I guess

12:20

the winners, being cleared of defamation, Lisa

12:22

Wilkinson, the project, Channel 10, is it

12:24

over for them or is there more

12:27

to come now? Undoubtedly

12:29

they viewed themselves as the winners, they

12:31

dodged the legal bullet of the century. I

12:33

sincerely hope that this judgement gives

12:36

strength to women around the country. And

12:39

Lisa Wilkinson obviously gave a press conference immediately

12:41

afterwards, or a doorstop interview anyway, where she

12:43

was, she said she was, she's been vindicated

12:46

essentially. She was a woman who

12:48

told the story of a woman who'd been raped in Parliament House

12:50

and she's proud of that and she should be. She

12:52

gave voice to a victim of sexual assault.

12:54

That's what we should be doing, but I

12:56

don't think it does us any good to

12:59

completely gloss over the harms that were done

13:01

to journalism throughout, including by the

13:03

project team, which Justice McElhee is

13:05

very open about. They resolved from

13:07

the start to publish the exclusive story

13:09

and would contend to do the minimum

13:11

required to reduce unacceptable litigation risk. In

13:14

fact he's had a Channel 10 acted

13:16

in grossly inappropriate ways, grossly

13:18

improper conduct, particularly, you know,

13:21

when Lisa Wilkinson is

13:23

nominated and wins Silver Logie for the interview and

13:25

gets up and does this big Logie speech. It

13:28

was incredibly reckless. First

13:30

was her refusal to make the obvious concession

13:32

in response to her crossings admin as questions

13:34

at her speech at the 67th annual TV

13:36

week Logies Award on 19 June 2022, conveyed

13:41

the message that Miss Higgins was credible

13:43

and to be believed and therefore by

13:45

necessary implication that the allegation of rape

13:47

was true. Now, Lisa Wilkinson

13:50

was correct in saying that she had that

13:52

speech legal. Channel 10's Eden House Council said

13:54

there was no problem with saying any of

13:56

it whatsoever and refused even on evidence to

13:58

say that she had it. regrets about

14:00

it even though they wrote in a groveling apology to

14:02

the Chief Justice of the ACT, we're

14:04

so sorry, we're so sorry, please, you know, we

14:07

never intended any of this. I mean,

14:09

every cadet journalist knows that you

14:11

don't commit sub-Juda State contempt. If

14:14

something's before a court, you have to be exceedingly careful. I

14:16

mean, you can't answer this. One of the things that make the

14:19

fault the state, the fault the state is that we actually

14:21

do have limitations to these things, as opposed to

14:23

public commentary where you can say whatever you feel

14:26

like. And so these are all things that

14:28

while the project, Channel 10, Lisa Wilkinson,

14:32

all of them will be feeling about 20 kilo the

14:34

lighter after this case has ended, and

14:36

rightfully so. But I think

14:38

that journalism deserves good standard barriers

14:40

everywhere, and it's easy to almost

14:44

poke from that Channel 7 for how much they keep

14:46

stepping on the same rake. But

14:49

from the point of view of protecting

14:51

someone who's making a serious allocation of

14:53

sexual assault in their own trauma,

14:56

are we actually protecting the people who are making

14:58

these claims by doing our jobs properly? Because

15:00

we don't do our jobs properly, but we could, and really,

15:03

as we all know now, Britney Higgens has copped it.

15:05

So she's the one person we

15:07

haven't discussed yet, because I guess

15:10

she wasn't a party to this defamation

15:12

case, even though she's so central to

15:14

it and was probably affected more than

15:16

anyone. What does

15:19

this all mean for her now? That

15:21

is a great question. She

15:24

wasn't a party to the case, and

15:26

yet her credibility alongside Bruce Lerman was

15:28

central to it. We didn't have a

15:30

criminal trial outcome. This

15:33

is the only court case we have now, where

15:35

we have a verdict that

15:37

you can rely on with some degree of

15:39

clarity. Balanced probabilities in a civil case is

15:42

not just as Michael Lee said, it's not

15:44

just a simple what is the most likely

15:46

outcome? That's not the test. The test for

15:49

a judge is what are

15:51

the most likely outcomes of all of the

15:53

things put together and then also are they inherently

15:55

believable and do you believe it? That

15:57

is the test. And Justice Michael Lee. has

16:00

done it in the affirmative from Brittany Higgins, he

16:02

says that she was raped by Bruce Lerman. That

16:04

in itself, after all these years of

16:07

her just being completely pilloried and

16:10

kind of drawn between different debates in the

16:13

public sphere, she was still thrown to

16:15

the wolves through this whole ordeal.

16:20

So Linda Reynolds has said, even

16:22

after the defamation judgment, that she would

16:24

continue to sue, as she currently is,

16:27

Brittany Higgins and her fiancee, David Choraz,

16:29

for defamation for social media posts that

16:31

they made outside of the. It's

16:36

kind of like a concertina effect and this kind of

16:38

ripples of life after life after

16:40

life being kind of revocably altered in many

16:43

respects and certainly either brought

16:45

into disrepute or just kind of being forced

16:47

to deal with an extraordinary pressure in this

16:49

case because of that one night.

16:51

And it just, if you drew all the link

16:53

between them, you wouldn't be able to forecast this.

16:56

People would say that you're crazy, but of course we

16:58

now know from the last five years that's exactly what

17:00

happened. Rick,

17:04

thank you so much for the chat. Thanks

17:06

Ashlyn and welcome. It's good to have you here. Thank

17:09

you, nice to be on board. Join

17:23

the Palace Cinemas Movie Club and never

17:25

pay full price again. Experience

17:27

the best in quality cinema

17:29

with instant savings, exclusive offers,

17:32

plus earn rewards points with

17:34

every dollar you spend. Visit

17:36

palacesinemas.com.au to learn more. Also

17:42

in the news today, Brittany Higgins has

17:44

spoken for the first time since the

17:46

Bruce Lerman defamation verdict. In

17:49

a statement released on the weekend,

17:51

she said she hoped media organisations

17:53

that gave Bruce Lerman public platforms

17:55

to, quote, maintain his lies

17:58

would reflect on their actions. She

18:00

also said she was sorry that people

18:02

like former Minister Linda Reynolds and former

18:05

Chief of Staff Fiona Brown had also

18:07

been hurt during the years-long

18:09

saga that followed her disclosure. And

18:12

the United States Congress has passed

18:14

a multi-billion dollar military aid package

18:17

for both Ukraine and Israel. The

18:19

deal includes around 60 billion US dollars for

18:21

Ukraine as well as 26 billion

18:24

US dollars in military support for Israel.

18:27

With just over 9 billion of that

18:29

allocated to humanitarian aid for Gaza.