Anthony Albanese defends Katy Gallagher after text leak: ‘Bizarre conspiracy theory’

Anthony Albanese has dismissed suggestions that Labor questions its knowledge of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations as a “outlandish conspiracy theory”.

His comments come as he defends his frontbench colleague, Chancellor of the Exchequer Katy Gallagher, who has denied misleading Parliament in 2021 by knowing about the allegations before they were made public.

Senator Gallagher responded to a claim that she knew about the incident for weeks in order to use it for political gain, saying she was not trying to weaponize the allegations.

Questions were put to the Treasury Secretary after leaked text messages between Ms Higgins and her partner David Sharaz emerged last week suggesting the pair considered discussing her story with Senator Gallagher when she was in opposition.

Albanese said his minister had been transparent and that the suggestion that Senator Gallagher misled parliament was “absurd.”

“It’s a bizarre conspiracy theory that suggests Labor is somehow at the center of all this,” he told ABC Radio.

And indeed, according to Senator (Linda) Reynolds herself, and the discussion that took place on Monday night at the time, Katy Gallagher said, “Yes, I was broadly made aware that there was an incident in the days before . “.

“So this has been known to Senator Reynolds since then since 2021, and now, in 2023, this is somehow this fabricated issue by what is a desperate liberal opposition.”

With parliament resuming on Tuesday, coalition senators will use Question Time to attack Senator Gallagher for her knowledge of the allegations.

Ms Higgins claims she was raped by former colleague Bruce Lehrmann in Parliament House in 2019, a claim Mr Lehrmann has always denied.

Mr Lehrmann’s trial was aborted due to juror misconduct and prosecutors have not sought a new trial, citing concerns over Ms Higgins’ mental health.

The ACT is now conducting an investigation into the investigation and prosecution.

Senator Gallagher responded to a claim that she knew about the incident for weeks in order to use it for political gain.

Ms Gallagher has ‘categorically’ denied that she misled parliament after the release of the texts The Australian this week.

She was previously questioned in Senate Estimates in June 2021 about the extent of her knowledge of Ms. Higgins’ allegations before the story came out.

At the June 2021 Senate estimates hearing, then-Secretary of Defense Linda Reynolds accused Labor senators of being secretly briefed on the rape allegation.

“One of your senators told me two weeks ago what you intended with the story in my office. Two weeks before,” she said.

In response to the allegation, Senator Gallagher said, “Nobody had any knowledge.”

Ms Gallagher took aim at Mr Sharaz’s text messages, saying she was made aware of ‘some allegations’ in the days leading up to Ms Higgins’ explosive February 2021 interview.

“I’ve been clear, I’ve been honest and I’ve been guided at all times by the courage and bravery of a young woman who chose to speak out about her workplace and from there we’ve had tremendous changes in that workplace . she said Saturday.

“(I was told) There would be a public report that a young woman who made serious allegations about events that took place in a minister’s office … would go public.

“I categorically rejected, and you see in the commission’s footage, I categorically rejected the claim she put forth, which was that we chose to weaponize that information weeks before we were told about it.”