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Brittany Higgins will be questioned about a secret recording she made of a conversation with a leading Liberal minister as her high-profile rape trial continues.
The former Liberal staffer is the first witness in the criminal trial of Bruce Lehrmann, who she alleges sexually assaulted her in the parliament building after a drunken night out in March 2019.
Mr Lehrmann has so far appeared before the ACT Supreme Court in Canberra on all four days of the trial after pleading not guilty to one count of unauthorized sexual intercourse.
On Thursday, the court heard that Ms Higgins had secretly recorded a telephone conversation with her former boss and then Employment Secretary Michaelia Cash in 2021, which she described as “the weirdest call of my life.”
Brittany Higgins was pictured out of court on Thursday, following day three of her rape case against her former colleague
Brittany Higgins told the court she secretly recorded a conversation with then Labor Secretary Michaelia Cash in 2021 (pictured)
Ms Higgins initially worked for former Secretary of Defense Linda Reynolds, but took a job as a junior media adviser to Senator Cash after the 2019 election.
Ms Higgins, now 27, told the court under cross-examination that during the phone call, the senator pretended not to know about the alleged rape, despite having spoken about it before.
“It was ridiculous. It was the weirdest phone call I’ve ever had in my life,” she said.
Attorney Steven Whybrow told Ms Higgins that she sent the recording to multiple people, including journalists, to provide background information for the story.
But Ms. Higgins said it was for her legal protection so she could corroborate her story.
‘I tried to give’ [the recording] to as many people as possible to have them so that they exist,’ she said.
“It’s my word against a minister’s, and the difference in power between the two is ridiculous.”
Former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann to leave ACT Supreme Court in Canberra on Thursday
Brittany Higgins recorded an interview with Lisa Wilkinson (pictured) for The Project in January 2021
Ms Higgins also unwittingly recorded a conversation with Senator Cash’s former chief of staff Daniel Try and sent it to journalist Samantha Maiden, but stated that it should not be published.
During that conversation, Ms. Higgins told the court that the chief of staff referred to another sexual assault within the Liberals that was never reported.
The court also heard that Ms. Higgins taped the conversations after a six-hour interview with Lisa Wilkinson for The Project on January 27, 2021.
She said Ms. Wilkinson and Ms. Maiden are “fighting” over when her story would be released.
“Who got the exclusive drop so that Walkley’s time comes, who can claim what and it wasn’t even about me or my story,” she told the court.
Ms Maiden won the Gold Walkley in 2021 – Australian journalism’s highest honour, while Ms Wilkinson was awarded a Logie this year.
Mr Whybrow told her she was doing the interview to hurt the Liberal party just before the election, but Ms Higgins said she just wanted to talk about a ‘cultural issue’ in parliament.
Lisa Wilkinson (left) interviewed Brittany Higgins (right) on The Project in 2019 about her rape allegations
“I thought I’d do a printout and a TV and then I’d go back to college and disappear,” she explained.
Ms Higgins told the court that the project’s host was “pretty angry” when the interview aired on February 15, because it was a Monday and Ms Wilkinson normally didn’t work Mondays.
After both stories dropped, Ms. Higgins said she was inundated with media requests.
The court heard that she had prepared a timeline of events to give to the police and while she had “fainted from Valium” due to the stress of the media storm, her partner David Sharaz made the decision to give the timeline to two journalists.
However, she claims that the timeline has fallen into the hands of “the entire press gallery” and that Mr Sharaz regrets his decision.
Mr Whybrow also questioned her about a series of inconsistencies in her original testimony, including what she did to the white cocktail dress she was wearing on the night of the alleged attack.
Ms Higgins initially told the court that she put it in a bag under her bed for six months before “symbolically washing it” and wearing it again.
However, a cross-examination revealed that the dress had only been under her bed for a few weeks.
Mr Whybrow handed Ms Higgins a photo of her in the dress on Ms Reynolds’ birthday in Perth in April 2019 – less than two months after the alleged rape.
Ms Higgins admitted to the court that she was “wrong” but insisted the dress was under her bed “for a while”.
The process continues.