Brittany Higgins receives an ‘unreserved apology’ from Liberal Party veteran Robyn Nolan

Liberal Party veteran Robyn Nolan has apologized to Brittany Higgins after she made “shocking” comments about the former employee during a Liberal Party women’s event.

The former politician said she was “deeply sorry” for the “inappropriate” comments she made towards Ms Higgins, who has faced criticism since her high-profile rape case against Bruce Lehrmann.

The comments, which were made at a meeting of the ACT Women’s Council on Wednesday evening, cannot be released for legal reasons.

“I deeply regret the comments I made,” said Ms. Nolan, who is also chair of the Federal Women’s Committee in the Liberal Party. news.com.au.

The former politician (circled in red) said she was “deeply sorry” for the “inappropriate” comments she made towards Ms Higgins at the women’s event held at the ACT.

They were inappropriate and I apologize unreservedly. My apologies to Ms. Higgins and also to everyone who was at the event.

The comments have prompted complaints to the Liberal Party calling on Ms Nolan to step down from her current role, which expires at the end of this year.

Higgins accused her colleague Bruce Lehrmann of sexually assaulting her in Parliament in March 2019.

He has always maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty at trial last year. Lehrmann’s trial failed last year after jury misconduct.

Prosecutors later dropped the sexual assault charge against her over concerns about Ms Higgins’ mental health.

Pictured: Brittany Higgins and her lawyers arrive at the ACT Supreme Court in October 2022

Ms Nolan, who is also chair of the Federal Women’s Committee in the Liberal Party, said she was “deeply sorry” for comments she made at a meeting on Wednesday night.

Ms Nolan’s comments come after Ms Higgins’ former boss, Linda Reynolds, called her a “lying cow”.

Reynolds made the comment on February 15, 2021, a day after Higgins went public with allegations that she was raped by another staff member in 2019.

It was inferred at the time that Ms Reynolds had doubted Ms Higgins, but the former defense minister said the comment was made for an entirely different reason.

Ms Reynolds and chief of staff Fiona Brown had been accused of failing to help Ms Higgins after she came to them for support shortly after the alleged incident.

The former defense minister insisted she had offered support, saying the allegations led her to call Ms Higgins a “lying cow”.

Ms Reynolds has publicly apologized and paid damages to Ms Higgins, with the former Liberal staffer reportedly “planning” to donate the money to charity.

Ms Higgins took issue with the wording and launched a heated tweet in response to the interview published by Newscorp.

Ms Higgins accused her colleague Bruce Lehrmann (pictured) of sexually assaulting her at Parliament House in March 2019. He has always maintained his innocence.

“Since I was not given the right of reply for this particular story, I thought I’d clarify it here,” he wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

I donated all of the funds from my defamation case against Senator Reynolds to a sexual assault charity at the time my lawyer received them in 2021.

‘See receipt below.’

The tweet followed an earlier Instagram post by Ms Higgins in which she responded to Ms Reynolds and her interview with The Weekend Australian.

Ms Reynolds and Ms Brown have continually claimed they offered support to Ms Higgins, while the former staffer claims he believed his job was at stake.

Ms Reynolds said the ‘lying cow’ comment was misinterpreted, but she was ‘not in a position to defend herself’ at the time.

“I was on sick leave, my whole world had collapsed,” he said.

Ms Nolan’s comments come after Ms Higgins’ former boss Linda Reynolds (pictured) called her a “lying cow”.

Ms Higgins accused Ms Reynolds of playing the victim in her Instagram post.

“Let me clear this up,” he wrote. ‘I’m the one who was publicly maligned by my former employer.

I donated the money to charity because all I wanted was an apology and a retraction, and yet Linda Reynolds is somehow the victim?

Then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison condemned the senator’s ‘lying cow’ comment at the time, calling it ‘inappropriate and incorrect’, but admitted Ms Higgins was under ‘significant stress’ at the time.

“(Their) comments…related to the comment about the levels of support provided and their frustrations about how they felt they were doing everything they thought was in their power to provide support,” he said.