Labor Senator Katy Gallagher denies involvement in Brittany Higgins’ sexual assault complaint

Katy Gallagher has again denied misleading the House of Representatives in a statement ahead of Senate Question Time.

The Secretary of the Treasury, who is expected to be challenged during Question Time on Tuesday about what knowledge she had of Ms. Higgins’ complaint, has issued a preemptive statement to the Senate.

“I was given information in the days before the allegations were reported and I did nothing with those allegations. Nothing. I was asked to keep it to myself and I did,” she said.

During Senate Estimates in June 2021, Senator Gallagher was questioned by then-Secretary of Defense Linda Reynolds, who said, “One of your senators told me two weeks earlier what you intended with the story in my office. Two weeks before.’

In response, Senator Gallagher said, “Nobody had any knowledge. How dare you.’ She has maintained that those comments do not constitute misleading Parliament.

“I was in no way involved in the story that went on the air that night or was reported online that morning. I was in no way involved in the timing of this story being published or aired,” she said Tuesday.

“Any allegations or claims I have made are wrong and I reject them in the strongest possible terms.”

Senator Gallagher said women across the country who had considered coming forward with allegations had been given a clear warning to “watch out.”

“I’m afraid the message for this for women who want to come forward is ‘beware,'” she said. “I’m not going to stand for that.”

Senator Gallagher has faced a barrage of criticism in the weeks since the accused, Bruce Lehrmann, sat down for a Channel 7 televised interview.

In the days that followed, leaked text messages appeared between Ms. Higgins and her partner David Sharaz suggesting that the pair were considering strategizing with Senator Gallagher when she was in opposition.

In an impassioned speech Tuesday morning, Senator Gallagher said the attention paid to what she did or did not do with the information provided to her in the days before Ms. Higgins’ allegations became public was misleading.

“The fact remains that those who owed Ms. Higgins a direct duty of care knew about this for nearly two years and did nothing to make changes or improve the culture and safety in the workplace where this incident had taken place.

May I say to the Senate, we must not lose sight of the perspective of what is important here.

“At the heart of this whole story is the well-being or not of a young woman who came forward and made accusations on her own terms, a woman who bravely stood up and spoke out on her own terms.”

Senator Gallagher said Ms Higgins felt “significantly let down” by her employer – the former coalition government – in the months since she filed a complaint.

“At a time when she needed their support the most, she should have been treated like a human being, not a problem to be solved.

“The answer should not have been calculated based on the political needs of the coalition government, it should have been met with compassion and support and it was not.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended his minister at every opportunity, saying today she had been transparent and that any suggestion she was misleading 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.”

In the days that followed, leaked text messages appeared between Mrs. Higgins and her partner David Sharaz, suggesting that the pair considered strategizing with Senator Gallagher when she was in opposition.

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

A criminal trial was aborted due to juror misconduct and prosecutors have not filed for a new trial, citing concerns over Ms. Higgins’ mental health.

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

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

Responding to Mr Sharaz’s texts, Senator Gallagher said 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.”