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 you forget, and she absolutely did say that he had taken her back to Parliament House.

541 Fifthly, there was some relatively insignificant evidence of a change of demeanour in the wake of the incident given by Ms Kellie Jago (Ms Higgins' mother), Ms Hamer, Ms Alex Humphries (Ms Higgins' housemate) or, more significantly, of distress by Ms Cripps, the crisis counsellor.

542 Sixthly, is the conduct on 3 April 2019 responding to Mr Dillaway's offer to "reach out to the PMO" (Ex R99 (at 814)) which was accepted by Ms Higgins, and which led to a conversation with Mr Julian Leembruggen which was the subject of a contemporaneous record by Mr Dillaway:

Spoke to PMO. He was mortified to hear about it and how things have been handled. He’s going to discuss with COS [Dr John Kunkel] – no one else. I flagged need for councillor [sic] and desire to be closer to home during election.

543 To which Ms Higgins replied (Ex R99 (at 814)) – incidentally, in terms in stark contrast to her later narrative:

Thank you for doing that. Honestly, I really appreciate it. The help is beyond welcomed.

I wouldn't say it's been handled poorly, just a difficult situation to manage. Seriously, Fiona is great. I just think there has been a lot of competing things going on.

544 Again, for present purposes this does not prove a rape occurred, but a person in the position of Ms Higgins agreeing for a friend to "reach out to the PMO" in relation to matters relevant to the incident is not behaviour counterintuitive to a sexual assault having occurred.

545 Finally, was a representation made to her father which falls into a somewhat different category because it occurred much later. Mr Higgins gave raw and palpably believable evidence that after the trip to Canberra at the end of March 2019, he did not hear from his daughter and felt something was wrong (T1469.41–47). He then explained on 2 February 2020, his daughter sent him a message that said: "When you are free this week, we probably need to have a chat. So much has gone on in the past year, and I haven't fully kept you in the loop. You have to keep your cool, though, and back me up" (Ex R882; T1470.15–19). Mr Higgins and his daughter subsequently had a call (T1476.32–33) during which Ms Higgins told him that "the inappropriate [thing] that had happened at Parliament House was that she had been raped…" (T1470.35–36). Again, this sort of statement must be put in its proper Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Limited (Trial Judgment) [2024] FCA 369