Page:Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Limited (Trial Judgment).pdf/19

 became a policy advisor to the Hon Senator Linda Reynolds CSC, then Assistant Minister for Home Affairs.

IIMs Higgins

20 Ms Higgins was born in Queensland in 1994. She grew up on the Gold Coast, completing her schooling there and later graduated from Griffith University. In 2017, she was employed as a staffer for Mr Samuel O'Connor MP, a member of the Queensland Parliament.

21 Ms Higgins moved to Canberra around September 2018 to commence work as an administrative assistant in the Ministerial office of the Hon Steven Ciobo MP. Around this time, she began a relationship with Mr Benjamin Dillaway, the media advisor to Mr Ciobo, which lasted until February or early March 2019. The pair remained close (and at times intimate) friends.

22 In early March 2019, Mr Ciobo announced his pending resignation and, shortly thereafter, Senator Reynolds received a commission to become the Minister for Defence Industry.

23 Ms Higgins was then successful in her application for a role as an administrative officer and junior media advisor in Senator Reynolds' office.

IIIMs Wilkinson

24 Ms Wilkinson has been a journalist for over forty years. She has held a wide range of prominent roles. Her beginnings were in print journalism. Her first job was as an editorial assistant and cadet journalist at Dolly magazine. She held various roles at Dolly and Cleo magazines from 1978 to 1995, including rising to become editor-in-chief of both magazines from 1988 to 1995, and was editor-at-large of the Australian Women's Weekly from 1999 to 2007.

25 Ms Wilkinson first turned to television in 1996. She rose to lounge-room prominence in the early 2000s, as co-host of The Morning Shift. Between 2004 and 2007, she was a news contributor and regular fill-in co-host of the Seven Network's Sunrise and Weekend Sunrise programmes and, from 2007 to 2017, co-host of Today on the Nine Network.

26 In 2017, Ms Wilkinson became co-host of The Project and The Sunday Project, a role she held at the time of publication. Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Limited (Trial Judgment) [2024] FCA 369