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 the options available to her. At this meeting, Ms Higgins indicated she would like to speak to the Australian Federal Police, which Minister Reynolds supported and her office facilitated.

The Minister and her office continued to provide support to Ms Higgins through this period.

As part of this process, the Prime Minister's office provided support to Minister Reynolds and her office in assessing a breach of the Statement of Standards for Ministerial Staff by the other staff member involved in the incident.

It is important that Ms Higgins views are listened to and respected. The Government regrets in any way if Ms Higgins felt unsupported through this process.

Final statement, from a govt spokesperson

Angus Llewellyn (15 February 2021, time unknown):

Thanks.

877 It will be recalled that when Ms Wilkinson read this response on Monday morning, she dismissed it (T1866.45) as a "very official response to a very difficult political situation that the government was in". She also gave the following evidence (T1868–70):

MR RICHARDSON: Well, did you believe it?---I believed that Ms Higgins' career would be impacted if she proceeded with the police investigation. I don’t think she would have been a valued member - - -

I hear that?--- - - - of the Liberal Party workplace if she had proceeded with that police investigation.

Did you believe that Linda Reynolds said to Ms Higgins there would be no impact on her career?---Well, some nameless person from the Prime Minister's Office has said that there would be no impact.

The question was did you believe at this time, when you read this document, that Linda Reynolds had said to Ms Higgins there would be no impact on her career?---I don't know, I wasn't in the room.

So you had no state of mind one way or the other? You didn’t know?---Well, this statement was put up on The Project website as the government's account of what they believed happened. So we very fairly put this up as the government response.

You recall yesterday you gave evidence – and this is at 1792, line 25. I said to you:

"My note was this, that you didn't believe that Ms Higgins was alleging that Brown and Reynolds had actually discouraged her from going to the police."

And your answer was:

"Yes, I didn't believe that."

Is that – you stand by that evidence?---Yes, I don't believe they discouraged her.

In that case, why wouldn't you have accepted the statement by the government that Minister Reynolds had said there would be no impact on her career?---Because I believe the way the political system works, that a young woman, who would very

Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Limited (Trial Judgment) [2024] FCA 369