Senator had 'heated debate' over Higgins, court told

A former senior aide has recalled Senator Linda Reynolds having a "heated" debate with her staff about calling in police after Brittany Higgins' alleged rape. The ex-defence minister is suing her former staffer, Ms Higgins, over a series of social media posts she alleges contain mistruths - including that she mishandled the response to the incident - that she believes damaged her reputation. Senator Reynold's former acting chief of staff during the 2019 federal election, Dean Carlson, told a Perth court there was robust discussion about what to do in the days afterwards. Mr Carlson said Senator Reynolds had consulted the then special minister of state, Alex Hawke, and backed informing the Australian Federal Police. "The conversation became quite heated. Ms Brown did not want to do that without the permission of Ms Higgins," he told the WA Supreme Court on Thursday, referring to the senator's chief of staff Fiona Brown. "There was concern around the circumstances, how Ms Higgins was found in a state of undress warranted the opportunity for the AFP to determine whether anything had occurred." Mr Carlson said it was eventually agreed Ms Brown would contact Ms Higgins to offer support in making contact with the police. "I supported Ms Brown's position. I thought it was important Ms Higgins had agency over any action and her privacy was paramount," he said. Mr Carlson said the late-night security breach on February 23, 2019, that led to Ms Higgins and her then-colleague Bruce Lehrmann - who has always denied any rape took place - being in the senator's ministerial suite was concerning. Asked if he suspected a sexual assault had occurred at that stage, he said: "There were too many question marks ... of course that was a live option." "We were working with a void of information," he said. He told the court he understood Ms Higgins was later offered alternatives about where she would work during the 2019 election campaign, in the weeks after the alleged rape in the senator's office. These included remaining in Canberra, working from the Gold Coast where her parents lived and in Perth "where the minister would spend the bulk of the election campaign". Mr Carlson said that during the campaign the senator's office paid for Ms Higgins to travel to the Gold Coast "in recognition of the fact that she was the only one in the campaign who hadn't seen family for an extended period of time". "I recall distinctly that was an unusual arrangement because we actually had to work out how we would do that within travel policy because she wasn't based in Queensland, she was based in Canberra," he said. Ms Higgins' defence statement of claim says she felt "isolated, traumatised, depressed, unsupported and confused" during her time in Perth for the 2019 federal election campaign. Mr Carlson said staff who travelled to Perth for the election campaign stayed in the Aloft Hotel near the senator's campaign office. He said Ms Higgins was often invited to and joined after-work social activities, such as dinner and drinks. "I found Ms Higgins to be a very enthusiastic team member of the team and whenever I tasked her with work it was always done," he said. A long-time friend of the senator, Denita Wawn, told the court it was "devastating" to see the retiring politician so physically and mentally unwell after her breakdown at parliament house in 2021. "She was a mess ... Physically, she was shaking, she was pale, she looked weak. Mentally, she was in a high state of distress," she said. "I spent considerable time in her home with her, looking after her ... There were a number of us that took turns to be with her." The court heard that after the Labor Party was elected to office in 2022, the senator was in an unusually high state of distress while holidaying with friends in northern NSW. "She was very upset that she had not been made a shadow minister, not even a junior minister, which in effect had stopped her ministerial career in the future," Ms Wawn said.