A pair of high-profile defamation cases pitting Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds against her former political staffer Brittany Higgins and her fiance are likely to head to trial after mediation talks were unsuccessful.
The former defence minister, who plans to retire from politics at the next election, is suing Ms Higgins and David Sharaz over a series of social media posts she says have damaged her reputation.
Senator Reynolds said she was disappointed the talks did not resolve the matter “for all of those who have been damaged and wounded by this saga for the last over three years now”.
“I think it’s time for the truth, as Justice Lee … found in relation to this matter … for all parties to accept all of his findings and for us all to find a way to move on,” she told reporters outside the WA Supreme Court in Perth on Tuesday.
“Too many people have been damaged irreparably by this.”
When she arrived at the court for the talks, Senator Reynolds said it was time for her opponents “to admit they got it wrong”.
Senator Reynolds also said Finance Minister Katy Gallagher and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus should accept Justice Lee’s findings in the Federal Court.
Justice Lee’s judgment in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson found that on the balance of probabilities he did rape Ms Higgins, but the allegation of a political cover-up “was objectively short on facts but long on speculation”.
The parties in the WA case in March attended closed-door mediation but it was also not successful.
Mr Sharaz in April tweeted he would no longer fight the case because he could not afford to pay the legal cost associated with going to trial in July.
Senator Reynolds is suing him over tweets he made and a Facebook comment in 2022.
One defamatory imputation claimed against Mr Sharaz’s tweets was that Senator Reynolds pressured Ms Higgins not to proceed with a genuine complaint to police about being raped in her ministerial office.
Other claimed imputations were that the senator “is a hypocrite in her advocacy for women’s interests and empowerment”, interfered in Lehrmann’s trial and bullied Ms Higgins.
Ms Higgins is accused of posting defamatory material on her Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) accounts.
Lehrmann has always denied the sexual assault allegation. His trial was aborted due to juror misconduct and Ms Higgins’ mental health was cited as the reason for no retrial.
