A bitter court battle between an ex-senator and an alleged parliament house sexual assault victim is set to be decided.
Brittany Higgins' former boss Linda Reynolds launched a defamation lawsuit over a series of social media posts that the ex-defence minister believes damaged her reputation.
The long-awaited judgment is due to be handed down on Wednesday by Justice Paul Tottle in Western Australia's Supreme Court.
The high-profile five-week defamation trial, which ended in September 2024, ballooned into a who's who of Australian politics and media.
More than 20 witnesses gave evidence during the hearing which re-examined Ms Higgins' alleged rape by fellow staffer Bruce Lehrmann in 2019 and subsequent events, including her decision to publicise her claims two years later.
Ms Reynolds' lawyer Martin Bennett told the court Ms Higgins and her now-husband David Sharaz created a "fictional story of political cover-up" that cast the ex-senior Liberal as a villain in a bid to harm her.
Mr Bennett also alleged the couple courted journalists Lisa Wilkinson from Network Ten's The Project and Gold Walkley award-winner Samantha Maiden from News Corp with their "fairytale" while Ms Higgins was still working for Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash.
Ms Reynolds claimed Ms Higgins' social media posts carried imputations she harassed her former staffer, mishandled her alleged rape, wanted to silence sexual assault victims and engaged in questionable conduct during Lehrmann's aborted criminal trial.
She testified that late Senator Kimberley Kitching gave her a heads-up before fellow Labor Senators Katy Gallagher and Penny Wong led an intense grilling that resulted in her physical and emotional breakdown in parliament.
She also delivered a bombshell when she linked the saga to Senator Kitching's death from a suspected heart attack in March 2022, amid tearful evidence in which she alleged her friend was bullied by her colleagues.
Former prime minister Scott Morrison said Ms Higgins' claims against her former boss were weaponised to discredit his government, and the political attacks were aggressive and co-ordinated.
Ms Higgins' lawyer Rachael Young said her client was a courageous woman who was sued for speaking up and her motive for doing so was not to harm the senator but to drive workplace reforms and stop anyone else from experiencing what she had gone through.
Ms Higgins alleged she was raped by Lehrmann in the senator's ministerial suite in March 2019.
A Federal Court judge overseeing a defamation case launched by Lehrmann against Network Ten found Ms Higgins was, on the balance of probabilities, raped by Lehrmann in the office.
Lehrmann is appealing that finding.
He has always denied the rape allegation and his criminal trial was derailed by juror misconduct.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
