Former senator Linda Reynolds says she will continue to fight legal battles until “the bitter end” in the Brittany Higgins saga, despite it having already cost her millions of dollars and “broken” her.
In an expansive interview on the ABC on Tuesday night, Reynolds said allegations that she had covered up the rape had been subsequently disproven in multiple court judgments. She said she had never disputed that Higgins had been raped.
Bruce Lehrmann was charged with raping Higgins and pleaded not guilty, but a criminal trial on those allegations was abandoned after juror misconduct. He was not trialled again because of concerns about Higgins’ welfare.
The federal court has found on the civil burden of proof – the balance of probability – that Lehrmann raped Higgins. A recent appeal against that decision, in a defamation action brought by Bruce Lehrmann against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson, was dismissed, and Lehrmann’s lawyer has flagged a possible high court appeal.
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Reynolds successfully sued Higgins over a series of social media posts the former defence minister believed damaged her reputation. In August the Western Australia supreme court awarded her damages of $315,000 plus $26,109 interest after finding some of the posts were defamatory. Higgins was also ordered to pay most of her legal costs in the case, estimated at over $1m.
In October Reynolds launched bankruptcy proceedings against Higgins in an effort to recover the money.
Asked whether she had any qualms about continuing to pursue a rape victim in part of her quest for justice, Reynolds told the ABC on Tuesday she had “never, ever disputed the rape allegation” but said “the history of this is incredibly important”.
“Because seven years ago, there was one allegation of rape after two staff had entered my office unauthorised after hours,” she said. “There was an allegation of rape. It was very clear to me and my chief of staff then that was a criminal matter that needed to be dealt with by the AFP. And they did.
“It was also very clear to me that that allegation required proper welfare support to Ms Higgins at the time. We sought the advice, all of the correct advice. We followed it ….we did everything right. But it’s taken five years, almost, to get the truth told by the judges. And to make the truth binding.”
Reynolds is also suing the commonwealth over Higgins’ $2.4m settlement.
Reynolds told the ABC that case could not be settled with an apology.
“Justice is not cheap. Because I was forced to take action to defend my reputation … we can’t undo all of the damage that’s been done over five years. But it has been hellishly expensive for me to seek justice through the civil courts.
“I have no regrets in doing it, because it has flushed out a lot of the truth. And certainly the truth about the allegations that were fabricated. But it has cost me a great deal.
“We have two mortgages on our house. We’ve got millions of dollars of debt. I don’t regret it. If I lose everything, it will have been worth it.”
Reynolds also railed against Labor, Liberal colleagues, and the media for their part in the scandal.
She appeared to blame colleagues who wanted her job of defence minister for contributing to the story, said Labor refused to accept court findings about how the matter was handled, and she accused Lisa Wilkinson of exploiting a rape victim by putting them on national television as part of what Reynolds alleged was a “clearly curated, fabricated, political scandal” involving other reporters.
Asked why she was continuing three separate court cases in relation to the matter, Reynolds said: “It’s quite clear to me that I either had to fall over and just let these lies carry me away, or I stood up and fought for the truth and for justice for me and for everybody else who’s been so damaged by these lies and by the weaponisation of these lies.
“I didn’t expect it would take five years and it would still be going. But for me, five years ago almost to the day, my life was completely destroyed. My reputation, my career and my health.
“No one can undo that. But I’m still fighting for the truth and for justice for myself and for others.”
Of Lehrmann, Reynolds said: “Well, I absolutely unreservedly condemn Bruce Lehrmann, because I clearly had identified before that rape that he was unsuited to working in my office and any ministerial office.
“So, please don’t misunderstand that. I think that is very clear.
“And his own behaviour, as I said, has demonstrated his character.”
When asked about Higgins and whether she had sympathy for her as a rape victim, Reynolds responded that she and her former chief of staff Fiona Brown had been found to have done “everything right” by Higgins in two separate judgments.
“So of course I had great sympathy …[but] that first day these allegations [that there had been a cover-up] came out – I was absolutely mortified about what [Higgins] had said, because it did not accord with my recollection.
“So my initial reactions were – how could I have missed this? How could Fiona have missed this? But I knew her allegations were not true, but she appeared to believe them. And I felt bad.”
• This article was amended on 10 December 2025 to remove reference to a claim by Linda Reynolds in her court action against the commonwealth that Mark Dreyfus had committed “misfeasance of public office”. Reynolds dropped that allegation in her re-amended statement of claim submitted in November.
