Senator Linda Reynolds' defamation trial against her former staffer, Britany Higgins, begins in the Western Australia supreme court today. The court will hear arguments about whether social media posts by Ms Higgins defamed Senator Reynolds. The posts were written several years after Ms Higgins alleges rape in Senator Reynold's parliamentary suite in 2019, by Bruce Lehrmann, which he has always denied.
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00:00The breakdown in the relationship between Senator Reynolds and her former staffer will
00:06be laid out in detail over the next month. At the heart of the case will be the social
00:10media posts by Ms Higgins in 2013, highly critical of the way her rape allegation was
00:16handled by Senator Reynolds, and whether in fact they defamed her former boss. Senator
00:21Reynolds, who's due to give evidence on Monday, and her lawyers will argue she and her office
00:26provided extensive support to Ms Higgins, and the social media posts greatly injured
00:31her reputation and caused her grave distress. They'll say the hurt was aggravated by a plan
00:38concocted by Ms Higgins and her now husband, David Shiraz, to inflict political damage
00:43on Senator Reynolds and the then government. Senator Reynolds will also contend Ms Higgins
00:48knew the information in her social media posts was false and inaccurate at the time, and
00:54she was motivated by malice. Ms Higgins is set to take the stand in the last week of
00:59the trial and will argue the truth of her allegations, claiming Senator Reynolds mishandled
01:04the rape allegation and did not properly support her. Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison
01:10is due to be called as a witness, as well as former Foreign Minister Senator Maurice
01:14Payne. Mr Shiraz has also been sued for defamation by Senator Reynolds, but has chosen not to
01:20contest the case. Any damages awarded against him will be argued during the trial.