Bruce Lehrmann was an unofficial consultant on two episodes of Channel Seven’s Spotlight programme, while the broadcaster paid around $105,000 for his luxury Sydney rental home.
The broadcaster covered Lehrmann’s 12-month tenancy in Balgowlah on the northern beaches thanks to a lucrative deal with the broadcaster in return for exclusive interviews on the current affairs programme, which aired in June and August last year.
Former Spotlight producer Taylor Auerbach then told a court last year that the network paid thousands of dollars for Lehrmann to use sex workers, get Thai massages, get cocaine and eat at expensive restaurants, all in an attempt to convince him to accept the exclusive deal.
Seven and the former Liberal Party member have fiercely denied such claims.
However, Daily Mail Australia can reveal that Lehrmann’s involvement in the show was not limited to his own interviews.
Lehrmann advised Spotlight executive producer Mark Llewellyn on an episode called ‘Unmasking the Vaping Crisis’, which aired last June, due to his experience working for British America Tobacco (BAT) in 2021.
“It was a pleasure for me to closely advise my friend Mark Llewellyn on the production of Spotlight on the sinister and influential impact that Big Tobacco still has on some medical and government sectors,” Lehrmann told Daily Mail Australia.
He is also understood to have provided advice on another episode about the transgender community called ‘Breaking the Silence: The Reality of Detransitioning’ in September, but Llewellyn questioned this.
Bruce Lehrmann is pictured being interviewed by Spotlight’s Liam Bartlett in 2023
Bruce Lehrmann is pictured outside his rented home in Balgowlah with two mystery women earlier this year.
“(Lehrmann) had absolutely nothing to do with (the) trans agenda,” Llewellyn said, labeling that particular claim a “crazy conspiracy.”
Referring to the vaping episode, he said: “(Lehrmann) knew the doctor (featured in the episode) from his time at BAT and was aware of his ties to Big Tobacco, which we independently confirmed.”
Lehrmann’s advice on vaping was a result of his position as BAT’s regulatory affairs manager after leaving Parliament in 2019, which involved lobbying on behalf of tobacco products in government.
His employment was effectively terminated in February 2021 when a journalist contacted the company to inquire about Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations against him.
He took personal leave, with pay, until June of that year, before BAT fired him over concerns he would be unable to work with government officials in light of the rape allegations.
The confidentiality agreement he signed before leaving BAT had expired in mid-2023, when the Spotlight episode on vaping was being produced.
Lehrmann’s involvement in the production of that episode extended to alerting them to the existence of Dr. Colin Mendelsohn, a controversial physician who advocates vaping as an aid to quitting smoking.
Bruce Lehrmann is pictured outside Parliament House in Canberra, during a promotion for his revealing Spotlight interview
Lehrmann spoke to Spotlight about Colin Mendelsohn, a doctor who advocates the use of vaping as an aid to quitting smoking. He is pictured during an interview with Spotlight
Dr Mendelsohn founded the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Partnership, which receives funding from tobacco companies.
Lehrmann is also understood to have provided material that helped the team formulate questions to ask the doctor.
There is no suggestion that Lehrmann provided advice in a professional capacity or received payment for it.
When contacted for comment, Network Seven denied claims that Lehrmann advised on the show.
A spokesman said: “Bruce Lehrmann was at no time an advisor to Spotlight. To suggest otherwise is false and deliberately misleading.”
The broadcaster has been under fire since the $105,000 rental agreement with Lehrmann was exposed in the Federal Court during his libel case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson last year.
She filed the civil suit over an episode of The Project in February 2021, during which Higgins alleged in an interview with Wilkinson that Lehrmann raped her when they were colleagues in Parliament in 2019.
Mark Llewellyn is pictured, left, with Taylor Auerbach, right, on a plane to see Lehrmann and convince him to give him an exclusive interview.
His two episodes of Spotlight were his first revealing interviews after his rape trial collapsed in late 2022, during which he spoke about the trials and tribulations of being accused of rape on national television.
However, Lehrmann lost the defamation case in April when a Federal Court judge found, on a balance of probabilities, that he had raped Ms Higgins.
He filed an appeal in May, but the matter has not yet been heard in court.
In the wake of the sex and drugs allegations that hit Spotlight, Seven has been hit by a wave of leadership upheaval and financial cuts.
Those who left the broadcaster include then director of news and current affairs Craig McPherson, managing director James Warburton, commercial director Bruce McWilliam and Mr Llewellyn.
In recent months, veteran journalist Robert Ovadia left the network after ABC Four Corners made inquiries into the alleged toxic culture in Seven’s newsroom.
Ovadia allegedly took images from a female producer’s personal Instagram page and turned them into a “cartoon” before sharing them with her, Daily Mail Australia revealed last week.
Meanwhile, Seven has decided to cut significant jobs, with chief executive Jeff Howard expected to announce 150 job cuts across its TV and print divisions and sales and marketing teams.
News anchor Sharyn Ghidella has reportedly been fired from the network because she was paid a much higher salary than her co-anchor Max Futcher.
