Brittany Higgins was sad and afraid that everyone would hate her because the Coalition lost the federal election after campaigning against Scott Morrison.
Texts obtained by Daily Mail Australia show the former Liberal employee worried she would be blamed after female voters savagely attacked the prime minister and the LNP was ousted in May 2022.
‘I’m going crazy. It was never my intention to help destroy the Liberal Party. Everybody hates me? she asked.
Ms Higgins became a household name and figurehead for women’s rights after she alleged that Bruce Lehrmann raped her in the office of former defense minister Linda Reynolds after a night out in 2019. Lehrmann has denied the accusation outright.
Brittany Higgins is pictured with her fiance, David Sharaz. She alleged that Bruce Lehrmann raped her in 2019. He denies the allegations
In a WhatsApp exchange between Ms Higgins and political journalist Samantha Maiden four days after the election, the former young Liberal lamented that the result was “much sadder” than she thought.
Ms Higgins’s anguish over the election result came after more than a year hobnobbing with Labor MPs and plotting against the government with her now fiancé David Sharaz, who sometimes referred to Mr Morrison as ‘c**t’ in their private exchanges.
In an exchange with Shiraz on March 26, 2021, Higgins said of Morrison: You’re about to get screwed. Just wait. We have it.
A survey by the Australia Institute found that just 30% of women expressed their first preference for the Coalition in the last election amid claims that female voters felt Morrison did not take violence against women seriously. or sexual harassment.
In the text exchange obtained by Daily Mail Australia, Ms Maiden tried to placate Ms Higgins.: ‘I don’t think any of them personalize it as something personal to you or that you are in any way responsible for it.’
Pictured: A mockup of the WhatsApp messages between Brittany Higgins and political journalist Samantha Maiden
‘So I don’t get scared. I don’t think anyone thinks you’ve destroyed the Liberal Party. I think Scott Morrison may have done it himself.
Mrs Higgins replied: ‘Okay. Thank you. Election night was so much sadder than I ever thought it would be and the whole Twitter brigade the next day really made it worse.”
Ms Higgins’ allegations were first published by Ms Maiden on news.com.au on the morning of February 15, 2021. Later that evening, she made the same allegations in a television interview with Lisa Wilkinson on The Project.
One month after Ms Higgins accused the Morrison government of failing to protect her during a speech to a crowd of 5000 at a women’s ‘March 4 Justice’ rally on the lawn outside Parliament House in Canberra.
While Ms Higgins told Ms Maiden she was upset when the Liberal Party lost government in 2022, she herself appeared to wage war against Mr Morrison in the run-up to the election.
His allegations were intentionally broadcast on national television ahead of the Senate estimates, to ensure he could get ‘friendly’ Labor MPs to ask the coalition questions during Question Time.
She was recorded playing war games on the broadcast some two weeks earlier, in a five-hour meeting with Mr Sharaz, Wilkinson and Channel 10 producer Angus Llewellyn.
During that conversation, Mr Llewellyn asked: ‘Do you have any friendly MPs you know who could ask questions on Question Time?
Ms Higgins stood on the lawn of Parliament House and accused the coalition of treating her allegations as an inconvenience.
Samantha Maiden (pictured) first posted Ms Higgins’ allegations online on February 15, 2021
Ms Higgins met former Liberal leader Scott Morrison (pictured). He lost the 2022 elections
Mrs Higgins replied, “We could find some.”
Sharaz said: ‘I have a friend in Labour, Katy Gallagher from the Labor side, who will investigate and follow up.
‘So the week sitting, the story comes out, they have to answer questions in question time, it’s a mess for (the Liberal Party).
On Acts of Parliament a month later, Ms Higgins stood on the lawn of Parliament House and accused the coalition of treating her allegations as an inconvenience.
“I was (allegedly) raped inside Parliament by a colleague and for a long time I felt like the people around me only cared about where it happened and what it could mean to them,” she told the cheering crowd.
Brittany Higgins alleges that Bruce Lehrmann (pictured left, with his lawyer) raped her at Parliament House. He denies the accusation
“It wasn’t a person who had just gone through a traumatic, life-changing event, it was a political issue.”
Less than two weeks after making that speech, he texted Sharaz to tell him that Morrison was “about to get screwed.”
“Just wait,” he wrote. We have it.
Two weeks after that, Mr Sharaz also referred to Mr Morrison when he texted Ms Higgins to say: “I still hate c**t.”
A month after that, Sharaz sent Higgins a text about the Senate estimates, during which he referred to Labor leader Anthony Albanese as ‘Albo’, referring to Morrison only as ‘c**t’.
Ms Higgins and her fiance also arranged multiple meetings with Labor and Green senators, including Sarah Hanson-Young, who visited the former employee at her Brisbane apartment, and then-opposition leader Mr Albanese.
He also went for tea with former Labor leader Kevin Rudd in a ‘$10 million penthouse’.
Lehrmann was tried in the ACT Supreme Court in October last year.
During cross-examination, Ms Higgins told the court that she intended to bring down the Liberal Party: “I loved my party, I loved the Liberal Party.”
‘Sounds absurd. He didn’t necessarily want to hurt them. I wanted to reform this issue,’ he told the court.
A mistrial was declared after a juror brought prohibited investigative material to court, before the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions dropped the sexual assault charge entirely citing concerns for Ms. Higgins.
One day after the DPP announced the collapse of the case, Ms Higgins was awarded a compensation payment by the Labor government, worth up to $3 million.
