Linda Reynolds was a ‘mess’ requiring round-the-clock care after suffering a breakdown during the firestorm sparked by Brittany Higgins’ cover-up allegations, a defamation trial has heard.
The former defence minister is suing her former employee, Ms Higgins, over a series of social media posts she says contain falsehoods – including that she mishandled the response to the incident – which she says damaged her reputation.
Denita Wawn told the Perth court it was “devastating” to see her friend of more than 20 years so physically and mentally ill after her breakdown in Parliament House in 2021, which triggered severe cardiac symptoms.
“She was a wreck… Physically she was shaking, she was pale, she looked weak. Mentally she was in a state of great distress,” he told the Western Australian Supreme Court on Thursday.
Ms Wawn said she was “incredibly concerned” for the senator.
“His heart condition was life-threatening and the stress he was under was making that condition worse,” he said.
‘I spent a lot of time at her house with her, taking care of her… There were several of us who took turns being with her.’
Ms. Wawn said the senator remained in a high state of anxiety and stress in 2022.
Linda Reynolds (pictured) is suing her former employee Ms Higgins over a series of social media posts containing alleged falsehoods which she says damaged her reputation.
Denita Wawn said she reacted to Brittany Higgins’s interview (pictured left with Lisa Wilkinson) with “shock, horror and empathy”.
“She wasn’t resilient… she tried to show that she was coping but she wasn’t and she would break down when she was with me or her group of friends,” he said.
The court heard that after Labor was elected to office in 2022, the senator was in an unusually high state of distress while on holiday with friends in northern New South Wales.
“She broke down on our last night… she was very upset that she had not been made a shadow minister, or even a junior minister, which had in effect halted her future ministerial career,” Ms Wawn said.
Ms Wawn said she repeatedly “implored” the senator to retire from politics in the years after Higgins accused her of mishandling his alleged rape in 2019.
Senator Reynolds announced in February that she would not seek re-election.
“She’s not in a position to put that level of stress on her body that continues today,” he said.
‘Her confidence is superficial and she still displays a significant lack of self-confidence in private.’
She agreed the senator had suffered from a heart condition prior to Ms Higgins’ allegations in 2021 and had been on medication for a period of time for depression and anxiety.
Ms Wawn recalled watching Network Ten’s The Project when Ms Higgins was interviewed.
“My reaction was one of shock, horror and empathy, first and foremost for Ms Higgins,” he said.
‘(And) for Linda there had been allegations that she had failed in her duty as an employer.’
Senator Reynolds’ former acting chief of staff during the 2019 federal election, Dean Carlson, told the court there was robust discussion about what to do in the days following Higgins’ alleged rape.
Denita Wawn (pictured) told the court her friend Linda Reynolds was a “disaster” following the cover-up allegation.
Mr Carlson said Senator Reynolds had consulted with the then Special Minister of State, Alex Hawke, and supported briefing the Australian Federal Police.
“The conversation became quite heated. Ms Brown did not want to do it without Ms Higgins’ permission,” he told the Western Australian Supreme Court on Thursday, referring to the senator’s chief of staff, Fiona Brown.
‘There was concern about the circumstances; the fact that Ms Higgins was found in a state of undress justified the opportunity for the AFP to determine whether anything had happened.’
Mr Carlson said it was eventually agreed that Ms Brown would contact Ms Higgins to offer support in making contact with the police.
“I supported Ms Brown’s position. I thought it was important that Ms Higgins had power over any action and that her privacy was paramount,” he said.
Mr Carlson said the late-night security breach on 23 February 2019, which led to Higgins and his then-colleague Bruce Lehrmann, who has always denied any breach took place, being in the senator’s ministerial suite, was concerning.
Asked if she suspected sexual assault had occurred at the time, she said: “There were too many question marks… of course that was a live option.”
“We were working with an information vacuum,” he said.
He told the court he understood Ms Higgins was then offered alternatives about where she would work during the 2019 election campaign, in the weeks after the alleged rape in the senator’s office.
Brittany Higgins is photographed outside the Federal Court in Sydney in December.
These included staying in Canberra, working from the Gold Coast, where his parents lived, and Perth, “where the minister would spend most of the election campaign”.
Mr Carlson said that during the campaign the senator’s office paid for Ms Higgins’s trip to the Gold Coast “in recognition of the fact that she was the only one on the campaign who had not seen her family for an extended period of time”.
“I clearly remember it was an unusual arrangement because we really had to work out how we would do it within the travel policy because she was not based in Queensland, she was based in Canberra,” he said.
Ms Higgins’ defence statement says she felt “isolated, traumatised, depressed, unsupported and confused” during her time in Perth for the 2019 federal election campaign.
Mr Carlson said staff travelling to Perth for the election campaign were staying at the Aloft Hotel, close to the senator’s campaign office.
He said Ms Higgins was often invited to after-work social activities, such as dinners and drinks, and she would take part in them.
“I found Ms Higgins to be a very enthusiastic member of the team and whenever I gave her a job she got it done,” he said.