The questioning of Linda Reynolds will continue in the Western Australian Supreme Court on Thursday at 10.30am local time, 12.30pm Australian Eastern Standard Time.
On Wednesday, the Liberal senator told the court she felt she had no choice but to sue her former employee, Brittany Higgins, for defamation.
The matter arose following a series of social media posts made by Ms Higgins and her husband, David Sharaz, which she claims damaged her reputation.
But in court this week, Ms Reynolds alleged the posts were actually part of a years-long campaign of harassment.
Ms Higgins has long maintained that Ms Reynolds failed to support her after her colleague Bruce Lehrmann raped her in her parliamentary office in March 2019.
At the time, Ms Reynolds was Minister for Defence Industry. Lehrmann and Ms Higgins were her aides in Canberra.
Ms Higgins accused Reynolds of forcing her to choose between her career and filing a rape complaint with police and believes the Liberal Party tried to cover up her rape.
She first made those allegations against Ms Reynolds in the form of two media interviews: the first was a written article published by news.com.au, and the second was a television interview with Lisa Wilkinson on The Project.
Both interviews were published on February 15, 2021.
The television interview in particular contained significant allegations of political cover-up by the then Liberal government and Reynolds and his chief of staff, Fiona Brown.
Before that, Ms Reynolds says she had no idea Ms Higgins harboured any resentment towards her.
After the broadcast, Ms Reynolds was questioned about the rape during question time, there were calls for her resignation and angry members of the public began harassing her and her family.
Ms Reynolds has consistently denied forcing Ms Higgins to choose between her career and her assault and says she never tried to cover up the rape.
In court on Wednesday, Ms Reynolds said she failed to adequately defend herself when the allegations were first made public because she believed Ms Higgins had a right to speak about the matter however she wanted.
She disagreed with what Ms. Higgins said about her and her staff, but she did not believe the criminal complaint should be litigated outside of a court.
The senator also did not want to betray Ms. Higgins’ trust by revealing the content of their private meetings in the weeks after the assault.
In December 2022, Ms Higgins won a $2.4 million compensation claim against the Commonwealth for the way her employers, Ms Reynolds and Ms Brown, treated her following her rape.
That claim included a number of allegations against Ms Reynolds and Ms Brown, but neither of them was allowed to attend mediation to defend themselves.
Ms Reynolds referred the payment to the anti-corruption commission because she believes Attorney General Mark Dreyfus personally decided to prevent her from participating in the mediation.
In the years that followed, Ms. Higgins and Mr. Sharaz allegedly continued to perpetuate the narrative that Ms. Reynolds attempted to cover up the rape.
She told the court the couple knew anything they posted on social media would be picked up by the media and republished, which included a variety of posts about her.
The posts included allegations that Ms Reynolds was harassing Ms Higgins.
Ms Reynolds expressed confusion at the couple’s posts suggesting she had no right to defend herself against the allegations.
She told the court that Ms Higgins appeared to believe seeking justice was a form of intimidation.
“My quest for justice and for my voice to be heard was somehow silencing me,” she said.
“Participating in judicial processes was like stalking her.”
Ms Reynolds said she never denied that Ms Higgins had been raped – the only problem was the allegations against her.
She told the court she has been desperate for three years, her health has deteriorated and her friends, family and staff have to endure constant calls asking how they can support an “evil woman”.
The senator believed that bringing a defamation action was the only way Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz would stop perpetuating the allegations against her.
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