represented to Ms Brown he did not access any documents, he came back to drink whisky, and had a whisky with Ms Higgins.
472 All in all, I accept the submission made by Network Ten that Mr Lehrmann's evidence about writing on Question Time folders was a "transparent lie, and yet it remains the only explanation Mr Lehrmann has offered to this Court for his presence in the Ministerial Suite for 40 minutes on 23 March 2019". It also is unsurprising that Mr Lehrmann made his spontaneous and telling comment noted earlier to Ms Brown a couple of days later when asked "what else [did you do] while in the office?", Mr Lehrmann replied "I don't wish to get into that" (T2052.4–5).
IVMs Higgins' Account
473 Ms Higgins has no recollection of being escorted to the Ministerial Suite and did not even know there had been a security guard accompanying her and Mr Lehrmann. Her first memory within the Suite was sitting on a ledge, being the ledge by the windows overlooking the Prime Minister's Courtyard (T626.19–22).
474 She initially said she sat on the ledge for a "long period of time" (T626.38–41). The evidence Ms Higgins would just sit there for a "long" period alone when, according to her account, Mr Lehrmann had said to her (and she understood) that he was just picking something up immediately struck me as strange, and I asked her to clarify it as follows (T627.17):
HIS HONOUR: … you said you have a recollection of being there I think you mentioned for a long period?---It could have been five minutes.
475 Very soon thereafter, the evidence-in-chief changed as Dr Collins KC went back to the topic, and the following exchange took place:
DR COLLINS: Okay. And I think you said to his Honour you don’t have a recollection of how long you were there?---No, I'm not sure. It could have been a minute, but it – for me, it – I thought we were going in and out quickly, so it probably wasn’t a very long period of time.
476 Later, in cross-examination, Mr Whybrow also explored this issue and the following exchange occurred (T954–5):
MR WHYBROW: You have a recollection of waiting for some period of time for Mr Lehrmann?---Yes, but when I say "a long time", I feel like it was – it was, like, minutes, like, but in my mind, it felt like a long time.
Right. You don't like the words "long time" now, do you? And you want to make it minutes, do you?---No, it's just – I've used the word "a long time", a lot, and people
