in truth, assist in helping "piece it [that is, the Four Corners ("Bursting the Canberra Bubble") programme] all together" (Ex 66).
755 In any event, in her evidence-in-chief, Ms Higgins said (T687.8), in response to a question of what caused her to contact Network Ten, that "it was the Four Corners story. The Christian Porter Four Corners story is – is what triggered me, personally" (T687.7–8) but this appears to be a mistake, and the balance of her evidence, and other evidence, and the timing, establishes that the triggering event was the earlier, November 2020 story.
756 Moreover, it is important not to confuse these programmes with the 22 March 2021 Four Corners programme ("Don't ask, Don't tell"), which referred to Ms Higgins' "account of effectively being silenced for political reasons spark[ing] outrage and condemnation of the culture of Canberra" and was provocatively described as investigating "how and why Brittany Higgins' story was kept quiet for almost two years" (emphasis added). This is the programme which, when she became aware of it, had caused her to send messages to her friend (and that of Mr Sharaz), Ms Emma Webster, a "communications strategist", in which Ms Higgins had raised concerns about not being given a "right of reply" (T763.8) and after Ms Webster consoled her, she responded: "Thank you. After I had a bit of a breakdown to the Four Corners producer, he's going to give me a draft copy of her interview and give me an opportunity to reply" (T763.41).
757 But having sorted out her evidence as to the different Four Corners programmes, it was the airing of the 2020 programme that provided the moment when she said she felt she had a duty to speak (T859.38–41). Certainly, its catalytic importance in the formation of her antipathetic views towards the Prime Minister and his office can be seen from the following exchange with Ms Maiden (Ex 50 (at 1–2)):
Ms Maiden:
... Okay, so start from the beginning again. You were saying you watched the Four Corners and you felt that Morrison sidestepped it by saying it was in the past.
Ms Higgins:
Yeah, absolutely. I just ... It made me so angry on the basis of him dismissing this whole issue on the basis that it wasn't his government…. When I'd fundamentally lived that experience. It was handled by his team, [unclear] as Director of Operations, and he was saying that he was saying he was unaccountable. Kunkel was there, he had Daniel Wong, who's one of the other staff, they were intimately involved in this entire process as soon as it all kind of transpired. And it just made me so angry, in a way that I can't even ... 'Cause I was ashamed before or kind of like internalising it
