Do you see that?---I see it.
And do you see on the second page of that document, I think, the attached printout or screen grab of some crime statistics, which include the area of Parliament House, it would appear?---Yes.
And were you aware that Mr Sharaz had done that search?---I remember him showing me the 2019 crime stats, and I remember I was discussing how unlikely – or what was the likelihood that there was another assault in Parliament House in that month. Yes.
***
And you see that that appears to be what Mr Sharaz was referencing when he said he looked up ACT police crime stats?---Potentially, yes.
Okay. And it appears to have highlighted 2019 April to June?---Yes.
And you first spoke to police - - -?---On - - -
- - - from 1 April 2019?---That’s correct.
776 Although I have little doubt that Ms Higgins authored parts of the Timeline, her evidence that she was the only author is wrong. I am fortified in this view by reason of Mr Sharaz's initial representation he was asked to "be the one to get the story told this year" (Ex R105); his involvement in sending it (not only to the Project team but later to others); in doing searches; and the reference in the Timeline to Ms Higgins in the third person.
777 In any event, as distributed by Mr Sharaz, it purported to set out extensive details of Ms Higgins' allegations and a screenshot from the ACT Policing website. Ms Higgins gave evidence that she started preparing the Timeline at the end of 2020 because she had (T688.8–13):
never really put it all together physically, so I wanted to start going through my texts to see, like, the timeline to figure out exactly what date because I had buried personally so far down.
778 I think there may be some truth in this, but as I have noted, the real catalyst for preparing it is the decision made in late 2020, after the Four Corners programme, for a document to be prepared to be provided to the media, initially to two journalists selected by Mr Sharaz, being Ms Maiden (a journalist described by Mr Sharaz and Ms Higgins as a "good friend" (MC (at 64)) and as "a friend of ours" (Ex 36 (at 0:06:24))) and also Ms Wilkinson, with whom Mr Sharaz felt affinity after doing some work experience on the Today programme.
