786 In this regard, I should note Mr Lehrmann did not press for production of the advice relying upon an implied waiver of legal professional privilege.
787 In any event, as Network Ten properly accepts, the decision to broadcast ultimately turned upon Network Ten's confidence that Ms Higgins was telling the truth. This was quintessentially a decision for the production team, not solicitors, and as all contemporaneous records suggest, the truth of Ms Higgins' account was never in doubt in the minds of Ms Wilkinson and Mr Llewellyn.
788 Returning to the narrative, Ms Wilkinson came into direct contact with Ms Higgins from 21 January 2021, and Mr Llewellyn also engaged with Ms Higgins initially by phone on 26 January 2021.
IThe First Interview, Weaponisation, Incomplete Data, and the Bruise Photograph
789 Mr Llewellyn, Ms Wilkinson, Mr Sharaz and Ms Higgins met on 27 January 2021 at The Darling Hotel in Sydney over an almost five-hour period (Ex 36).
790 The respondents asserted the purpose of the first interview was for Mr Llewellyn and Ms Wilkinson to determine whether the story was worth pursuing and to assess Ms Higgins' reliability and credibility as a source. This does not ring at all true from listening to the audio recording (Ex 36). Ms Wilkinson was onboard with telling the explosive story before even meeting Ms Higgins. More realistically, the purpose was for Ms Higgins to tell her story so information obtained could be used by Mr Llewellyn to come up with themes to cover in the draft questions for the filmed interview, and to obtain information for conducting further investigations to support the narrative and to build rapport with Ms Higgins so that she felt comfortable.
791 In their affidavits Mr Llewellyn and Ms Wilkinson gave evidence they had formed the view that Ms Higgins was "traumatised", "raw", and "emotional" and felt she had been "let down by those she worked with": (Llewellyn (at [127]); Wilkinson 28 July 2023 (at [74])). They believed her when she said she did not pursue her complaint due to difficulties encountered by the AFP in obtaining CCTV footage from Parliament House; concerns she had about her job; and pressure she felt to go to Western Australia to help campaign for the Federal election. Mr Llewellyn said he thought Ms Higgins wanted to speak out about her experience to create change, to prevent it from happening to anyone else and did not consider she had a vendetta (Llewellyn (at [179])).
