IIThe Next Steps
832 Two days later, on 29 January, a so-called "field debrief" was held. In attendance were Ms Wilkinson, Mr Llewellyn, Mr Meakin together with Mr Craig Campbell (who described himself as "the Creator and EP of The Project", and who had an entertainment background), Ms Laura Binnie (Head of Features), Ms Smithies and Mr Myles Farley (in-house solicitors).
833 Despite the suggestion in some parts of the evidence that the "commissioning" of the story was subject to further investigation, this does not ring true: at the risk of repetition, I am satisfied that Ms Wilkinson and Mr Llewellyn never departed from or questioned their immediate response that Ms Higgins was to be believed, despite the suggested need to conduct what Mr Campbell described as a "thorough investigation" (Campbell (at [26])).
834 The Project team also wanted to publish the story, and the primary reason why, as Mr Campbell explained, was not the sexual assault, but because "the involvement of the Federal Government and politicians" gave "this story a deep public interest" and the Project team had a "preoccupation with the involvement of the Federal Government and politicians in this story and the broader issue of safety inside Parliament House" (Campbell (at [38])). Ms Binnie had been told there "was an internal police force in Parliament House which the woman felt had not been able to properly investigate her claims, including by not being able to access key documents and CCTV footage from the night in question" and believed the story that the Project team "wanted to tell was about the treatment Ms Higgins said she had endured after complaining that she had been raped, rather than a story about the alleged rape itself" and that there was "an important difference between the two stories, and that, while both are in the public interest, the former is a story of greater public interest because Ms Higgins' then-employer was the federal government" (Binnie (at [24], [38]–[39])).
835 As Mr Campell explained, in his view, "the villain in this case was the Government because of its lack of care for Ms Higgins" (Campbell (at [53])). Ms Binnie said that she was "always mindful of assessing what a person's motivations are for wanting to tell their story" and if "there are questionable or improper motives" she would not proceed (Binnie (at [43])) but, as I have explained, despite this story being primarily about an alleged Government cover-up and coming from someone motivated to cause it damage, this sensible caution of Ms Binnie did not inform any heightened scrutiny by those assessing the account.
