Page:Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Limited (Trial Judgment).pdf/267

Ms Wilkinson:

And that you asked for it, repeatedly, you were never given access to it, the police outside of the parliamentary set of police, asked for it and were stonewalled.

(3) The motivations of Mr Sharaz in selecting the journalists to tell and use the story were manifest and rather than this motive being a cause of some degree of circumspection, but Mr Llewellyn and Ms Wilkinson indicated their willingness to assist in the political use of the allegations as Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz intended.

(4) As noted above in Section J.2, the Timeline document, according to Network Ten, confirmed the view that the story was potentially an issue of great public interest and should be pursued. Despite this, there was no proper investigation of representations made in the document, including as to why: (a) it was said notification was sent to the DPP from the "Parliament House AFP Station" (an allegation never explained); (b) the tension between the notion there was something sinister about the ominous comment about a "contract with Minister Cash from Star Chamber [being] rejected. (Note - Fiona Brown sits on Star Chamber)" with the fact that Ms Higgins was in truth offered three jobs after the 2019 election; (c) the wrongful implication that Mr Lehrmann was fired because of the assault; or (d) Ms Higgins' assertion that she met with the Parliament House AFP on 26 March (which was not only wrong factually, but necessarily confused the fact that Ms Brown organised the initial visit after the meeting on 1 April).

(5) The ahistorical and misconceived notion embraced by Mr Llewellyn and Ms Wilkinson that there was an Executive Government-controlled approach to AFP policing within Parliament House, which obstructed investigation and caused delays, contributing to the withdrawal of Ms Higgins' complaint and suggesting, together with the other things Ms Higgins was alleging, that according to Ms Wilkinson, Parliament House was the safest place in Australia to rape someone (see [841] above).

(6) The approach to seeking comment from Mr Lehrmann including the steps taken to contact Mr Lehrmann (from which approach there was no dissent by Ms Wilkinson) when the contacts provided by Mr Sharaz were obviously inadequate (and the Project team were warned not to research Mr Lehrmann via LinkedIn in case Mr Lehrmann was notified of that research – "Worth noting that if you click on the alleged

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