David Sharaz claimed he held a secret meeting with Labor senator Katy Gallagher four days before Brittany Higgins‘ bombshell interview on The Project, leaked text messages reveal.
The under-fire Senator Gallagher has again denied she misled Parliament in 2021 by saying she had no knowledge of Ms Higgins’ rape allegations before they were made public.
However, leaked text messages reveal Mr Sharaz told Ms Higgins he met with Senator Gallagher in her office on February 11, 2021.
He claimed to have detailed Ms Higgins’ allegations against Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann and given Senator Gallagher a transcript of her interview with The Project, which aired on February 15.
‘I hope that’s okay,’ Mr Sharaz wrote in the messages to his now fiance.
‘She’s not doing anything with it. But I’m also happy to step out and let her talk to you if you want.
‘Basically, I wanted her to get all the context because it’s so complicated. She’s currently reading your interview and has gone silent. ‘
In another text he added: ‘Katy Gallagher messaged me. She’s angry and wants to help. She’s got the context.
‘She says they knew something was wrong because they fired Bruce and not you. They avoided a scandal.’
Newly released text messages reveal David Sharaz told his now fiance Brittany Higgins (left) he met with Labor Senator Katy Gallagher in her office on February 11, 2021.
The under-fire Senator Gallagher has denied she misled Parliament in 2021 by saying she had no knowledge of Ms Higgins’ rape allegations before they were made public.
The following day, Mr Sharaz passed on Ms Higgins’ mobile number to Senator Gallagher to allow them to talk directly ahead of Ms Higgins’ explosive TV interview.
Ms Higgins alleges she was raped by Mr Lehrmann, her former colleague, inside their minister boss Linda Reynolds’ office in Parliament House in 2019
Mr Lehrmann has always denied the allegations.
The trial of Mr Lehrmann was aborted over juror misconduct and prosecutors did not seek a retrial, citing concern for Ms Higgins’ mental health.
The ACT is now holding an inquiry into the investigation and prosecution.
Senator Gallagher, now finance minister, was expected to be grilled in Senate Question Time this week over what knowledge she had about Ms Higgins’ complaint.
But she got ahead of the grilling by issuing a statment to the Senate on Tuesday.
‘I was provided with information in the days before the allegations were reported and I did nothing with those allegations. Absolutely nothing. I was asked to keep it to myself and that’s what I did,’ she said.
‘I was not involved in any way with the story that went to air on the night, or reported online that morning. I was in no way involved with the timing in which this story was published or aired.
‘Any allegations or assertion that I did is wrong and I reject it in the strongest possible terms.’
Questions were raised about whether the Labor party used the rape allegations for political gain after audio was leaked from a production meeting Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz held with The Project host Lisa Wilkinson and producer Angus Llewellyn.
The audio appears to show how the couple managed the revelation of Ms Higgins’ rape claims for the greatest political advantage.
They wanted the interview to air in a Parliamentary sitting week so then-prime minister Scott Morrison could be quizzed in Question Time, and then have Senator Gallagher follow up with questions at Senate Estimates in March, 2021.
‘It’d be good to get a Question Time in there, I think,’ Ms Higgins told the five-hour meeting, in new audio revealed by Sharri Markson on Sky News Australia.
Mr Sharaz added: ‘The reason we’ve chosen the timeline we have is because there’s a sitting week when we want the story to come out and then a break, then senate estimates in March.
‘That’s when I’m going to talk to – I’ve got a friend in Labor Katy Gallagher who will probe and continue it going.
‘So, sitting week, story comes out, they have to answer questions and question time… it’s a mess for them.
‘March, senate estimates. Hopefully we can try and get the footage, that sort of stuff. It brings clarity and then he’s gonna call on election, whenever he calls it.
David Sharaz and Brittany Higgins discussed targeting then-prime minister Scott Morrison (right) in Question Time over the rape allegations. Senator Gallagher subsequently questioned then-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds (left) in Senate estimates
‘That’s why Britt’s picked that timeline.’
Ms Higgins admitted tearfully in the audio that she realised her rape allegations were about to be used in a political dogfight which would overshadow her.
‘I am not naive to the fact I’ll forever be tied to the story,’ she said. ‘And it’s not about me broadly.
‘It’s pretty much always gonna be about the party. And it’ll be about Linda [Reynolds]. And that’s fine.
‘But it’s just sort of hard to reconcile personally [that] you’re the least interesting part of your story.’
In June 2021, Senator Gallagher angrily denied having knowledge of the allegations before they were broadcast in a fiery confrontation with Ms Higgins’s former boss Linda Reynolds in Senate estimates.
Senator Gallagher snapped at the then-defence minister: ‘No-one had any knowledge. How dare you.’
However, Senator Gallagher first admitted on Saturday that she had been made aware of the allegations in advance of them being aired, clarifying her statement in the Senate.
‘I was responding to an assertion that was being made by the Minister Reynolds at the time that we had known about this for weeks and had made a decision to weaponise it,’ she said.
‘That is not true. It was never true. I was aware of some allegations in the days leading up to the choice of Miss Brittany Higgins to make those allegations public.
‘I did nothing with that information. So there’s absolutely no issue here at all.’
Fuming Anthony Albanese rages over ‘bizarre conspiracy theory’ as he defends Katy Gallagher after text leak
- PM says Labor did not know about rape allegations
- Finance Minister Katy Gallagher was sent texts about it
Anthony Albanese has dismissed suggestions Labor has questions to answer over its knowledge of Brittany Higgins‘ rape allegations as a ‘bizarre conspiracy theory’.
His comments come as he defends his frontbench colleague, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, who has denied she misled parliament in 2021 about being aware of the allegations before they were made public.
Responding to a claim she knew about the incident for weeks to use it for political gain, Senator Gallagher said she did not seek to weaponise the allegations.
Anthony Albanese has dismissed as a ‘bizarre conspiracy theory’ suggestions Labor has questions to answer over its knowledge of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations
Questions were raised of the finance minister after leaked text messages between Ms Higgins and her partner David Sharaz emerged last week suggesting the pair contemplated strategising her story with Senator Gallagher when she was in opposition.
Mr Albanese said his minister had been transparent and the suggestion Senator Gallagher misled parliament was ‘absurd’.
‘It’s a bizarre conspiracy theory that suggests that Labor is somehow at the centre of all of this,’ he told ABC Radio.
‘And indeed, according to Senator (Linda) Reynolds herself, and the discussion that took place at that time on the Monday night, Katy Gallagher said, “yes, I was made aware in broad terms that there was an incident in the days beforehand”.
‘So this has been known by Senator Reynolds since that time since 2021, and now, in 2023, somehow this is this concocted issue by what is a desperate Liberal opposition.’
As parliament resumes on Tuesday, coalition senators are set to use Question Time to target Senator Gallagher over her knowledge of the allegations.
Ms Higgins alleges she was raped by former colleague Bruce Lehrmann in Parliament House in 2019, a claim Mr Lehrmann has always denied.
The trial of Mr Lehrmann was aborted over juror misconduct and prosecutors did not seek a retrial, citing concern for Ms Higgins’ mental health.
The ACT is now holding an inquiry into the investigation and prosecution.
Responding to a claim she knew about the incident for weeks to use it for political gain, Senator Gallagher said she did not seek to weaponise the allegations
Ms Gallagher has ‘categorically’ denied she misled parliament following the release of the texts by The Australian this week.
She was previously quizzed in Senate Estimates in June 2021 about the extent of her knowledge on the allegations made by Ms Higgins before the story broke.
During the June 2021 Senate Estimates hearing, then-Defence Minister Linda Reynolds accused Labor senators of being secretly briefed on the rape allegation.
‘I was told by one of your senators two weeks before about what you were intending to do with the story in my office. Two weeks before,’ She said.
In response to the claim, Senator Gallagher said: ‘No-one had any knowledge’.
Addressing the texts from Mr Sharaz, Ms Gallagher said she had been made aware of ‘some allegations’ in the days leading up to Ms Higgins’ explosive interview in February 2021.
‘I’ve been clear, I’ve been honest and at all times I’ve been guided by the bravery and courage of a young woman who chose to speak up about her workplace and from that we have had massive changes to that workplace,’ she said on Saturday.
‘(I was told) There was going to be some public reporting that a young woman making serious allegations about events that occurred in a minister’s office … were going to become public.
‘I categorically rejected, and you see that in the footage of the committee, I categorically rejected the assertion she was putting, which was that we had chosen to weaponise that information weeks ahead of being told about this.’
