Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has backflipped on her statement made two years ago that she had no prior knowledge of details surrounding Brittany Higgins’s rape allegation and denied misleading the parliament.
Gallagher confirmed that she was made aware of some of the allegations shortly before they were made public but “categorically rejected” accusations that Labor had known about it weeks beforehand and chose to weaponise the information.
“That is not true. It was never true,” she told reporters in Perth on Saturday.
“I wasn’t aware of the full allegations that were made public when the interviews went to air. But I was clear about that two years ago, so there’s absolutely no issue here at all.
“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.”
It refers to comments made in June 2021 by Gallagher during Senate Estimates where the senator asserted that “no one” had any prior knowledge of the allegations after questioning by then-Defence Industry Minister Senator Linda Reynolds.
Gallagher responded that “no one had any knowledge. How dare you. It’s all about protecting yourself.”
Afterwards, in December 2022, former liberal staffer Higgins and the government reached a multi-million dollar taxpayer-funded compensation agreement after she sued the Commonwealth and her former bosses, Senators Reynolds and Michaelia Cash.
While the exact amount was never disclosed, some reports claim it was as high as $3 million, which was paid by the federal government’s finance department.
Text Messages Nail in the Coffin
The Epoch Times has not seen the text messages.
In them, Sharaz referred to Gallagher as an “old friend,” telling Higgins that she could “trust her.”
Later, Higgins messaged Sharaz to “get Katy to ask about it in estimates,” adding that he should “feed everything you have to Katy.”
This sparked accusations from Liberals, who were in government at the time but are now in opposition, that the Labor government sought to gain “political profit” from the rape allegations.
“The release of text messages and audio recordings has brought into question the conduct of some senior Labor ministers, and the prime minister himself, relating to whether they chose to weaponise a rape allegation for political purposes,” Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley said.
“The government’s credibility is in tatters and so every single claim needs to be validated.”
Gallagher admitted that Sharaz had given her information but denied acting on it.
“Mr Sharaz provided me with information, I think we’ve seen that in the paper in the last couple of days. I did nothing with that information. And I was clear about that at the time,” she said.
Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash, who was minister for employment, skills, small and family business at the time, said it was now “very, very clear” that Gallagher had knowledge about the issue before it was publicised.
“What you have now, more and more coming out every single day, is that there appears to have been collusion with senior members of the Labor Party with the media,” Senator Cash told Sky News Australia.
“This is what happens when you weaponise a rape allegation, there are consequences for that.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has already ruled out referring Gallagher to the anti-corruption commission over the multi-million dollar compensation payment to Higgins.
