Former foreign minister also tells defamation trial Higgins’ alleged rape in parliament was devastating and incomprehensible
Former minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne has given evidence in a Perth court. Linda Reynolds is suing former staffer Brittany Higgins for defamation over a series of social media posts.Former minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne has given evidence in a Perth court. Linda Reynolds is suing former staffer Brittany Higgins for defamation over a series of social media posts.
“Concern as a senior member of the government, concern that such alleged events might have taken place in the parliamentary workplace, and concern a young woman who had been part of the staffing team,” she told the West Australian supreme court on Tuesday. “ had a long-standing reputation for her interest in and support of women’s participation in the political process ... any issues which raised questions about her commitment and her level of commitment in that way would obviously be concerning for her,” she said.
“A level of pressure that they have rarely seen before or since ... and I found that she was so distressed and so upset by the assertions being made about her that she was struggling to represent and to respond to those questions as she previously would have been able to,” she said. Payne said the stress was so great that Reynolds experienced “physical trauma ... a combination of shaking and what I regarded as elevated breathing”.Payne said she became “very concerned” about the senator’s “wellbeing and the state of her health and the impact that attacks were having on her”.
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