Australia news live: Brittany Higgins’s private diary exposed as Linda Reynolds breaks silence

Brittany Higgins’s diary exposed

Good morning and welcome to our live blog for Saturday, 18 February.

It’s shaping up to be a busy news day.

Moments ago, Brittany Higgins tweeted a complaint about the leaking of contents from her diary, which were published in the Australian this morning. The diary contents showed Higgins planning meetings with journalists in March 2021.

Higgins said she had taken a photo of an old page in her diary on 7 July 2021. She said she had provided the contents of her phone to police while they investigated her allegation of rape, but that the diary material was not tendered in court.

“Therefore, no journalist should have seen the photo of my diary,” she tweeted. “Stop publishing the private contents of my phone. I entrusted police with my private information for the sole purpose that it could aid their investigation into my sexual assault, nothing else.”

The material was published alongside an interview with Higgins’s former boss and past defence minister Linda Reynolds. Reynolds told the Australian she was the victim of a political “hit job”, which was “less about an alleged rape, and almost exclusively about bringing down a cabinet minister, to damage the prime minister and bring down the Morrison government”.

Reynolds suggested Higgins was used by Labor and journalists for their own ends.

I think it was a terrible abuse of Brittany Higgins’ circumstances. She was clearly, in my mind, exploited for overtly political purposes, by Labor, and also a number of prominent journalists and female advocates who, in the #MeToo zeitgeist, had found their perfect vehicle to elevate the movement but also to bring down a senior minister to hurt the Morrison government.

In response, Higgins said she had already received apologies from Reynolds and had been through multiple reviews, a trial, mediation with the federal government and now an independent inquiry into the criminal trial.

The facts have been well-­established. Any revisionist history offered by my former employer at this time is deeply hurtful and needlessly cruel.

Bruce Lehrmann consistently denied the allegation that he raped Higgins. His first trial was aborted due to juror misconduct and prosecutors decided not to proceed with a retrial because of the likely impact on Higgins’s mental health.

Former Liberal party staffer Brittany Higgins. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated at 17.10 EST

Key events

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Three men have been arrested at Sydney airport for allegedly importing around 34kgs of methamphetamine concealed in statues.

The Australian federal police allege Australian border force discovered the drugs in checking the bags of two of the Sydney men, aged 42, 47 and 44.

The two men were arriving from South Africa on 16 February, and were selected for secondary screening.

Police allege they discovered 22 resin-coated statutes in bubble wrap which, when tested, returned positive for methamphetamine.

The third man allegedly linked to the importation was located in the vicinity of the terminal.

After being arrested, police say more evidence was found on the man’s phone, and after search warrants were executed, police seized $50,000 in cash at the men’s homes.

The three men were charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, namely methamphetamine.

The maximum penalty for this offence is life imprisonment.

Corporate watchdog launches action over alleged price fixing

The corporate watchdog has launched legal action over alleged price fixing and tender bid rigging for entertainment services at Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group mine sites, AAP reports.

Technology company Swift is accused of making agreements with a competitor to fix technology infrastructure prices, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says.

The tenders in 2019 were for the supply of equipment and services to five mining village projects in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

This includes Rio Tinto Limited’s Gudai-Darri, West Angelas and Yandicoogina, Western Turner Syncline and Peninsula Palms sites, and at Fortescue Metals Group Limited’s Japal Village Iron Bridge site.

It is alleged Swift Networks Pty Ltd made an agreement with DXC Connect Pty Ltd and DXC Technology Australia Pty Ltd that one of them would submit a higher price than the other after a request for bids.

The commission alleges Swift and DXC acted beyond the scope of any sub-contracting relationship.

“Bid rigging and price fixing drive up prices for businesses and harms the economy, which is why cartel conduct is a serious breach of our competition laws,” commissioner Liza Carver said on Friday.

The technology infrastructure included IT, communications and audio-visual entertainment infrastructure and associated services for providing internet and media, such as free-to-air or subscription television, to the mining villages.

Bid rigging, also known as collusive tendering, happens when suppliers discuss and agree on who should win a tender and at what price, the commission said.

Price fixing happens when competitors agree on pricing instead of competing against each other.

Swift is a specialist technology company delivering technology infrastructure, entertainment and communications to the mining, aged care, and hospitality industries.

DXC is a global information technology services provider that supplies technology infrastructure to a range of industries, including the mining sector.

The commission is seeking declarations, penalties, costs and other orders.

Updated at 18.28 EST

I’m going to hand you over to my brilliant colleague, Josh Taylor, who will continue to take you through the morning’s events.

‘Australia can’t blow another decade of climate action’

Our political editor, Katharine Murphy, says the looming battle over climate action will require “maturity and dexterity” from both Labor and the Greens in coming weeks.

Key people are talking, but there is frustration in both camps. Bandt would argue Labor is more timid than it needs be – too busy fighting the last war to see that the politics have now shifted, and decisively, in favour of climate action. Albanese would argue this is naive. The politics have certainly shifted, but not uniformly in terms of geography, and parties of government have to straddle geography if they want the opportunity to change the country.

While the private punditry of a couple of party leaders remains a matter of argument, this final statement is objectively true.

Australia has blown a decade of climate action.

We can’t blow another one, and the responsibility for ensuring that doesn’t happen is a collective one for progressive forces in the current parliament, because the Coalition on these questions is no better than a laugh track; it has opted out of a core responsibility of a governing party.

Updated at 18.16 EST

Man’s body found in car submerged in SA’s Murray River

Police were called to the scene on Friday at 1.30pm after a member of the public spotted the sunken car near Hindmarsh Island in the lower Murray.

The incident has been ruled a road accident, Adelaide police said.

The 52-year-old Poorooka man’s death is the 22nd on SA roads in 2023, compared with six lives lost at the same time last year.

An investigation into the incident been launched.

A report will be prepared for the coroner.

– AAP

Updated at 18.02 EST

Warning near-silent electric vehicles a danger for blind and vision-impaired people

Blind Citizens Australia has called for action to prevent injury and death caused by near-silent electric vehicles at low speeds.

AAP reports that Australia is yet to follow international examples to mandate Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems, including in Europe, Japan, China and the United States.

Australia leaves the technology’s inclusion up to manufacturers, in a move academics and industry experts warn could lead to more road accidents.

Blind Citizens Australia president Fiona Woods said the near-silent vehicles will put all pedestrians at risk but leave some groups particularly vulnerable.

I want people to know it’s a matter of life or death to people who are blind or vision-impaired.

It’s really important we have these alerting systems because we’re not opposed to electric vehicles – we want the planet to survive – but we want people to be aware of the pedestrian issues.

Updated at 17.56 EST

WorldPride continues in Sydney

WorldPride kicked off on Friday night. The event has a 17-day program of art, performances, talks, parties, sport and comedy to celebrate equality.

The festivities will amount to Sydney’s biggest “occasion” since the 2000 Olympics and are expected to draw 500,000 visitors to 300 free and ticketed events.

WorldPride CEO Kate Wickett says those attending should remember it’s a “party with purpose”.

Updated at 17.49 EST

Linda Reynolds: ‘I was just broken’

Linda Reynolds, former defence minister, said she had been “broken” by suggestions that she had covered up allegations of rape made by her former staffer Brittany Higgins. She described those allegations as false but said she was relentlessly pursued by Labor and the victim of a “political hit job”.

In her interview with News Corp, she said that prior to one question time, she had collapsed on the bathroom floor of her Senate office, before being rescued by Anne Ruston, who was in the neighbouring office. She told the Australian:

I was just broken. I was sobbing. I was inconsolable. Anne – my saving angel – bolted in … and so she just immediately took charge. She went out. I think she contacted Simon Birmingham, the [Senate] leader. It was so bad. I literally cannot remember whether I did actually get up for question time that day or I didn’t.

She said the stress had exacerbated an existing heart condition. Former heath minister Greg Hunt had noticed her poor health prior to a National Press Club address and called his own personal doctor to see her, Reynolds said.

So he came up, took one look at me, took my vitals and he said, I’m ringing Canberra hospital. You’re going down. Anyway, we went down there and we couldn’t get in.

Linda Reynolds, Anne Ruston and Marise Paine at a meeting of the Cabinet Women’s taskforce, Tuesday 6 April 2021. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated at 18.03 EST

Fears for Australian boys in Syrian detention

Australian boys held in Syrian detention camps have been warned they could be removed from their families because they have turned 12 years old.

My colleague Ben Doherty reports that UN human rights experts said at least 10 boys, as young as 12, were forcibly removed from Roj camp overnight on 31 January, and that more removals were planned. A panel of UN human rights experts said:

The pattern of forcibly removing boys who reach the ages of 10 or 12 from the camps, separating them from their mothers and siblings and taking them to unknown locations is completely unlawful.

Updated at 17.37 EST

Caste discrimination on the rise

Australia’s race discrimination commissioner Chin Tan has condemned racism on the basis of caste in the country’s south Asian communities, saying he was “deeply concerned by the experiences of casteism” that were shared with him recently.

My colleague Karishma Luthria has taken a deep dive into discrimination based on the Hindu caste system in Australia.

Updated at 17.29 EST

Assessing the damage from Cyclone Gabrielle

Across the Tasman, New Zealanders are returning to assess the damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle on the North Island.

Our reporter Tess McClure was in Eskdale and spoke to locals still traumatised by the disaster as they returned to salvage belongings and rescuers continued searching for bodies.

Updated at 17.16 EST

Chris Bowen warns of potential solar technology shortage

In other news, energy minister Chris Bowen has warned that Australia is exposed to a potential shortage of solar technology due to vast global demand and concentrated supply chains.

Bowen is expected to speak on the issue later on Saturday, when he addresses the Australian Strategic Policy Institute alongside Indian minister for external affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankarsays. Bowen told the Nine newspapers he will also meet with ministers from India, Japan and the United States at a Quad energy ministers meeting later this year in a bid to guarantee supply of renewable and solar technology.

Bowen told the newspapers:

The whole world is now on this transition and supply chains are already tight.

But when supply chains are so concentrated, and getting more concentrated, the risk is greater every day, so this transition now is more important to us than it ever has been.

It’s a risky matrix unless we build sovereign capability and have like-minded trading partners building capability and sovereignty at the same time.

Updated at 17.13 EST

Linda Reynolds interviewed about Brittany Higgins

In her interview with the Australian, Linda Reynolds says she was the victim of “a very well-orchestrated political hit” that falsely suggested she had covered up allegations of the rape of her former staffer Brittany Higgins.

Among the key points from her interview are:

Reynolds said former prime minister Scott Morrison apologised to her privately and consoled her a day after publicly rebuking her for not informing his office of the allegations.

After calling Higgins a “lying cow”, Reynolds said she paid money to Higgins to make her defamation complaint “go away” and said she was in “no state to defend myself”. Reynolds said she made the “lying cow” comment in relation to Higgins allegations that her and her chief of staff Fiona Brown had not supported her properly

Liberal senator Linda Reynolds leaves the ACT Supreme Court in Canberra. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated at 17.11 EST

Brittany Higgins’s diary exposed

Good morning and welcome to our live blog for Saturday, 18 February.

It’s shaping up to be a busy news day.

Moments ago, Brittany Higgins tweeted a complaint about the leaking of contents from her diary, which were published in the Australian this morning. The diary contents showed Higgins planning meetings with journalists in March 2021.

Higgins said she had taken a photo of an old page in her diary on 7 July 2021. She said she had provided the contents of her phone to police while they investigated her allegation of rape, but that the diary material was not tendered in court.

“Therefore, no journalist should have seen the photo of my diary,” she tweeted. “Stop publishing the private contents of my phone. I entrusted police with my private information for the sole purpose that it could aid their investigation into my sexual assault, nothing else.”

The material was published alongside an interview with Higgins’s former boss and past defence minister Linda Reynolds. Reynolds told the Australian she was the victim of a political “hit job”, which was “less about an alleged rape, and almost exclusively about bringing down a cabinet minister, to damage the prime minister and bring down the Morrison government”.

Reynolds suggested Higgins was used by Labor and journalists for their own ends.

I think it was a terrible abuse of Brittany Higgins’ circumstances. She was clearly, in my mind, exploited for overtly political purposes, by Labor, and also a number of prominent journalists and female advocates who, in the #MeToo zeitgeist, had found their perfect vehicle to elevate the movement but also to bring down a senior minister to hurt the Morrison government.

In response, Higgins said she had already received apologies from Reynolds and had been through multiple reviews, a trial, mediation with the federal government and now an independent inquiry into the criminal trial.

The facts have been well-­established. Any revisionist history offered by my former employer at this time is deeply hurtful and needlessly cruel.

Bruce Lehrmann consistently denied the allegation that he raped Higgins. His first trial was aborted due to juror misconduct and prosecutors decided not to proceed with a retrial because of the likely impact on Higgins’s mental health.

Former Liberal party staffer Brittany Higgins. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated at 17.10 EST