Inside Brittany Higgins’ strained friendship with Grace Tame – and why the former staffer was so ‘p***ed off’ with the Australian of the Year

Brittany Higgins partly felt inspired to go public with her rape allegations when Grace Tame won Australian of the Year, but newly obtained voice recordings show their relationship may have been strained from the start.

Last Sunday night, 7News Spotlight played part of a recorded phone conversation between Ms Higgins and political journalist Samantha Maiden in a special episode about the fallout from Bruce Lehrmann’s failed rape trial.

The call, obtained by Daily Mail Australia, was recorded on August 30, 2021 – six months after Ms Maiden first published Ms Higgins’ rape allegations, and less than a month after Mr Lehrmann was charged with sexual assault.

The former Liberal staffer alleged her former colleague Mr Lehrmann raped her inside Parliament House after a night out in 2019. He has always denied the allegations.

Ms Maiden asked: ‘Is there anything p***ing you off that you need to talk to me about?’

Ms Higgins replied: ‘Grace Tame p***ed me off just then, so I’m kind of like a little edgy, but it’s fine.’

Brittany Higgins (left) and Grace Tame (right) spoke together at the National Press Club in February 2022

The comment came as a surprise because they appeared to share a close friendship – regularly attending the same events, posing together on the front cover of Marie Claire, and addressing the National Press Club together in February 2022.

Rumours of a friendship breakdown emerged in June this year, when Ms Tame appeared to scrub her Instagram profile of pictures of Ms Higgins – including posts where she declared the former staffer ‘a national hero’, a ‘warrior’, and ‘my friend’.

READ MORE: HOW DAILY MAIL REVEALED BRITTANY AND GRACE HAD FALLEN OUT

Grace Tame has deleted an Instagram post in which she declared Brittany Higgins was ‘a national hero’ and that the former political staffer was a ‘warrior’ and ‘my friend’.

The sexual abuse survivor made national headlines when she wrote the post on Brittany Higgins’ birthday last year, but it has now mysteriously disappeared from her social media page.

However, voice recordings – obtained by Daily Mail Australia – suggest their friendship may have been fraught for about two years.

The rest of the conversation between Ms Maiden and Ms Higgins in August 2021, which was not played on Spotlight, related to the former Liberal staffer expressing frustration because Ms Tame was invited to appear on ABC panel program, Q&A.

After Ms Higgins said she was ‘p***ed off’ at Ms Tame for agreeing to appear on the show, Ms Maiden asked: ‘What did she do?’

Ms Higgins replied: ‘She’s just going do this Q&A thing with [journalist and host] David Speers about internal processes in Parliament. 

‘It’s just like, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You never worked in Parliament, and you don’t know the internal processes. Like it’s really not your place to comment on it.’

Ms Higgins said she would ‘restrain’ herself from telling Ms Tame how she felt, given that Mr Lehrmann had been charged with sexual assault earlier that month.

At the time, Ms Higgins was advised not to speak publicly about her rape allegations because anything she said could wrongly imply that Mr Lehrmann was guilty, and therefore could prejudice a jury against him.

Ms Higgins and Ms Tame (pictured together) appeared to be close friends, but new recordings reveal that may not have been the case 

Ms Tame is a sexual assault survivor who successfully campaigned to change laws in Tasmania that stopped her rapist – who was her high school math teacher – from publicly speaking about her experience, but allowed her abuser to do so. 

During the phone call, Ms Higgins added she didn’t mind that Ms Tame was being an advocate for sexual assault survivors, but felt it was ‘inappropriate’ for her to speak about issues in Parliament House.

Ms Tame did appear on Q&A in September 2021, but she didn’t directly address issues in Parliament – instead, she spoke about women’s safety and the issues victims face when reporting sexual assault to police.

In the same conversation, Ms Higgins said speaking with Ms Tame was ‘difficult’ because ‘she doesn’t understand’.

‘You have [journalist] Nina Funnell kind of brokering peace every time we get contentious,’ she added.

Ms Higgins and Ms Tame previously appeared on the cover of Marie Claire together (pictured)

Ms Funnell worked with Ms Tame to create the #LetHerSpeak campaign, which ultimately lead to the laws in Tasmania being changed.

That conversation took place in August 2021,  more than six months after Ms Tame was  Australian of the Year on January 25, 2021.

In a draft of her memoir, #NotJustADaughter, Ms Higgins said she was ‘gutted’ when she watched former prime minister Scott Morrison give Ms Tame her award.

‘Gutted with pain I couldn’t quite understand, I was reliving 2019,’ she wrote.

‘When the staff of the Prime Minister’s Office intimidated and gaslit me into staying silent.

‘Here he was on stage, the prime minister himself, presenting an award to a young woman who championed the #LetUsSpeak campaign.’

Ms Higgins also referred to herself as a ‘B-grade Grace Tame’, and said: ‘She exists outside and beyond the political bubble. Court case closed, awarded and revered.’

‘Here I am in the mud with the pigs – fighting for control of the daily news cycle. Throwing mud: a WhatsApp here, a voicemail there, a drop to Sam [Maiden].’

In July 2021, months after making those remarks in her draft book, Ms Higgins told Ms Maiden that part of the reason she went public with her allegations because was inspired by Ms Tame’s award.

‘What was the trigger for you to say, “I need to talk about it publicly”?’ Ms Maiden asked, in the recorded call.

Ms Higgins thought about it, and eventually said: ‘The Australian of the Year thing played into it’.

Ms Maiden then suggested Ms Higgins wanted to air her allegations because ‘you didn’t want [sexual assault] to happen to anyone else’ – to which Ms Higgins agreed.

Ms Tame still does not follow Ms Higgins’ public Instagram page. 

Mr Lehrmann was tried in the ACT Supreme Court in October last year, but the trial collapsed when a juror brought banned research material into the court.

The ACT Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, dropped the charge altogether in December citing concerns for Ms Higgins’ mental health.

Ms Lehrmann had pleaded not guilty, but no verdict was reached. 

He is currently suing Channel 10, Lisa Wilkinson and the ABC for defamation. The trial is scheduled to begin in November.

Comment has been sought from Ms Higgins and Ms Tame. 

BRITTANY HIGGINS’ STRAINED FRIENDSHIP WITH GRACE TAME 

January 25, 2021: Grace Tame is awarded Australian of the Year.

February 2021: Brittany Higgins went public with her rape allegations against Mr Lehrmann. 

April 2021: Brittany Higgins submits a draft of her book to Penguin Random House, referring to herself as a ‘B-grade Grace Tame’.

‘Gutted with pain I couldn’t quite understand, I was reliving 2019,’ she wrote.

‘When the staff of the Prime Minister’s Office intimidated and gaslit me into staying silent.

‘Here he was on stage, the prime minister himself, presenting an award to young woman who championed the #LetUsSpeak campaign.’

July 2021: Ms Higgins told journalist Samantha Maiden that part of the reason she wanted to go public with her allegations was because she watched Ms Tame win Australian of the Year.

August 2021: Ms Higgins told Ms Maiden she was ‘p***ed off’ with Ms Tame because she was invited to appear as a panellist on ABC’s Q&A.

She also said another journalist had to ‘broker peace’ between them during heated conversations.

November 2021: Ms Higgins and Ms Tame posed together on the cover of Marie Claire, and were pictured smiling together before the photo shoot.

February 2022: They both addressed the National Press Club – Ms Tame spoke about her sexual assault, and Ms Higgins spoke about her alleged assault. 

December 2022: Ms Tame wrote a post about Ms Higgins’ birthday, following the collapse of Bruce Lehrmann’s rape trial.

She called Ms Higgins a ‘national hero’ and said ‘I stand with Brittany because I have compassion for her’.

June 2023: Ms Tame deleted the birthday post, and all removed all photos of Ms Higgins from her Instagram account – except their Marie Claire cover photo.