Scott Morrison and his government are refusing to deny that Bruce Lehrmann is the former staffer of Senator Linda Reynolds who allegedly raped Brittany Higgins in March 2019 at parliament house in Senator Reynolds’ office. Bruce Lehrmann was first named on Wednesday (17/2/21) on the website True Crimes News Weekly. In any cover-up, keeping key players away from media scrutiny is a standard tactic so the lies are not contradicted by each other and Bruce Lehrmann the key player we haven’t heard from.
On Thursday (18/2/21) Scott Morrison avoided the media and on Friday (19/2/21) Senator Reynolds was in hiding and other key people have been kept away from the media or issued press releases that would have been vetted by the government’s crisis management team that Scott Morrison would have set up to try and contain the crisis. Scott Morrison and the government are in a lot of trouble for their role in the 2-year cover-up and if Mr Lehrmann is exposed to media questions his answers could do great damage to the government’s continued cover-up strategy.
I emailed the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet as per the below email on Wednesday night and they did not respond although they received the email as the below read receipt shows. I phoned the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet today (Friday – 19/2/21) and they refused to confirm or deny that Bruce Lehrmann is the alleged rapist and they refused to confirm or deny that they even knew who he was. So, I asked the person if they knew who Brittany Higgins was and they replied “of course”. I then phoned the PM’s office and left a message on a media manager’s voicemail but they also didn’t return the call.
From: SHANE DOWLING
Sent: Wednesday, 17 February 2021 7:17 PM
To: *****@pmc.gov.au
Subject: Media request
Dear Sir/Madam
Can you confirm that Bruce Lehrmann is the former staffer in Senator Linda Reynolds’ office who is accused of raping Brittany Higgins? Please respond ASAP so I can publish.
Regards
Shane Dowling
The read receipt is below.
From: PMC Media
Sent: Wednesday, 17 February 2021 7:25 PM
To: SHANE DOWLING
Subject: Read: Media request
Your message
To: PMC Media
Subject: Media request
Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2021 8:17:22 PM (UTC+10:00) Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
was read on Wednesday, February 17, 2021 8:24:50 PM (UTC+10:00) Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney.
I also emailed Senator Linda Reynolds office on Wednesday night and asked the same question as I asked the PM and I never received a response and I phoned her office today (19/2/21) and left a message for her media manager and I have not had a reply.
Bruce Lehrmann
Bruce Lehrmann also worked for Senator George Brandis who thanked him in his 2018 speech to parliament which shows-up in Hansard which is the transcript for parliament. (Click here to see in Hansard)
The Bruce Lehrmann article is still published on True Crimes News Weekly and I spoke to the publisher who says he has several sources who have confirmed that it is Bruce Lehrmann. Bruce Lehrmann has deleted his Twitter account and Instagram account and disappeared. Add that to the fact that Bruce Lehrmann is a former government employee, as the Senator George Brandis speech recorded on Hansard shows, then I believe Scott Morrison and Linda Reynolds have an obligation to at least deny that it is him if he has been wrongly named in the media. But they haven’t done that, they have stayed silent which means it either is Bruce Lehrmann, or they have thrown him under a bus which I doubt very much they would do in the current circumstances because it would be found out soon anyhow.
True Crimes News Weekly published an article naming Bruce Lehrmann on Wednesday (Click here to read) and by Wednesday afternoon media were reporting that: “The former Liberal staffer at the centre of the Brittany Higgins rape claim has reportedly checked himself into hospital in Sydney. A source told the newspaper that the man was concerned and had sought psychiatric care, but had not self-harmed.” (Click here to read more)
There has been no confirmation that he has checked into the hospital, but it seems very coincidental that it’s reported he is in hospital a few hours after he was named by True Crimes News Weekly as a hospital is one of the few places that anyone can hide from the media. And it is consistent with him deleting his social media accounts which I suspect was also an attempt to hide from the media.
Brittany Higgins is a force to be reckoned with
Brittany Higgins has played her cards brilliantly by doing interviews that were published and broadcast Monday (15/2/21), then she waited for the government to tells lies in the cover-up and then she leaked an old voicemail and old texts from 2019 which exposed the government’s lies.
Below is the voicemail from Senator Michaela Cash who obviously knows more than she is saying. (Click here for the full News.com article about the voicemail)
And text messages were leaked between Brittany Higgins another Liberal staffer as per below talking about raising the matter with Scott Morrison’s Chief of Staff (COS). (Click here to read more)
Scott Morrison and his crime gang have been rattled and they have been ducking and weaving on the issue trying to continue with the cover-up and yesterday Scott Morrison’s office were exposed backgrounding journalists and telling them lies about Brittany Higgins’ partner who previously worked in the PM’s office telling the journalists he had some sort of vendetta against the government. It proves the government is still attempting to cover-up the alleged rape and also proves that Scott Morrison is overseeing the cover-up because his office staff would not be telling lies to journalists without Morrison’s approval. (Click here to read more)
Brittany Higgins issued a press statement today saying she would be making a formal complaint to the Australian Federal Police (AFP). From what I read the complaint has two parts. One complaint is about the alleged rape and the second complaint is about the people covering it up.
The rape allegation is a crime that will never be fully investigated if the bigger crime of the cover-up is not addressed first as the federal government is still trying to cover it up. And the only way to address a cover-up is to make as many details and facts as possible made public and one of the key facts here is who is the alleged rapist. Because once his identity is known publicly then a lot more facts will come out. Not just what Bruce Lehrmann has to say but was he supported by the Liberal Party after he was sacked as some have suggested etc.
I know cover-ups and what is needed for them to be exposed from investigating government crime, corruption and cover-ups for over ten years and I raise this because some people attacked the publisher of True Crimes News Weekly for naming Bruce Lehrmann. Their arguments for not naming him were stupid beyond belief and I’m not going to address them all here, but one argument is that it should have been left to Brittany Higgins to name him. Well, she might not have named him but she has stated in the national media where he worked, when, the fact that he was sacked at the time and he was a Liberal Party staffer and she accused him of rape.
By the end of Monday night, 1000’s if not 10,000’s of people in the Liberal Party would have known who he was and everyone in parliament in Canberra would have known who he was as well. The reason someone in Brittany’s position is likely to have not named him is because of the threat of defamation proceedings which is a common threat for criminals to use in situations like this. Brittany would have been aware that Bruce Lehrmann’s name would become public as soon as she did the interview. whether she named him or not.
Another person said he should not be named because if it goes to court his barrister might argue he won’t get a fair trial. Some people on social media watch too much TV. People are named and accused of crimes in the media every day and some are very high profile so their barristers could also argue they will not get a fair trial, but it is an argument that fails. If that argument worked then the numerous high-profile people charged over the last few years with various crimes would never have faced court.
The AFP has also covered-up rape at the AFP
One of the truly sad things about this matter is only a couple of years ago the AFP were exposed for covering up the rape of AFP staff so will they cover-up Brittany Higgins’ complaint?
I published an article in 2016 titled “AFP staff who were raped by Australian Federal Police asked to make a formal complaint” which started off:
Commissioner Andrew Colvin has asked for Australian Federal Police (AFP) who were raped or sexually assaulted by other Federal Police to come forward and make a formal complaint after a report says that 2% of AFP employees have been raped and/or sexually assaulted.
Over the past six months former Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, has interviewed/consulted with over 1000 AFP employees and the results are horrific. On Monday the Broderick Report was released by the AFP. (Click here to read the report) It found in the last five years 66% of women and 62% of men have been bullied and 20% have been sexually harassed which is almost double the national average. Worst of all is that 2% have been raped by another AFP employee, sexually assaulted or had another AFP employee attempt raping/sexually assaulting them. (Click here to read more)
Brittany Higgins has made the right decision to make a formal complaint to the AFP because even if it is not successful, I have no doubt it will help drive change in a big way by shining a powerful light on the issue. But we should not sit back and expect the AFP to do the right thing and investigate fully and we should play our part in keeping the pressure up to support Brittany Higgins as she is fighting the most powerful and most corrupt organisation in the country which is the federal government.
There would now be dozens of people in the government with a lot of knowledge of 2-year-old cover-up and it would only take one or two of them to speak and they could possibly take down Morrison and/or the government given the coalition only have a 2-seat majority. It’s dangerous times ahead for the government and it’s time for some of them to show the courage Brittany Higgins has and speak out.
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