Senator Linda Reynolds lashes out after corruption watchdog clears Brittany Higgins' $2million payout
Ms Higgins reached the agreement with the Commonwealth in December 2022 after her alleged rape in Parliament House in 2019, while she was working in Senator Reynolds' office.
The settlement was referred to the National Anti-Corruption Commission by Senator Reynolds, who questioned the handling of the process by then-attorney-general Mark Dreyfus.
'I am bitterly disappointed by the NACC's decision not to investigate the circumstances surrounding the Commonwealth's multi-million dollar settlement with Ms Higgins,' Senator Reynolds said in a statement on Thursday.
The senator claimed she had been given 'no opportunity to defend the serious and baseless claims against me' during a mediation process.
'I fail to understand how the Commonwealth and its lawyers could not appreciate the serious and probable consequences of settling such serious allegations on my behalf... and the message that it would send to the public about the truth of those matters,' she said.
Senator Reynolds said it was one of the issues her Federal Court lawsuit against the Commonwealth over the settlement would explore.
The commission found 'no corruption issue' with Ms Higgins' payout following an investigation.
'No corruption issue arises, and so there is no basis for any further action by the commission,' the watchdog said in a statement.
'There was no inappropriate intervention in the process by or on behalf of any minister.
'The then-attorney-general approved the settlement in accordance with the departmental advice.
'Documents produced showed that decisions made in relation to the settlement were based on advice from independent external solicitors and experienced senior and junior counsel.'
The commission said there was 'no material difference' in the legal advice surrounding the payment during the term of the former coalition government and the current Labor government.
The agreement of the settlement amount within one day during mediation was not unusual.
'It was the culmination of a process which took approximately 12 months. None of this is unusual for a non-litigated personal injury claim,' the commission said.
'A critical consideration during the settlement process was avoiding ongoing trauma to Ms Higgins.'
Ms Higgins alleged she was raped by Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann in a Parliament House office in 2019.
Lehrmann has always denied the allegations.
Charges were brought against Lehrmann in a criminal trial in 2022, but were abandoned after juror misconduct.
A retrial was ruled out because of the potential effect on the mental health of Ms Higgins.
A defamation trial brought on by Lehrmann found that on the balance of probabilities he had raped Ms Higgins.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Thousands of reports of abuse have been made in Australian childcare centres. Most alleged perpetrators were allowed to keep working
Angela* was cuddling her daughter in bed one afternoon when the then two-year-old said something she had never heard before. 'Kiss my bum?' she asked, lifting her bottom up. 'Don't be silly, I am not going to kiss your bum,' Angela said gently, kissing her own hand to transfer a kiss to the side of her daughter's bottom cheek. She then asked why her daughter had asked this. Her daughter told her a male educator at the childcare centre she attended had kissed her private parts while changing her nappy. The next day, Angela says, her daughter disclosed further allegations of sexual abuse and again named the educator. A medical assessment added weight to Angela's worst fear: that she had been the subject of repeated sexual abuse at the centre. Angela acted swiftly. She spoke to police, a GP, a mental health social worker, the childcare centre, and private and public sector investigators. She was confident her daughter's disclosure – supported by clinical notes showing the child had named the worker in the presence of a doctor before being urgently referred to a specialist – would be sufficient to have the educator removed from the system. But what followed has exposed the shocking shortcomings in Australia's childcare system that see hundreds of complaints about sexual misconduct by childcare workers ultimately dismissed, and regulators unwilling or unable to take action against alleged perpetrators if police decline to prosecute a criminal case. After three separate investigations – a preliminary police investigation that stalled because Angela's daughter was not comfortable giving an official statement to officers, as well as one by a workplace relations firm and the other by the Victorian education department – the conclusion was reached that there was insufficient evidence to remove the educator from his role. The complaint was, according to Victoria's reportable conduct scheme, 'unsubstantiated – insufficient evidence'. While the term appears to diminish the claim, technically the finding meant 'there was significant strong evidence that supports the allegation, but the evidence falls short of being able to make a substantiated finding'. Without corroborating images, footage or another witness, the disclosure of a two-year-old to her mother – supported by a letter from mental health professional describing her symptoms as 'consistent with sexual assault victims' – was not enough. This leaves the worker still employed, hundreds more children potentially at risk from a suspected paedophile and the family deeply troubled by the lack of action. Angela's experience is an almost textbook example of one of the major failings afflicting the childcare system: an opaque, inconsistent, underfunded and often ineffective regulatory system. The federal government has rushed to act on children's safety in childcare services after the harrowing allegations of sexual abuse by a childcare worker in Melbourne, using the first week of the new term of parliament to introduce legislation that would allow it to strip funding from failing childcare services and conduct spot checks of centres. But experts have told Guardian Australia the problems run far deeper, and that the government risks introducing what amount to 'reactive strategies' that won't address the real problems. They say that when complaints and allegations are made, they are assessed by state regulatory bodies beset with 'irregularities and inconsistencies' when it comes to how they investigate and how they report allegations. These bodies appear to be hamstrung in taking action against individual workers if the police decide there is not enough evidence to criminally prosecute. Sign up: AU Breaking News email When one mother in the Northern Territory arrived at her child's daycare centre to pick them up at the end of the day, she saw her three-year-old – through gaps in a fence – in an outdoor area. The child was standing between the legs of a seated male educator she had never seen before, who was rubbing the child's backside with his hands, according to a statement she would give to NT police, a redacted version of which has been seen by Guardian Australia. The mother immediately reported the incident to the centre and to police. NT police investigated but, according to their record of investigation, released under freedom of information laws, because there were no other witnesses and no CCTV footage, police concluded there was 'not enough evidence' to prosecute and so declined to pursue charges. The early childhood education and care regulator for the territory – the Quality Education and Care Northern Territory (QECNT) – also launched an investigation. But ultimately QECNT concluded: 'As police are not pursuing [the] matter, that QECNT could not take any further action, as there had been nothing to indicate the service should have taken a different course of action.' Because the centre had not breached any rules in relation to the allegation or its handling of it, and police weren't prosecuting the individual, there was no action the QECNT could take against him. The educator was a casual worker who had been placed in the centre by a temp agency. In the QECNT's log of the steps it took as part of its investigation, it noted that after the accused casual educator heard that police were closing the investigation, he had 'phoned to state he has been cleared and requested to come back to work'. The log contains a summary of a conversation between the educator and someone, whose name is redacted but appears to be an employee of the temp agency, saying: 'There have been some services that have requested he don't come back and she can't place him in those services … She indicated he may want to seek employment directly from a service' and that she would 'keep him on the 'books'.' The case highlights an issue that experts say is of key concern when it comes to regulating childcare services: there is little that can be done about educators who are accused of serious incidents, including sexual abuse, but whom police do not prosecute. While an individual daycare centre might then request that a casual worker not come back for any shifts, or bar them from working there, there is nothing to stop the educator from finding employment at another centre, nor any record that the individual has been suspended from or asked not to return to a previous place of employment. This is not a new problem. For years key players in the sector have flagged that childcare services have no way to act on, or keep records of, 'unsubstantiated' complaints. In late 2023 the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (Acecqa) conducted a review into the regulatory system. It found that such cases often came down to 'a child's word against an educator['s]'. 'This often leads to unsubstantiated claims, where no further action is taken,' Acecqa said in its report to state and territory ministers. It said these individual workers, who could be deemed as 'persons of interest', provide a 'unique challenge' from a regulatory monitoring point of view, because the sector doesn't have a clear system for tracking them. '[Childcare services] have no way to share this information with another Approved Provider considering employing that person unless they are contacted as a referee,' it said. The federal education minister, Jason Clare, ordered the review in the wake of charges against Ashley Paul Griffith, now known as Australia's worst paedophile. Griffith was found guilty last year of abusing 73 girls while working in childcare in Brisbane and Italy over two decades. Griffith had also been the subject of previous allegations – one more than a decade before his arrest. One Brisbane mother claimed that in 2009 she went to police to report allegations that Griffith had sexually abused her son but they had not investigated. She told the Nine Network's A Current Affair that her four-year-old son had told her 'Ashley hurt me' and went into graphic detail about the alleged sexual abuse. She took her son to a police station but claims officers only spoke to the boy for a few minutes, did not attempt to build rapport with him and, when he didn't disclose the abuse to them during the brief interview, says she was 'advised that there was nothing to warrant further investigation, and it was over'. 'We left the police station feeling bewildered, disbelieved and possibly crazy.' She told A Current Affair: 'We tried so many years ago to make it known that Ashley Griffith is a dangerous paedophile – no one listened, no one cared.' A report into Griffith by the Queensland Child Death Review Board released this month found that concerns about reputation or legal risks may deter individuals from raising concerns within the childcare sector. The inquiry also found that more than one complaint was made about Griffith to his employers, the Early Childhood Regulatory Authority and the Queensland police, before his arrest. 'Of these complaints, the available information suggests they were not always progressed, and information was not shared between agencies,' the inquiry's interim report said. 'Prior complaints made to QPS did not proceed to prosecution.' This meant that until Griffith's arrest, there was nothing to stop him maintaining his Blue Card – Queensland's working with children check. In its report to ministers, Acecqa recommended the government establish a centralised mechanism for sharing intelligence and keeping records so they could 'monitor and respond to suspected misconduct and allegations about a 'person of interest' who has unsubstantiated allegations'. But these warnings – and the same recommendations – have been sounded before. Almost a decade ago the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse noted that the inability to share information can enable perpetrators 'to move between institutions and jurisdictions and pose ongoing risks to children'. It too made recommendations to ensure better information sharing, and for a consistent national approach for sectors including childcare, backed by legislation, to ensure children were protected. Similarly, the 2021 Tasmanian commission of inquiry highlighted concerns that individuals feared breaching privacy laws when sharing information about alleged abusers, while noting the need to collate information regarding all allegations and incidents of sexual misconduct – even if unsubstantiated. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Anne Hollonds, the national children's commissioner, says the federal government's proposal for a national register of childcare workers was an opportunity to address this enormous gap. But she argues that in developing the register, the government should consider whether it contains records of all serious allegations, substantiated or not. She acknowledges there are serious privacy and legal issues that need to be resolved before including unsubstantiated allegations on a national register, but also says it's an important way to identify a pattern of concerning behaviour. 'I think intuitively what I would say is that there should be a record … of reportable matters, whether substantiated or not. 'And I say that because it's when you look back on cases like the Ashley Griffith one that you see, maybe three reportable matters that were unable to be substantiated, maybe that's a sign of something, a pattern of behaviour, potentially. 'So then the question is: proactively, should we set the bar at a level that allows us to pick up a pattern in real time, even if not substantiated? ... I'm asking that question. I don't know the answer. I think that needs to be considered. 'Given the difficulty of substantiation with non-verbal or barely verbal children, then what other measures should we have in place that are able to pick up a pattern of behaviour that might, in its quantum, be a sufficient cause for concern?' Hollonds says that assessment of who is suitable to care for children 'shouldn't just rely on the working with children's check'. 'If we are prioritising the best interests of children … then we have to really address any barriers … for providers to be able to employ people who have a clean record, or to exclude those who don't,' which she says goes beyond people with criminal convictions. One mother who is all too familiar with the fact that a police conviction is not always possible is Jennifer*. When she went to police to report that her then two-year-old daughter, Ava*, had disclosed she was sexually abused while at daycare, police repeatedly warned her that getting a conviction, or even laying charges against the alleged offender, was highly unlikely. The alleged offending occurred at a family daycare – a service run by an individual in their home, but which still receives the federal childcare subsidy – and the alleged offender was the partner of the woman running the service. Jennifer says she had no idea a man was living at the house where the children were cared for until Ava started talking about him. Eventually, Ava disclosed that the man had exposed himself to her and touched her private parts, Jennifer says. New South Wales police took statements from Ava and her parents and investigated. The Department of Education and the Department of Communities and Justice also investigated the allegations – but no charges were laid. In a summary of its findings, the education department wrote: 'There was insufficient evidence to substantiate a breach of the National Law and Regulations. Insufficient evidence to determine [the alleged offender] posed a risk to children. No further action was taken by the department. The case was closed.' No action was taken against the man or the service, which is still operating, though Guardian Australia has not been able to confirm whether the man is still living at the premises. Jennifer would like to see reform to the way investigations into those working with children – or in close proximity to them – are undertaken, saying that the education department should be able to take some action against people who have had credible allegations made against them, even if the level of proof does not reach that required for a criminal conviction. 'That's a hard one because, you know, you don't want innocent people to be punished,' she says. '[But] the level of evidence required for a conviction in court is so high; for beyond reasonable doubt. And when you've got no physical evidence and you've got the words of the two-year-olds, it's not going to stand up in court.' When a report of a serious incident such as physical or sexual abuse is made against a childcare worker, multiple agencies swing – or should swing – into action. If criminal activity is alleged, police might investigate. The relevant state or territory regulator, often housed within the state's education department, will also receive a report. But data obtained by Guardian Australia through freedom of information laws show that responses and record-keeping vary wildly across the country. Some jurisdictions, such as the NT, recorded just one or two reports of sexual abuse of a child in a childcare setting a year. Others, such as NSW, didn't separate out allegations of physical assaults and sexual abuse and so came back with hundreds. The responses also revealed that in the some states, in the vast majority of cases where allegations of physical and sexual assault of a child are reported and investigated, no action is taken by the regulator. In one state – South Australia – nearly 60% of the 147 reports of physical and sexual abuse of a child by a childcare worker from January 2020 until 31 October 2024 were not investigated by the regulator. It did not issue a single compliance notice (the strongest penalty which can include suspending a centre's right to operate or prohibiting a educator from working) for sexual or physical abuse of children in the nearly five years. NSW had the highest number of reports of physical and sexual abuse of children in childcare centres to the state regulator, by a large margin, with, 1,856 incidents reported from 2020 until 31 October 2024. Investigations were launched into all of the incidents of alleged physical and sexual abuse reported to it. In 1,312 cases (70%), the investigation was completed and 'no further action' was taken. In 13% of cases (244) administrative compliance action was taken, and in 180 cases (9.5%) statutory compliance action was taken. Other incidents were under investigation or handled in another case. A spokesperson for the NSW Early Childhood Education and Care Regulatory Authority said: 'We work closely with law enforcement and other agencies where required to support investigations. If a police investigation does not result in charges, we still conduct our own investigation and take strong action in line with the provisions of the National Law and Regulations.' The authority can bring prosecutions, and since 2021, it has prosecuted 34 providers, nominated supervisors and individuals, resulting in fines and conditional release, though none of these were in relation to sexual abuse allegations. 'I think one of the problems is we have a national quality framework and we're meant to have a nationally consistent approach … But because individual jurisdictions handle the monitoring and assessment of services, there are irregularities and inconsistencies across the country,' says Prof Marianne Fenech, an early childhood expert from the University of Sydney. Fenech says investment in quality education, including improving staffing levels and pay, and reducing the number of casual workers, was the hard work that needed to be done to improve the childcare industry, rather than the 'reactive strategies' of CCTV and a national register that the government has suggested. 'If we just focus on reactive strategies to safety, we're missing the point and we're not going to deal with the bigger issues that are causing the safety problems in the first instance,' she says. Hollonds says in the last few weeks, as discussions have raged about safety in childcares and the government has introduced its new legislation, difficult conversations about reforming a huge, complicated industry are being had. But in many ways, this is all happening far too late, she says. 'Everyone is looking for answers. [But] it is a concern to me that we didn't work on these much earlier. 'These questions that you're asking me now, they are fundamental questions that go to the strength of the child safeguarding scaffolding underpinning the industry. And really, this should have been worked on many, many years ago … if not before then certainly the Ashley Griffith episode should have been the trigger for very proactive work on the regulatory system, making sure the regulators had the powers and the resources to do their job well, as well as all of these other elements that are being looked at now. 'I really don't understand why we've had to wait so long … before we acted.' *Names have been changed In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helpline International
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
The kindness of strangers: we broke down in the outback and a retired mechanic came to our rescue
It was 2003 and the Peter Falconio case was fresh in our minds. As 22-year-olds itching for adventure, my wife and I, together with one of our closest friends, nonetheless decided to fly from the UK to Australia and spend six months road-tripping through the outback. We were driving 250km from Julia Creek to Mount Isa in Queensland, in a Ford Econovan that had seen better days. About 50km short of the town, there was a loud bang beneath the van and the fuel level started dropping rapidly. A stone had pierced the rusty fuel tank and our petrol had drained on to the road – all of it except for the spare metal jerrycan that we'd kept for emergencies. The van quickly stopped running. But to our unbelievable good luck, we were only about 100 metres from a rest stop, to which we pushed the van in the baking morning heat. Parked in the rest stop was a new, high-spec camper van. With recent news headlines in mind, we were apprehensive about approaching a stranger in the middle of nowhere – we'd spooked ourselves out a couple of times already on the trip – but we didn't have many options. We knocked on the door to be greeted by a barrel-chested Aussie halfway through having a shave. We asked for any suggestions as we were in dire straits. In another moment of unbelievable good luck, the man turned out to be a retired mechanic, who fixed the jerrycan to the engine. That held long enough for us to get the van to Mount Isa where he and his wife very kindly followed us – almost another three hours' drive away – to make sure we didn't get taken advantage of by the local mechanic. We bought the man, whose name was Pete, a pack of XXXX Gold beer to say thanks. I distinctly remember him downing one, opening a second, and downing that too. Pete and his wife told us they had kids who were travelling in England at the time and they would have wanted strangers to help them if they needed it. We got extremely lucky with Pete and his wife. If they hadn't been there, we would have been very stuck without a clue what to do, on a blisteringly hot day. It made us vow to do the same if we were ever in a position to help. From making your day to changing your life, we want to hear about chance encounters that have stuck with you. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. If you're having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Images of children starving in Gaza have shaken some world leaders out of inertia – but what will Labor do?
Images of emaciated, skeletal children in Gaza landed on news outlets' front pages last week. It seemed to shake some world leaders and ordinary citizens out of a stupor. It's a year and nine months since Israel began laying siege and raining devastation on Gaza, after the slaughter of Hamas' 7 October terror attacks. After 21 months of bombing and civilian death tolls now reported in the tens of thousands, a new word has begun appearing ever more prominently in media coverage. Famine. Not a famine driven by extreme weather, crop failure or pest infestation, but an entirely human-made famine. The type that could be fixed with the stroke of a pen, a bureaucratic shift, a political agreement. Sign up: AU Breaking News email It's why, half a world away in Australia, Anthony Albanese's government will enter its first full week of federal parliament under pressure, facing calls from outside and inside its ranks to do more. My colleague Benita Kolovos' exclusive on Monday, that Victorian Labor's state conference will probably back a series of motions urging the federal government to immediately recognise a Palestinian state and sanction Israel – expanding existing sanctions on two Israeli ministers – is the latest pressure point on Albanese and the foreign minister, Penny Wong, to do more, and faster. It's also a demonstration of the emotion of the party's rank-and-file members. The intervention of former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr on Friday, calling for immediate recognition of Palestine and sanctions against Israel's leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, was significant. Former cabinet minister Ed Husic, Labor's most publicly thoughtful and compassionate voice on Gaza, said 'the time is now'. Their comments came two days after Labor condemned Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi for holding a sign reading 'sanction Israel now' during the opening of parliament. Albanese, Wong and the government say Australia is not a major player in the Middle East, that they have consistently called for adherence to international law, and have contributed large sums in aid – $100m, Wong said on Friday. All true. But according to Palestine supporters inside Labor, there is 'near unanimous' sentiment in party ranks for the government to move beyond statements to concrete actions of the kind it has so far downplayed. Even if it means leading or moving ahead of global sentiment. Wong joined more than two dozen countries last week, expressing horror at hundreds of Palestinians' deaths at aid sites. It was notable, then, that Albanese still felt the need to put out an extra statement, with stronger language, days later. On Sunday, Albanese went further again, explicitly accused Israel of breaching international law. That's not nothing. Noting those 'heartbreaking' pictures of starving children, he told Insiders: 'A one-year-old boy is not a Hamas fighter'. In the same breath, Albanese rejected 'imminently' recognising Palestine, placing conditions on such a shift – including US support – that seem months, if not years, away. But wheels are turning. There is growing outrage in Labor ranks about Gaza. The Victorian Labor motion is the latest of many, with more to come. The motion comes from Labor Friends of Palestine, an internal campaign group. It has circulated similar motions, supported by 80 (and climbing) local ALP branches, according to Peter Moss, a national co-convener. One of the latest, he tells me, is the Wentworth branch, the eastern Sydney electorate with one of Australia's highest concentrations of Jewish voters. Moss maintains there has 'never been a more urgent time to assert the rights of the Palestinian people'. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Wong has said for some time Australia no longer sees Palestine's statehood as coming necessarily at the end of the peace process, which leaves open the door to recognition at any time. Albanese on Sunday, however, cautioned that US involvement 'is critical.' Still, backers say Australia wouldn't even be an outlier if it made recognition moves today. Carr said the French president, Emmanuel Macron's pledge to recognise Palestine should be enough for Australia, with no need to move in concert with the UK or US. He told me such a shift would win Albanese credit for foreign policy, for 'having a mind of our own'. It is true Albanese, Wong and Labor have spoken strongly in support of Palestinian civilians and international law, and given harsher criticism of Israel than many governments before. This has opened them to criticism from the opposition, Israel's own government and the screeching outrage machine of the right-wing press. Equally, for some, Labor haven't gone far enough. The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, said: 'Words, while welcome, won't feed starving kids.' But sentiment has seemed to shift, albeit glacially, even inside the Coalition. After Wong's statement on Tuesday, the opposition could barely muster a word for the plight of starving Palestinians in Gaza. The shadow foreign minister, Michaelia Cash, took five paragraphs to mention the 'suffering of the people of Gaza', and another two before adding 'it is important that aid flows', in a statement otherwise nearly entirely devoted to criticising Hamas – a terrorist group Labor has condemned, said can have no role in the future governance of Gaza, and must return Israeli hostages. By Friday, Cash's statement at least opened with a concession of 'strong concerns about the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza'. Some in the Coalition are uneasy their positioning in recent days has not paid enough heed to the human-made catastrophe. But chalk that up to another issue where the opposition finds itself at a loss, dealing itself into irrelevancy. The greater issue is for Labor. On the back of a thumping election win and an energised party base, its members want the government to stand up, be bold and help set a global example. Albanese says Palestinian statehood won't come as a 'gesture', but on this issue, the party faithful have made it clear: words aren't enough.
