Linda Reynolds watched Brittany Higgins’ interview on The Project in her ministerial suite, and felt so enraged that she called the former staffer a ‘lying cow’.
After lunch on Tuesday, Ms Reynolds told the court she had no recollection of exactly what she said during the broadcast on February 15, 2021.
‘I have no recollection of the words I used but I know I was very angry and frustrated by the lies, and what I knew to be lies,’ she said.
Two days later, her chief-of-staff approached her and said a staff member had made a complaint about Ms Reynolds’ comments during the broadcast.
‘I didn’t have a specific recollection of saying those exact words, but they certainly characterised how I was feeling and my anger and hurt, I completely accepted those were the actual words I used,’ she said.
She had a meeting with all her staff and apologised for causing offence.
Earlier, Ms Reynolds told the court she disagreed with a number of claims Ms Higgins made in her interview with news.com.au and to Lisa Wilkinson in her interview on The Project.
Ms Higgins told Wilkinson that Ms Reynolds ‘had to have known’ the rape took place on a couch in her office – but Ms Reynolds has continually said she did not know.
She has also repeatedly disagreed with Ms Higgins’ assertions that she was not supported following her rape.
Ms Reynolds was grilled during Question Time, but decided the rape matter was criminal and should not be prosecuted in Parliament House.
‘There are no words to describe what it was like being accused of covering up the rape of a young woman in my office in a way that I knew was not true,’ she told the court.
‘I found it almost impossible to process mentally and all of a sudden, in a few days, days I had gone from a senator and minister doing her job, and doing I well, to being nationally vilified as someone who would do something so despicable.’
She said her peers looked at her differently, some distanced themselves from her because they wondered if she had actually tried to cover up the rape.
‘I said time and time again, this is not a matter to be prosecuted in Parliament – it was a criminal matter and it was Brittany’s agency to tell the story,’ she said.
Ms Reynolds said she didn’t necessarily agree with what Ms Higgins had said about herself and Fiona Brown, but she had taken the view that she should not comment on the situation.
‘Not being able to defend myself, because that’s the decision that was taken, was devastating,’ she said.
At that point, Ms Reynolds’ voice cracked, she teared up and a court officer refilled her water glass.
