Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has ruled out referring Senator Katy Gallagher to the anti-corruption commission over a reported $3 million (US$2 million) compensation payment to former political advisor Brittany Higgins.
Higgins received the payment from Gallagher’s department—in her capacity as finance minister—in December after a drawn-out saga involving rape allegations against former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann.
Yet new text messages reveal that Higgins’s boyfriend, David Sharaz, had enlisted Gallagher and Albanese to leverage the rape claims for political advantage over the former Coalition government.
“I don’t take advice from anyone … I had not met Brittany Higgins until I met her, publicly, on the same day that she met [former Prime Minister] Scott Morrison,” Albanese told reporters on June 8….