Senator Katy Gallagher has denied she misled Parliament about her knowledge of rape allegations brought forward by former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins.
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Leaked text messages published by The Australian newspaper purported to show Ms Higgins' partner David Sharaz had been in contact with Senator Gallagher before Ms Higgins appeared on The Project to reveal the rape allegations.
Ms Higgins accused her former colleague Bruce Lehrmann of assaulting her in the office of former minister Linda Reynolds in March 2019.
Mr Lehrmann has always denied the allegations and no findings were made against him after an ACT Supreme Court trial was aborted.
Text messages between Mr Sharaz and Ms Higgins sent four days before the allegations were made public reportedly show Mr Sharaz boasting of a relationship with Senator Gallagher and that she was "really invested now" in the incident.
The Canberra Times has not viewed the leaked text messages.
In Senate estimates on June 4, 2021, Senator Gallagher responded to claims from then-senator Reynolds that Labor figures knew of the allegations before they aired by saying: "No one had any knowledge. How dare you?"
After a week of scrutiny over whether she had misled Parliament in these comments, Senator Gallagher said in Perth on Saturday Mr Sharaz had given her some details of the rape allegation but she insisted she did not use the allegations for political purposes.
"No, I did not mislead the Parliament. I was responding to an assertion that was being made by minister Reynolds at the time that we had known about this for weeks and had made a decision to weaponise it," Senator Gallagher said.
"That is not true. It was never true. I explained that to Senator Reynolds that night - she accepted that explanation."
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Ms Gallagher said she maintained the confidence of Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday said he had "absolute confidence in Senator Gallagher."
He said the first time he met Ms Higgins was publicly on the same day she met then-prime minister Scott Morrison.