Higgins 'quite casual' on rape claim, boss says

Fiona Brown had no reason to think he was lying and "accepted what everyone said" while asking questions about a weekend security breach.

"This was not an investigation," Ms Brown told the Federal Court on Monday.

It was almost two years before news reports of Ms Higgins' claim she was raped in Senator Linda Reynolds' office on March 23, 2019.

Lehrmann was not named in the reports in February 2021 but has sued Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson for defamation.

Ms Brown denied Ms Higgins told her in a meeting on March 26, 2019 she had been raped.

"She did not disclose that to me," she said.

Ms Brown was surprised and shocked two days later when Ms Higgins left another meeting with the "quite casual" remark that she remembered "him on top of me," she told the court.

Lehrmann's name was not used, Ms Brown said.

She said she had no reason to disbelieve Ms Higgins but did not understand what she had allegedly meant.

"I couldn't be making a criminal allegation against someone, Ms Higgins needed to expressly tell me that this was something she did not want."

She also denied Ms Higgins was hysterical and crying in the first meeting but said she gave her a tissue for a "watery eye" and a brochure for counselling through an employee assistance program.

She had earlier talked to Lehrmann, who left his ministerial pass with security on his way out afterwards.

"Bruce, I asked you to return it to me, I'm disappointed you've failed to follow a direct request," Ms Brown later texted him.

Ms Brown said she was curious and concerned about a potential security breach when she spoke to Lehrmann after learning he and Ms Higgins had attended after hours and apparently intoxicated before he left and she was found in a state of undress the next day.

"Did you suspect at that point that they had had sex?" Wilkinson's barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC asked.

"I couldn't rule it out and I couldn't rule it in," Ms Brown said.

Justice Michael Lee suggested Ms Brown had not formed the view Lehrmann was lying, but thought he was not being entirely candid.

"Yes my antenna was up," Ms Brown said.

The court's livestream was turned off for Ms Brown's evidence after mental health reports were presented to the court.

She returns on Tuesday.

Earlier, editorial consultant Peter Meakin, who worked with Network Ten on The Project broadcast, told the court more could have been done to probe her version of events.

The producer behind a TV report on Brittany Higgins' claim of sexual assault did a "good job", but more could have been done to probe her version of events, the consultant has admitted.

Peter Meakin worked with the team at Network Ten on The Project broadcast, which aired an interview with Ms Higgins in February 2021.

Testifying in the Federal Court on Monday, he acknowledged certain material provided to Ten from Parliament House contradicted what Ms Higgins claimed happened in the alleged rape's aftermath.

Contemporaneous evidence suggested Ms Higgins' boss Senator Linda Reynolds and acting chief of staff Fiona Brown were supportive of her going to police and said she could retain her job if she did so.

The Project report said Ms Higgins was forced to choose between her job and making a police complaint, and presented the Parliament House culture as one in which her silence about the alleged incident was preferred.

Ms Higgins alleges she was sexually assaulted by Lehrmann in Senator Linda Reynolds' office on March 23, 2019.

Ms Higgins' alleged rapist Bruce Lehrmann has denied anything criminal occurred and he is suing Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson over the report on The Project. He says Higgins' rape claim, which he vehemently denies, destroyed his reputation.

Mr Meakin said the documents provided by Parliament revealed a different narrative to that of Ms Higgins and admitted it would have been "desirable" for Ten to go back and double check her version of events.

"In retrospect, yeah we could have done a lot of things," he told the court.

But Mr Meakin added he thought Ten producer Angus Llewellyn had done a "good job" when working on the broadcast.

Ms Higgins alleges she was sexually assaulted by Lehrmann in Senator Reynolds' office on March 23, 2019.

Describing the story as a "legal minefield" in an email sent a week before The Project segment aired, Mr Meakin admitted Ten chose to use more details about Lehrmann than a News.com.au article on Ms Higgins' claims published the morning before The Project segment.

He denied suggestions from Lehrmann's barrister Matthew Richardson SC that this allowed his client to be identified despite not being named.

Ten executive producer Christopher Bendall said in signing off on the news broadcast, he relied on information passed to him by Mr Meakin and Mr Llewellyn.

The court also heard evidence from toxicologist Dr Michael Robertson who created a report for Ten on Ms Higgins' estimated level of intoxication on the night she was allegedly sexually assaulted.

Earlier, a Queensland state politician says he clearly remembers Ms Higgins telling him of her alleged rape in Parliament House weeks after the incident.

Liberal National Party MP Sam O'Connor recounted a text exchange he had with Ms Higgins on April 19, 2019.

"Sorry, I'm just over it," she wrote to him.

"This super f---ed up thing happened a little while ago and I've just lost the fight."

In a phone conversation soon after those texts, Ms Higgins said she had been raped by a male Liberal staffer, Mr O'Connor told the court.

"She told me that he had taken her back to Parliament House and that he had raped her," he said.

"I absolutely remember the word rape, that's not something that you forget."

Mr O'Connor is giving evidence in a defamation trial brought by the man Ms Higgins accuses of raping her, Bruce Lehrmann.

In subsequent phone calls, Ms Higgins told Mr O'Connor that she didn't want to report the alleged incident to police fearing it would "define her" personally and professionally.

Being a "real go-getter" who was excited about her parliamentary job before the alleged incident, the Liberal National MP recounted how Ms Higgins' demeanour had changed after the alleged rape.

"She absolutely was different," he told the court.

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Network Ten executive producer Christopher Bendall and editorial consultant Peter Meakin are also scheduled to get in the witness box after Mr O'Connor's evidence.

Fiona Brown, who was Senator Reynolds' acting chief of staff at the time of the alleged rape, could also take the stand on Monday afternoon.

Ms Higgins has accused Ms Brown of trying to silence her regarding the rape allegation, which came out at a sensitive time before a federal election the coalition was widely considered as being on track to lose.

Lehrmann stood trial in the ACT Supreme Court charged with raping Ms Higgins, but it was derailed by juror misconduct.

Prosecutors did not seek a second trial, citing concerns for Ms Higgins' mental health.

AAP