Politics

A judge has granted Brittany Higgins’ bid to subpoena text messages Linda Reynolds exchanged with accused rapist Bruce Lehrmann’s senior counsel, while also granting the senator’s bid for communications related to a fundraising page for Higgins.

Senator Linda Reynolds has taken the stand in her defamation case against Brittany Higgins, telling a court on Tuesday she encouraged the former staffer to go to the police after her alleged rape by colleague Bruce Lehrmann because she was “not the right person” to conduct an investigation.  

Brittany Higgins’ counsel has argued that her former boss, Senator Linda Reynolds, mishandled her staffer’s allegation she was raped by colleague Bruce Lehrmann at Parliament House, saying she effectively told her to “go elsewhere”.

As another trial traversing the rape allegations of former political staffer Brittany Higgins gets underway, a lawyer for Senator Linda Reynolds has told a court Higgins’ claim she was pressured not to pursue a complaint against Bruce Lehrmann was the stuff of fairytales.

A Greens senator has called for reducing a proposed immunity from climate disclosure litigation from three years to one after lawyers, including the NSW Bar Association, blasted the moratorium. But some law firms say the immunity doesn’t go far enough and should shield companies and their officers from continuous disclosure-related claims.

The federal government has backed suggestions for changes to the Food and Grocery Code that would slap major grocery stores with fines of up to $10 million for violating the code, amid concerns over rising food prices.

Offering a mixed review of the NSW budget on Tuesday, the Law Society of NSW welcomed the funding boost to legal aid and other key agencies but said the state should do more to modernize the courts.

A Senate report into the government’s use of consultants, launched in the wake of PwC’s leak of confidential Treasury information, has recommended an inquiry into whether partnerships should be subject to the same regulations as corporations and again called on PwC to release the names of all those involved in the leak of confidential government information.

A report tabled in Parliament has called for the introduction of a federal human rights law to replace the “inadequate” and “confusing” patchwork of state and federal laws, which the Law Council of Australia said was “long overdue”.

A Larrakia Danggalaba man has sought access to documents for a possible lawsuit over the federal government’s decision to greenlight the destruction of an Aboriginal cultural site to develop Defence housing.