0:04

From the Australian, here's what's on the front. I'm

0:06

Claire Harvey. It's Tuesday, June 4. The

0:14

Northern Territory's anti-corruption boss is embroiled in

0:16

a personal drama, with

0:18

the Australian revealing today Michael Riches' lawyers offered

0:20

his wife $20,000 as a settlement after

0:24

she applied for a domestic violence order

0:26

against him. Mr

0:28

Riches had made no admissions and

0:30

denies any wrongdoing. You

0:34

can read that story right now

0:37

at theaustralian.com.au Later

0:41

in today's episode, a very unusual guest

0:44

at the wedding of Brittany Higgins and

0:46

David Shiraz. Plus, all

0:48

the latest in a case that just keeps

0:50

rolling. First

0:54

up today, the immigration disaster engulfing the federal

0:56

government is getting worse. The

1:00

latest embarrassing admission from the minister

1:02

and why the Prime Minister is standing

1:04

by his man. It

1:20

was a remarkable claim by

1:22

embattled immigration minister Andrew Giles

1:24

on Sky News last week.

1:28

There is a quarter of a billion dollars

1:30

that we've invested in supporting our law enforcement

1:32

agencies to enforce that. And that's enabled things

1:35

like using drones to keep track of these

1:37

people. We know where they are. He

1:40

was talking about more than 150 people with

1:42

criminal records who've been released by the High

1:44

Court of Australia. They

1:47

were all non-citizens of Australia

1:49

and some had been convicted

1:51

of serious violent offences, including

1:54

murder and child sex abuse.

1:56

The High Court said the government

1:59

couldn't keep these people alive. people in

2:01

indefinite detention. The government

2:03

had tried to deport them to their

2:05

home countries with no success. So

2:07

they were set free and

2:10

it set off a political

2:12

nightmare now entering its fifth

2:14

month. Two

2:16

of the convicts, convicted

2:18

murderers, had no electronic

2:20

monitoring. It just happens all with

2:22

electronic monitoring. Because the law doesn't allow

2:25

it. Turns

2:27

out the claim about the drones was wrong.

2:30

There are no drones. And

2:33

on Monday the minister who's already at

2:35

the centre of this and another catastrophe

2:37

had to admit it. I

2:40

relied on information provided by my department

2:42

at the time which

2:44

has since been clarified. Giles

2:50

attacked opposition leader Peter Dutton.

2:53

This is a bloke who trusts

2:55

our immigration system, who trusts

2:57

integrity, who trusts enforcement, who let

3:00

nearly 1300 people out, not by

3:02

a court, not by a

3:04

tribunal, without any constraints

3:06

on their behaviour. That's the measure

3:08

of the man. That

3:10

other catastrophe I mentioned, that's where

3:12

the minister issued a new policy

3:15

that has inadvertently resulted in more

3:17

violent criminals remaining in Australia after

3:19

the government tried to kick them out. Over

3:23

the last week I have cancelled 30 visas

3:25

in the national interest. By the

3:27

end of this week we will

3:30

have in place a new revised

3:32

ministerial direction. And the Prime Minister

3:34

is backing him in. We

3:37

continue to refuse and cancel

3:39

visas on character grounds. We continue to

3:41

deport people who have no right to

3:43

be here. Since coming to government

3:45

we've deported over 4200 individuals from

3:49

immigration detention. Bruce

3:53

Lambman is appealing his loss in the

3:56

giant defamation battle with Network 10 and

3:58

Lisa Wilkinson. He lost his life. He watched his

4:00

appeal on Friday, and he'll be

4:02

arguing that Justice Michael Lee got

4:04

it wrong when he found Lerman

4:07

did, on the balance of probabilities,

4:09

rape Brittany Higgins. Lerman

4:11

has run out of lawyers willing to represent

4:13

him on a no-win, no-fee basis,

4:16

so he'll be representing himself up

4:19

against the expert defamation barristers Ten

4:21

and Wilkinson will no doubt engage.

4:24

They'll likely request the court order Lerman

4:26

to pay a surety up front to

4:29

ensure they do get paid if they

4:31

win. If the appeal

4:33

goes ahead, Brittany Higgins will likely need to

4:35

spend more time in court, but on

4:37

Saturday, Higgins got to enjoy a

4:39

moment of pure joy. The

4:42

former Liberal staffer married her partner

4:44

of four years, David Shiraz. The

4:48

wedding was held at the Ritzy Valley estate

4:50

in Karumbin on the Gold Coast. The

4:52

bride wore a dress by Australian

4:54

designer Paolo Sebastian, and

4:56

a big beaming smile.

5:00

Higgins posted to Instagram after the

5:02

ceremony, Today I married my best

5:04

friend. Security at the

5:06

event was tight, with members of the

5:08

media kept well away, although some did

5:10

make the guest list. Among the

5:12

80 or so people invited was

5:15

TV producer Judy McCrossum, whose optioned

5:17

the movie rights to Brittany Higgins'

5:19

unpublished memoir about her Parliament House

5:22

ordeal and everything that followed. One

5:25

guest caught R.I. is David

5:28

Shiraz's psychic friend Carrie de

5:30

Bloch. The Australian's margin

5:32

call column is reporting Shiraz has

5:34

turned to de Bloch for guidance

5:36

many times over his years in

5:38

Canberra. Coming

5:43

up, what's waiting for Brittany Higgins and David

5:46

Shiraz on the other side of the honeymoon?

5:49

While I've got you, we'd love you

5:51

to get more of this journalism by

5:53

subscribing to The Australian. Our subscribers get breaking

5:55

news alerts direct to their phones, newsletters,

5:57

special events and the most live- in

6:00

detail news, analysis and commentary

6:02

around the clock. Check us

6:05

out at theaustralian.com.au and

6:07

we'll be back after this break. Just

6:30

last week as former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins prepped for her

6:32

big day, her legal representatives

6:57

were back in front of a judge

6:59

at the David Malcolm Justice Centre in

7:02

Perth. Higgins is being sued

7:04

by her former boss, Senator Linda

7:06

Reynolds, for social media posts made

7:08

last year. Reynolds says

7:10

her reputation was damaged by the

7:13

posts made separately on Instagram

7:15

and X, formerly known as

7:17

Twitter. I would like to

7:19

commend Justice Lee on all of his findings and

7:22

I think it is time that all parties in

7:25

this accept all of his judgments

7:28

and that includes Science Minister,

7:30

Attorney General and Attorney General's

7:32

Department. It's time for them to admit

7:34

they got it wrong. David

7:37

Chiraz was also on the hook, but

7:39

he's stepped back from the matter, saying

7:41

a trial would bankrupt him. This

7:44

latest legal action has had several

7:46

false starts, with mandated mediations breaking

7:48

down more than once. Now

7:50

Senator Reynolds is attempting to uncover the

7:53

details of a protected trust in

7:55

Brittany Higgins' name. Her lawyers

7:57

believe it's been set up to

7:59

shield a two-part deal. $1.4 million

8:01

compensation payout from litigation. Reynolds

8:04

lawyer Martin Bennett said last month he's been

8:06

waiting to receive a copy of the trust

8:08

deed since March. He

8:11

believes it holds important details that

8:13

will clarify its purpose. Basically

8:16

what they're trying to decipher is if

8:19

Brittany Higgins could actually pay damages or

8:21

legal costs to Linda Reynolds if a

8:23

judge finds the former senator was defamed.

8:26

The matter will head to trial in late July.

8:32

Late last month the other defamation

8:35

matter where Bruce Lerman unsuccessfully sued

8:37

Network Tenant Lisa Wilkinson was back

8:39

before the federal court. Front

8:42

listeners know Lerman lost overall

8:44

because Justice Michael Lee found he did

8:46

on the balance of probabilities rape

8:48

Brittany Higgins in 2019. As

8:51

you know he's appealing that verdict. Having

8:54

escaped the lines did Mr Lerman made the

8:56

mistake of coming back free. But

9:00

Justice Lee had big problems with Network Tenant

9:02

Lisa Wilkinson's journalism and they lost

9:04

on their other defense which was

9:06

qualified privilege. That is their

9:08

journalism was reasonable. The judge said

9:11

it wasn't reasonable. Lerman

9:13

will have to pay most of Tenant

9:15

Wilkinson's costs but it's unlikely he has

9:17

the multi-millions required to settle their bills.

9:20

Now Wilkinson and Tenant trying to sort out

9:23

who pays which parts of her legal bills.

9:25

This after the trial ensured all

9:27

Tenant's dirty laundry was well and

9:30

truly aired. Howard effectively

9:32

sacked Wilkinson from her on-air role

9:34

after she made an unfortunate Logie

9:36

speech even though Tenant had legal

9:38

and approved the speech. Howard

9:40

tried to persuade her not to engage her

9:42

own lawyers and Howard after

9:44

Brittany Higgins indicated she didn't like Wilkinson's

9:47

chosen lawyers. Howard Tenant tried to get

9:49

its former star to choose different representatives.

10:00

work 10. She was asking

10:02

for 10 to cover her costs in

10:04

the defamation case against Bruce Lehrman.

10:07

10 is still quibbling about how much of Wilkinson's

10:09

bills it should pay, but it all came out

10:12

in the open at the most recent hearing. Wilkinson's

10:14

total bill so far is $1.8 million.

10:17

That includes $8,000

10:21

per day in court for top defamation silk

10:23

Sue Chrysanthe SC plus $800 per

10:25

hour for preparation

10:27

work, sending emails and travel time.

10:30

It also includes another $3,500 per day

10:33

for the junior barrister working with Chrysanthe

10:35

Barry Dean and then the

10:37

solicitors who charged Wilkinson up to $750 per

10:40

hour for their work on the case. That

10:42

firm Gillis Delaney

10:45

charged $390 for one phone call and $16 for

10:47

a subscription to the Australian. At

10:52

least they've got impeccable taste. My

11:32

name is Manny Carutas and I'm a

11:34

former New South Wales policeman turned investigative

11:36

reporter with a passion for missing persons

11:38

cases. I'm here to quickly

11:41

tell you about our true Crime Australia podcast,

11:43

The Missing. In this series I look at

11:45

old missing persons cases which have all gone

11:47

cold in an attempt to try and uncover

11:49

new information which could help