The dramatic collapse of the relationship between Network 10 and its former star presenter Lisa Wilkinson has been laid bare during a fiery dispute in the Federal Court.
For months, the journalist has fought to compel her employer to pay the million-dollar legal fees she amassed while defending a defamation lawsuit brought by Bruce Lehrmann.
The former political staffer is suing Network 10 and Ms Wilkinson over an interview with Brittany Higgins on The Project, which he claims conveyed he raped Ms Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.
He has consistently denied the allegations, and pleaded not guilty to a criminal charge before his trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct in 2022.
As well as prompting a defamation lawsuit, the interview with Ms Higgins precipitated the collapse of a once-thriving relationship between Ms Wilkinson and Network 10.
Infamous Logies speech
The cracks in the bond between Ms Wilkinson and Network 10 began to show after Ms Wilkinson delivered her now-infamous speech at the 2022 Logies.
As she accepted a Silver Logie Award for the interview with Ms Higgins, the journalist gave an address in which she praised the younger woman for her “unwavering courage”.
She made the remarks just eight days before the original start date for Mr Lehrmann’s rape trial, in which Ms Wilkinson was expected to testify for the crown.
The speech attracted intense criticism and caused ACT Chief Justice Lucy McCallum to delay the trial for three months, a decision she made with “gritted teeth”.
The Logies speech exacerbated Ms Wilkinson and Network 10’s imputation of his guilt, Mr Lehrmann claimed in his defamation suit.
This week, Ms Wilkinson told the Federal Court she felt she had been left to shoulder the blame on her own.
“(Network 10) asked me to make that speech (and) they had been involved in legalling that speech,” she said.
“But I was the one accused … of derailing the rape case.
“All the blame was falling on me.”
The journalist said the speech had been checked by Network 10’s legal team and approved by CEO Beverley McGarvey and the “highest levels of the network” before the award night.
Network 10’s senior litigation lawyer Tasha Smithies confirmed she had greenlit the speech, telling the court she felt it was necessary for Ms Wilkinson to show she was not “wavering” in her support for Ms Higgins.
“It was my view that from the time after the broadcast of the story, Ms Wilkinson was inextricably intertwined with Ms Higgins,” she said.
Ms Wilkinson told the court she had taken “significant steps” to avoid endangering the upcoming trial during the speech, but she alone was portrayed “as legally irresponsible”.
“The media believed that I had got up on that stage and given a speech, pretty much off the top of my head without any consideration to the legal proceedings that were going on,” she said.
“That was completely incorrect.”
Network 10’s silence
Network 10 put out a statement after the Logies which proclaimed the network “fully support(ed)” their star presenter, but Ms Wilkinson said she “begged” them to go further.
“I was asking Channel 10 to admit the role they played,” she said.
The network repeatedly refused to disclose the fact that they had provided legal advice to Ms Wilkinson, citing legal professional privilege.
During her evidence, Ms Smithies denied her consistent recommendation to maintain legal privilege has been motivated by her desire to protect her reputation.
“I am not professionally or personally embarrassed by the advice I gave Ms Wilkinson,” she said.
Network 10 also declined to put out a statement to clarify that Ms Wilkinson had not been issued a warning by ACT Director of Public Prosecution Shane Drumgold before the speech.
Ms Smithies said she knew Mr Drumgold’s claim about a warning was false and being widely circulated, but she advised the network it would be better to maintain its silence.
Network 10’s lawyers argued it was constrained from making further comment by the ongoing criminal trial and a looming inquiry.
The effect, Ms Wilkinson said, is that she was “left alone” to face the fallout.
‘I had no choice’
The court heard Network 10’s Head of Publicity said she had “never seen anything like” the media attacks on the journalist after the speech.
The day after Mr Lehrmann’s trial was delayed, Matthew Collins KC called the speech “ill-advised” during an appearance on Channel 7’s Sunrise program.
He suggested Ms Wilkinson could be investigated to see whether she had possibly committed contempt of court.
Network 10 promptly hired Dr Collins without consulting Ms Wilkinson, who said she was “extremely distressed” by his remarks.
She was told by Ms Smithies the appointment would prevent Dr Collins from making further comments of that kind.
“I did not want Dr Collins acting for me given what had happened, but I felt I had no choice in the matter,” Ms Wilkinson wrote in an affidavit tendered to the court.
Stood down and ‘abandoned’
Five months after the Logies speech, the TV presenter was told she would be removed from her role as a host on The Project.
She was told Network 10 CEO Beverley McGarvey explained the speech had caused “brand damage” and there was “too much heat” on Ms Wilkinson.
“I was shocked, embarrassed and deeply disappointed by Ms McGarvey’s decision to remove me from The Project,’ Ms Wilkinson wrote in her affidavit.
“It signified to me that 10 had no real interest in publicly correcting the damage done to me and my reputation, and were now only making it worse.”
In an email to Ms Wilkinson’s agent, Ms McGarvey maintained the decision had been made in order to take the program in a “new direction”.
Ms Wilkinson was stood down from the prime-time program in November 2022, despite having two years left in her contract. She will remain employed by the network until the end of the year.
She was promised the opportunity to conduct ‘interview programs’, but the court heard that has not eventuated.
After being dismissed from her role, she said she felt “isolated, unprotected, and abandoned” by her employer.
‘No one informed me’
The veteran journalist was not informed by Network 10’s lawyers that she was being sued by Mr Lehrmann.
Instead, she learned of the lawsuit when she read the news in The Australian.
“I found out through the media I was being sued,” she said.
“No one … informed me at all.”
Ms Wilkinson said she was “gobsmacked” to learn her employer’s legal team had been notified about the lawsuit five hours earlier.
“Is this headline in the Australian correct? That I am now being sued?” she wrote to the lawyers acting for Network 10.
Thomson Geer partner Marlia Saunders told the Federal Court she had “overlooked the words” that named Ms Wilkinson as a respondent in the proceedings.
By this time, Ms Wilkinson’s lawyers characterised the relationship between Network 10 and its former star presenter as “strained”.
Backflip on costs
Her belief that the company was deliberately distancing itself from her spurred Ms Wilkinson to engage her own legal representation for the defamation trial.
After a month of discussion, Network 10 agreed it was liable for “reasonable” legal fees which had been “properly incurred” by Ms Wilkinson during the defamation lawsuit.
However, it subsequently refused to pay after claiming it was unreasonable for Ms Wilkinson to have engaged separate legal representation.
The journalist said the legal battle with her employer left her “gutted” and “extremely distressed”.
“I thought 10’s new position was intentionally cruel and wholly disingenuous,” she wrote.
Justice Lee disagreed with Network 10’s stance and found Ms Wilkinson had “not acted unthinkingly” when she engaged her own legal counsel.
“It seems to me plain beyond peradventure in all circumstances it was reasonable for Ms Wilkinson to retain separate lawyers,” he said.
‘Vindication’ for Wilkinson
Justice Lee ruled in favour of Ms Wilkinson and ordered Network 10 to pay the legal fees accrued by Ms Wilkinson.
The exact figure will be determined at a later date, but it is estimated her costs amount to over $1 million.
The judge’s decision came after a dramatic backflip from Network 10 in the 11th hour of the proceedings.
Minutes before Justice Lee was due to hand down his judgement, Network 10’s lawyer Robert Dick SC conceded the network no longer maintained Ms Wilkinson’s decision had been unreasonable.
Ms Wilkinson’s lawyer, Michael Elliot SC, welcomed the announcement as a “vindication of our position”.
He said Network 10’s reversal was an “embarrassment” and accused the company of leading Ms Wilkinson on a “merry dance right back to where we started a year ago”.
Ms Wilkinson did not comment as she left the courtroom victorious.
She will return to court later this year when Justice Lee hands down his decision in Mr Lehrmann’s defamation suit against the journalist and her employer.