Brittany Higgins follows her husband and takes on a new role at his workplace - as she reveals the very personal reason she decided it was the right fit
Brittany Higgins has revealed she is returning to the workforce and joining the same company her husband is employed at.
Ms Higgins is now the director of public affairs at the independent public relations agency Third Hemisphere, the Australian Financial Review reported.
The announcement comes just months after her husband David Sharaz announced in March he had taken on the role of director at the independent PR agency.
The pair are working from home full-time as they navigate early parenthood after welcoming their three-month-old son Freddie into the world on March 2.
The role is a natural fit for Ms Higgins who worked as the Liberal Party media adviser before she was thrust into the limelight after stressful rape and defamation trials.
Following the trials, Ms Higgins became an outspoken advocate for survivors of sexual assault.
Ms Higgins explained her decision to join Third Hemisphere was cemented after fostering a connection with the firm's founder and CEO Hannah Moreno.
The pair shared a connection as Ms Moreno was also a rape and domestic violence survivor who campaigns for gender equality and fights against sexual harassment.
'There was this general feeling of 'how long do I have to be the story for?' At what point do I get to put it to rest... and have my own identity outside this narrative of Brittany Higgins,' Ms Higgins said.
'I also have a brand reputation and I don't want to align myself in a corporate sense with someone that could be doing something untoward. I had to join a team that I fundamentally believe in and which believes in the same things that I do.'
In August 2021, Bruce Lehrmann was identified as the Liberal Party staffer accused of raping Ms Higgins inside Parliament House in 2019.
Ms Higgins had shared her alleged sexual assault with Channel 10 journalist Lisa Wilkinson in an interview aired on The Project.
Lehrmann has always denied the allegations.
Lehrmann faced the ACT Supreme Court in late 2022 but the case was dropped after a juror brought outside research into the deliberation room.
A second trial was also aborted, citing concerns for Ms Higgins' mental health.
In 2023, Lehrmann launched legal proceedings against Wilkinson and Channel 10, claiming he'd been defamed by The Project episode.
The ruling in that lawsuit left Lehrmann in ruin with Justice Michael Lee finding that, on the balance of probabilities, he raped Ms Higgins.
He has appealed the ruling with the case to go before the Federal Court of Australia in August.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Australia is 'safe and reliable' critical minerals alternative, minister says
PARIS, June 5 (Reuters) - Australia offers a secure alternative supply for critical minerals vital to industry, its trade minister Don Farrell said on Thursday, in the face of rising concerns about Beijing's dominance of the sector. China's decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of rare earths and related magnets crucial to sectors ranging from automakers to aerospace and defence was widely seen as Beijing using that dominance for leverage in its trade war with the Trump administration. While China is a top global producer of 30 of the 50 minerals considered critical by the U.S. Geological Survey, Australia has some of the largest critical minerals deposits. "We think we can be a safe and reliable supplier into the supply chain for critical minerals around the world," Farrell told Reuters in an interview. But Australia does not want to just "dig and ship" the minerals and aims to process them as well, although that would require capital from outside such as the European Union, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and India, he said. The EU and Australia signed a partnership agreement, opens new tab last year to develop critical materials along the supply chain ranging from extraction to refining and processing leftover waste. Farrell said critical minerals could end up in a free trade agreement with the EU that Australia and the bloc are trying to revive after talks broke down in 2023, mainly over agriculture. Australia has sent top trade officials to Brussels this week to nail down the next steps forward as both sides seek access to alternative markets as the Trump administration aggressively builds tariff barriers to its trade partners. "I think there is now impetus on both sides to look at another crack at the agreement," Farrell said in Paris, where he met EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic on the sidelines of a meeting at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Farrell also met U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at the OECD and told him Australia wanted the Trump administration to remove its 10% baseline tariffs and 50% tariffs on aluminium and steel. The United States, which has had a free trade agreement with Australia for two decades, ran a $17.9 billion trade surplus with the country last year, according to Greer's office.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Family shocked at rental costs in Guernsey
A man who left Guernsey said he was shocked to find the cost of rental accommodation had doubled when he returned 10 months Pinsard and his family moved to Australia in 2022 but after his wife was hurt in a car accident they decided to come back in June they had arranged a rental house for their first day back, Mr Pinsard said the property was in such poor condition they could not live in it - but they could not then find an affordable alternative.A report recently published by the Guernsey Community Foundation found young families were being "driven away" by rising living costs. Mr Pinsard said when the family had left Guernsey in 2022 they had been paying £1,300 per month for a two-bedroom house near the beach on the west said that in September 2023 they rented a "cramped" two-bedroom in St Sampsons that cost £2,600 per Pinsard added that he had found it "shocking that in such a short period of time, nine to 10 months, rental cost actually doubled".The government's Property Prices Bulletin showed the average local market rental price was £2,068 a month in the first quarter of figure is 1.5% higher than the previous quarter, 8.2% higher than the first quarter of 2024 and 51.7% higher than five years ago. 'Lots of sacrifices' Mr Pinsard said the family had been forced to live in temporary accommodation which had drained their savings."We got to the point where it was either we have to buy to get on to the property market or leave the island again," he Pinsards managed to buy a house, which needed renovation, thanks to "lots of sacrifices".Mr Pinsard said his wife worked extra shifts at the hospital and he had a side business he ran at the weekends to ensure they had a home."It is possible but only through many, many extra hours which takes time away from the children and family," he added.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Aussie photographer Charles Brooks slams Elon Musk over billionaire's wild AI claim
An Aussie artist has lashed out after Elon Musk reshared artificially modified versions of his photos to 'promote' his chatbot. Accomplished artist and musician Charles Brooks achieved international recognition in 2022 for his 'Architecture in Music' photographic series, capturing the interiors of musical instruments. This week, he was shocked to learn from a friend that his work had been altered by a third party using artificial intelligence (AI) and shared by Musk on X – formerly known as Twitter. Above his photos, edited to include little men inside his instruments, was Musk's invitation for users to 'Generate images with Grok'. Mr Brooks insisted '98 per cent' of the images were actually generated by him. 'I went and did some digging, and eventually I found this thing he'd shared from a couple of days ago,' he told Daily Mail Australia. Mr Brooks conceded that Musk was not 'quite' passing his photos off as Grok's work, but believes he was operating in a 'grey area'. 'The thing that annoys me is that my photos are being kind of used, and my name's not being attached to them,' he said. Musk reshared three of Mr Brook's images which had been altered with AI, imploring X users to generate images with Grok 'And the way that they're being presented makes it look like they're AI photos.' AI software can now produce essays, creative fictions, photos, videos and audio to boot. But the models have been 'trained' repetitively at first using real images, artworks, videos and soundbites. The ethics of AI training and artistic intellectual property have been debated since the engines were first unveiled to the public. Mr Brooks insists there was no mistaking the images were his. 'For me, the main thing is, these are real photographs of very specific instruments,' he explained. 'You know, there's a double bass in there that's photographed. And I know exactly what bass that is. That's a English Charles Therese Double Bass from 1860 that my friend plays in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Beautiful bass. 'That's my photo of inside that specific instrument. And that should never be claimed as AI.' Mr Brooks insisted he's not anti-AI and uses it for an array of tasks including managing his website and correcting writing. He hopes the saga serves as a warning to artists – as the creative industries are forced to coexist with what could represent a disrupting force. 'If there's anything that I would wish out of this it would be that, you know, there's a way for works or images to always be tracked back to the artist when they're shared,' he said. 'AI is going to see this stuff, it's going to learn. So are people, for that matter, other people can look at my work and maybe figure out how I've done it and do something similar. Great, good on them. 'But my creations should be able to be tracked back to me easily and it's frustrating that it's so simple for people to lift them and share them, and you lose that chain back to the original artist.' Mr Brooks was astonished about how little people seemed to care to credit real-world artists, whose time and effort became the foundation of every subsequent AI creation. 'I think with all of this new technology, if we can trace every bitcoin transaction on Earth, we should be able to trace a photo,' he said. Many online were left shocked after Mr Brooks detailed the incident online. 'Elon didn't mention my name at all, Eric did put my name in but only as a comment which I find a bit disingenuous,' Mr Brooks claimed in a video posted on Reddit. 'I'm not terribly against people modifying the images as long as it's not for a commercial reason, but if you're going to do that, please credit me.' The artist took his grievances to the platform after his X account was suspended. His account has since been reinstated. Commenters unleashed against the technology billionaire. 'So sorry you have to do go through this crap with him. I've completely stopped using twitter, will never call it X,' one wrote. Another added: 'I'm sorry Elon Musk is such a piece of sh*t. Your photography is really beautiful,' another added. A third wrote: 'This is a salesman posting fake results about his product. So what does that say of the product?' another said. Many viewers wondered if Mr Brooks had a legal case against Musk. 'I don't think (Mr Brooks) has a case against the 'original' Twitter poster, but (Musk) is using stolen art to advertise a tool that directly benefits him. Not a lawyer but that looks like a slam-dunk of a case,' one alleged. Others, however, did not believe Mr Brooks' case was strong enough. Mr Brooks told Daily Mail Australia it was unlikely he would pursue that avenue. Musk's Grok engine has been the subject of controversy in recent weeks as allegations of censorship plagued the platform. Grok is a conversational AI developed by xAI, founded by Musk. The engine can access contemporary information over the web and on its native platform, X. Its use has been predicated on its ability to answer questions typically avoided by other platforms, and can be accessed at varying degrees of utility through free and paid accounts. However, in recent weeks the chatbot suffered a 'programming error' which made it sceptical of Holocaust figures and repeatedly made claims about a 'white genocide' in South Africa. In May, researchers revealed AI models had begun disobeying human instruction. ChatGPT's latest AI model refused to switch itself off, they claimed. Experts said they gave the AI system a clear command but the o3 model, developed by OpenAI and described as the 'smartest and most capable to date', tampered with its computer code to avoid an automatic shutdown.
