Bruce Lehrmann recorded Cabinet secrets in personal diary, Federal Court rules

Ex-political staffer Bruce Lehrmann recorded sensitive information relating to Cabinet submissions and decisions in his personal diary, a Federal Court of Australia judge has found.

Justice Brigitte Markovic has today ruled that what Mr Lehrmann recorded on two pages in a blue moleskin diary would harm the public interest if disclosed.

The diary was seized from Mr Lehrmann’s home during an AFP raid on June 5, 2024, and has become an issue in his legal fight with Special Minister of State Don Farrell and Paul Brereton, the National Anti-Corruption Commission boss at the time.

He is suing them claiming the raid on his Hobart home was an abuse of power and that he was denied funding for legal representation to fight allegations of corruption.

Mr Lehrmann had sought to have the entire diary returned to him, however lawyers for the Commissioner of the NACC refused, claiming public interest immunity over those pages.

In upholding the Commissioner’s public interest immunity claim, Justice Markovic found that those pages of the diary contained sensitive information which would result in a breach of Cabinet confidentiality if disclosed.

Branko Ananijevski, Assistant Secretary of the Cabinet Governance and National Security Branch in the Cabinet Division of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, gave evidence to the court that the diary entries contained information relating to confidential considerations of a Cabinet committee and a Cabinet decision on costings.

The court heard that Cabinet confidentiality was essential to the process of decision-making and policy development.

Justice Markovic said there was a “compelling public interest against disclosure” and that Mr Lehrmann, who argued he had never attended a Cabinet meeting so at best the entries only recorded what others had told him, had not shown how getting access to those parts of his diary would help him in his ongoing legal funding fight.

Dubbed Operation Ivanhoe, the NACC investigated Mr Lehrmann over allegations he took documents relating to French submarines from the office of then defence minister Linda Reynolds where he worked for his own ends in 2019.

The NACC has since dropped that investigation, telling Mr Lehrmann on October 12 that they were no longer pursuing the probe.

Operation Greenough, which is looking into whether federal police misused information during their investigation into Mr Lehrmann’s alleged sexual assault of his colleague Brittany Higgins in Parliament House, is ongoing.

The 31-year-old has always denied raping Ms Higgins, allegations which have not been tested in a criminal court,.

Federal Court Justice Michael Lee found in 2024 the allegations Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins were proven on the balance of probabilities, a finding that was upheld twice by the Full Federal Court and the High Court of Australia.

Mr Lehrmann will return to court in December to continue his fight for legal funding.