Brittany Higgins tells Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial she secretly recorded conversation with Michaelia Cash for ‘legal protection’ – as it happened

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• Thursday wrap: Higgins visibly angry and in tears as Lehrmann's barrister accuses her of lying about alleged rape

Brittany Higgins says she does not count Linda Reynolds and her chief of staff Fiona Brown as villains in her story.

Fiona Brown was just following instructions and I've never blamed her and I don't blame her," Higgins said.

Linda Reynolds avoided me in my view, and did not meet her duty of care. I felt unsupported. I felt unsupported by both of them, but I don't count them as villains in this story. I just don't think they did the right thing by me."

Higgins said her experience damaged her relationship with the Liberal party and she revealed she is no longer a Liberal.

She denied a suggestion from Whybrow that she leaked her story to the media in order to damage the Liberal party ahead of the election.

I had no intention of impacting the election, but I did want to change the culture in Parliament House," Higgins said.

I was angry at the culture of Parliament House and I was hurt by the Liberal party, but I was still a Liberal.

No longer, but I was still for a really long time."

an earlier version of this post incorrectly identified the election referred to as being in 2019