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Bruce Lehrmann has failed in his bid to reclaim a personal diary seized amid an investigation into alleged police misconduct in the handling of Brittany Higgins’ sexual assault allegations.
Federal Court of Australia Justice Brigitte Markovic has ruled against the former Liberal staffer’s attempt to recover all of the “blue Moleskin[e] branded personal diary” he kept while he served the minister for defence and home affairs in 2019.
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, said disclosure of those pages “could reasonably be expected to prejudice the effective and proper functioning of government”.
Lehrmann began the Federal Court proceedings over legal funding he said he was promised but ultimately denied during National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) hearings.
The diary was seized during Operation Greenough, which was set up to investigate whether Australian Federal Police officers misused official information acquired by them amid a probe into Lehrmann’s alleged sexual assault of Higgins.
Lehrmann was found to have raped Higgins on a civil standard of proof only, and has never been found criminally responsible. He has continued to strenuously deny the allegations.
NACC was also investigating Lehrmann for the alleged misuse of official information, but this was abandoned in mid-October.
In ruling in the commissioner’s favour on Monday, 2 November, Justice Markovic said she was satisfied harm could be done if the diary pages were disclosed. This was despite a submission from Lehrmann that “only he would wish to see its contents”.
Justice Markovic was also satisfied Lehrmann had failed to establish that disclosure of the pages would materially assist him in his funding proceedings.
Citation: Lehrmann v Commonwealth Special Minister of State [2026] FCA 1637.
