The long-running court battle between Brittany Higgins and former Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has ended. Higgins has been ordered to pay nearly $350,000 in defamation damages after a July 2023 Instagram post was found to have harmed Reynolds’ reputation.

Higgins shared headlines about Reynolds referring her $2.445 million settlement to the federal anti-corruption body and accused Reynolds of mishandling her alleged rape. She was cleared over a separate post about “silencing” sexual assault survivors. Reynolds said the ruling “definitively established the truth” and vindicated her reputation.