'Big swinging d--ks', Wolf of Wall Street party and Barr staffers

Notes and short excerpts from Ms Higgins' unpublished book have been tendered during Bruce Lehrmann's defamation case against Network Ten.

In 2021, Penguin Random House Australia offered Ms Higgins $325,000 to write a book.

A document including an outline of chapters and excerpts was subpoenaed during the criminal trial of Mr Lehrmann.

Former Network Seven producer Taylor Auerbach claims Mr Lehrmann leaked the document to the Seven.

Mr Auerbach provided it to a defamation case brought by Mr Lehrmann against Network Ten, in which Ms Higgins alleged he raped her.

A criminal trial against Mr Lehrmann was aborted due to juror misconduct. The charge against Mr Lehrmann was dropped and he denies Ms Higgins' allegations.

Claims alleged in the book excerpts have not been independently verified.

Former government ministers Christian Porter, Alan Tudge, Steven Ciobo and Michael Keenan were an "infamous group known as 'The Big Swinging Dicks'", according to a chapter outline.

Ms Higgins started working for Mr Ciobo as a Liberal party staffer in late 2018.

Ms Higgins wrote that she first met Mr Porter, Mr Tudge and Mr Keenan at Mr Ciobo's office, "serving them drinks then being invited to join them at Public Bar after work".

While working for then-minister Linda Reynolds, Ms Higgins claimed she was "cornered into drinks with Ciobo, Porter and Keenan; the last of the 'big swinging dicks'".

Ms Higgins also claimed one Christmas party had a "Wolf of Wall [Street]' style of hedonism about it".

She said Mr Ciobo lined up his staff and poured whiskey directly into their mouths.

Ms Higgins refers to "open secrets in Parliament House".

"[Former MP] Andrew Laming playing with the buttons on my blazer and introducing me to his latest 'intern' at a function," she wrote.

Notes and excerpts reveal details about life working for the Liberal party in Parliament House.

Working as a staffer meant long days, "getting in the office at 6.45am and not leaving until 8pm," Ms Higgins wrote.

She claimed she was tasked with taking two Sidney Nolan paintings from the Australian War Memorial for one of her chiefs-of-staffs.

There were factional cliques within the Liberals, unofficial uniforms and politics regarding the cafes within Parliament House, Ms Higgins wrote.

"There was a distinct and identifiable difference between Liberal and Labor staffers," she wrote.

"The Liberals in their polished suits, RM Williams shoes, [Polo Ralph Lauren] shirts and horn-rimmed glasses. The women in pencil skirt and the latest offering from SABA and Cue.

"Heels on, hair curled - looking like they are all about ready to go on air and present on Fox News. A type of glossy, polished look. The modem day, working, Stepford wife. Effortlessly together despite the fact we were all in office by 6.45am at the latest."

Sky News was "on in every Coalition office 24/7" and there was a post-question time "ritual of breaking out a bottle of wine/champagne for the office".

Then minister for defence industry, Mr Ciobo, received "absurd" Christmas presents, like cards from the Rothschilds, and dates from the Prince of Qatar, Ms Higgins wrote.

Ministerial staffers had a "strange sense of superiority" to Australian Public Service employees, Ms Higgins wrote.

"A clear delineation between ministerial staffer, electorate office staffers and government departments. A nuance that is mostly lost to the broader public but a pecking order that is fiercely defended for those on the inside," she said.

"Ministerial staffers regard themselves as the A-Team. Your minister is an extension of you. If your minister is performing poorly, as an extension of them, you are perceived poorly."

Most of the people advising ministers while Ms Higgins worked at Parliament House were in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties, she said.

"It seemed baffling to me that the oldest person in the ministerial office, who wasn't the minister, was in their late thirties. My chief of staff told me that 'staffing is a young person's game'. You get in, you do your time [and] usually you'll manage to put yourself in a pretty good position in corporate life," she wrote.

Ms Higgins said her relationships with Joe Kelly, son of The Australian editor-at-large Paul Kelly, and her fiance David Sharaz, a former journalist, gave her insights into the workings of the press gallery.

Ms Higgins described the "strange" lives of political journalists she met while dating Mr Kelly.

"Strange suspended existence of the 'lost boys' of Canberra. Living for the sitting weeks, renting small, dank apartments, drinking with staffers for scoops," she wrote.

Mr Sharaz was friends with staffers of ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, Ms Higgins wrote in reference to an "odd dinner date with David's friends".

News.com.au reporter Samantha Maiden published the first story about Ms Higgins' alleged rape. They met because Mr Sharaz was long-term friends with Maiden.

"As a long-term friend of David's I finally met her in person for dinner at her place. This is the moment, during our discussions where I decided that if I ever told my story, Sam would be the person to do it," Ms Higgins wrote.

She also calls former host of The Project, Lisa Wilkinson, and her partner Peter Fitzsimmons as "my temporary adopted parents".

Wilkinson interviewed Ms Higgins about her rape allegations on The Project. Mr Lehrmann is currently suing Network Ten for defamation over claims aired in that interview.

Other journalists were referred to in less-than-glowing terms in the unpublished book.

MORE DEFAMATION TRIAL COVERAGE: