Audio excerpt – James Valentine:

“Her last guest, young media student Taylor arrives, and everyone's pleased to see him because it means they can all finally get a drink.”

ANGE:

In 2010, a 19-year-old Taylor Auerbach was working at a community radio station, trying to make his way into the media.

Audio excerpt – Hosts of Come Dine with Me:

“Cheers! Cheers! Where did that come from?”

ANGE:

And one of the first ways he tried was by appearing on a reality TV show, where contestants battle to host the best dinner party.

Audio excerpt – Taylor Auerbach:

“Yeah look, these are on the overcooked side. There's nothing I can do about it now, no point worrying. And let's just hope they don't notice.”

ANGE:

And in one moment, he tells the producers why he’ll be good on the show.

Audio excerpt – Taylor Auerbach:

“I love arguing with people. The drama of it, the theatre of a good fight at the dinner party, at the dinner table, is something that I relish.”

[Theme Music Starts]

ANGE:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ange McCormack. This is 7am.

Former Channel 7 producer Taylor Auerbach has given extraordinary evidence at Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial against Channel 10.

His evidence is significant enough that the judge sensationally reopened the case, and it could impact the final verdict – but it has also led to explosive allegations that ask questions of the entire Australian media.

So what has Auerbach alleged and why has he come forward now?

Today, senior reporter for The Saturday Paper Rick Morton, on the three men who are now at the centre of the Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case.

It’s Tuesday, April 9.

[Theme Music Ends]

ANGE:

Rick, in the past week, the entire country has been pretty absorbed by the conduct of some Australian TV producers, which has come to light during Bruce Lehrmann's defamation trial against Channel 10. To begin with, can you tell me who they are?

RICK:

We're talking about three men here, really, who until very recently, they all worked together at Channel 7 on their Sunday night current affairs show Spotlight. And the first man you kind of need to know is Steve Jackson.

Now, Jackson had been a minor celebrity inside Australian media circles, particularly in Sydney, for an incident that happened in 2006 that has become kind of almost mythical and in fact a folklore. But it is real. And it really did happen. And it happened at the Evening Star Hotel in Surry Hills, which colloquially was known as the Evil Star, which is one of the pubs in this kind of Bermuda Triangle around News Corporation's Holt street bunker. And so there were these regular knock off drinks. And Jackson, who was at the time a sub editor with the Daily Telegraph, got into an argument with a former Daily Telegraph crime reporter Stephen Gibbs, who was actually a crime reporter at the Sydney Morning Herald at that time, and they were all drinking into the early hours with a bunch of other journos. And Gibbs allegedly told Jackson that he was a 'poofter'. Now we don't know any, you know, some theories say that Jackson had told Gibbs that his writing was shit and his copy with terrible, etc., etc.. But what we do know, after that is that according to one retelling of this story, Gibbs left and returned to the pub with a gun, and kind of held it to Jackson's stomach and threatened him. Now, part of the reason this has gone down in folklore is that the police were never able to go through with prosecution. Eventually, there was a weapons charge, possessing a prohibited weapon. That was eventually dropped. Other journalists at the pub that night didn't see anything. But even later, the assault charge was dropped because, and I'm not... I wish I was kidding, but the lawyers essentially argued that everybody was too drunk and nobody remembered anything. But it did go through the courts, up until that point. So that's how we know about all of this stuff, right? And so very shortly after that, the case winds through the courts for almost a year. And in 2007, at the end of that year, Jackson goes off to the UK. He gets jobs at The Daily Mirror and then at The Guardian, of all places, and then returns to Australia, where he's made chief of staff of the News Corp's Sunday Telegraph, which is their prize Sunday paper and then eventually head of news at both the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph. So really big, kind of, job that straddled the entire output of the the biggest papers in Sydney for News Corp at the time. And of course, Jacko, as he's known to everyone, goes off again to work for Spotlight on Channel 7, where he eventually becomes the supervising producer of the first ever television sit down interview with Bruce Lehrmann. And this is where we get to the second character in this story who, alongside Jackson on that assignment is the more junior producer, Taylor Auerbach. And of course, he's now testifying at the Lehrmann trial to throw this case back open into whether Bruce Lehrmann had been defamed by Channel 10's The Project. And that, of course, is dragging a third character in this story, their boss, Mark Llewellyn, the executive producer of Spotlight.

ANGE:

Rick, what is it that Taylor Auerbach had to say about that interview that has sensationally reopened this trial, and why is he saying it now?

RICK:

I think that's a very good question, and it's probably worth starting with the why. Auerbach and Jackson, until very recently, were not just friends, but very close friends. They worked extremely closely together. By some accounts, it was Jackson that helped Taylor Auerbach get the cadetship that started his career at the Daily Telegraph in around 2010. And because Auerbach had, you know, he was quite desperately so, wanting to be a journalist. He was a journalism student when he was on, in 2010, a featured contestant on the competitive dinner party show on Foxtel called Come Dine With Me, where he hosted a rock n roll themed dinner party.

Audio excerpt – James Valentine:

“Filing his first report is journalism student, Taylor Auerbach. Taylor hates seafood, but he thinks he can liven up dinner.”

RICK:

We learn a few things about Auerbach, which is he's already itching for a fight in this episode because he says he loves the theatre of the fight at the dinner party, at the dinner table, and that he really, really... he's like 18 at this point, 18 or 19. He really, really, really loves Elvis Presley, and Elvis might be the love of his life.

Audio excerpt – Taylor Auerbach:

“Elvis Presley is my man. I love his music, I love his movies, because he sings in it. I can call him a good looking man without being worried about my sexuality as well. So he is the love of my life.”

RICK:

Now, eventually this kind of proximity to the limelight, you know, led him into Jackson's arms, and Jackson becomes this mentor to Taylor Auerbach. They are kind of two peas in a pod. And actually, you know, I used to work at News Corp. I should probably declare the fact that I've worked at News Corp. And they were inseparable. And according to a former colleague at the time who worked with both of them, you know, Auerbach was the guy that would do anything for a story. Nothing was too shameless or shame inducing. And they said, you know, anything you asked him, he'd do it, and he almost always delivered it. And they said, as long as he didn't break any actual laws, we didn't ask too many questions about his methods. It was just, did you get the yarn? Great. And it seems that approach kind of characterised Auerbach and Jackson's pursuit of this interview with Bruce Lehrmann. Now, Auerbach now alleges that courting Bruce Lehrmann for an interview became a sort of win at all costs situation, for both him and Steve Jackson. You know, they were trying to please their bosses at Seven, which involved, you know, golf trips to Tasmania, to kind of consort with Bruce Lehrmann. There were dinners and lunches and tickets to sporting events. And it kind of all culminated, maybe not chronologically, but certainly in terms of intensity and pressure, in this massive night out in Sydney, this is in early January 2023. And then, of course, Bruce Lehrmann and John McGowan, who's a kind of conservative right wing political fixer, he makes problems go away and also creates them, according to his bio and Twitter, they all go back to the Meriton Apartments in Sydney in Pitt Street. And Bruce Lehrmann immediately, according to Auerbach's testimony, starts talking about ordering sex workers to the premises. And we actually had text messages from Auerbach to Steve Jackson going, Bruce is on the warpath. It's fucked. And he's texting Steve Jackson going essentially, help, what do I do? And of course, that night cost $10,000. And then that's where we get some of the claims from Auerbach that Channel 7 transferred at least some of that money via per diem or slash pre-production costs to keep Bruce Lehrmann happy. But as things transpired, the relationship between Steve Jackson and Tyler Auerbach completely breaks down, like, completely. To the point where Auerbach is asked on the stand, about his old friend, you hate him, don't you, teve Jackson? To which Auerbach responded, yes, I do indeed. Yes, sir, I do. And the reason we are now even talking about any of this, and the fact that Auerbach is even before the court, is because Steve Jackson got a job for $300,000 a year, as the police commissioner's chief spin doctor. Karen Webb in New South Wales, she'd gone through two spin doctors, she'd recently fired a former News Corp editor, Liz Deegan, and then she'd hired Steve Jackson. And Steve Jackson told his colleagues he'd resigned at Spotlight. He told his colleagues that he was going to work for the commissioner. And then, of course, that starts to get reported. And it raises eyebrows because, Steve Jackson has led an interesting career. And Auerbach, by all accounts, starts backgrounding against his former friend, who's now sworn enemy, to kill off that job prospect and in the process of doing that, mentions some of the things that they engaged in to get the Bruce Lehrmann story. And then Bruce Lehrmann says it didn't happen, it was a bizarre story concocted by a disgruntled former Spotlight producer. And then Taylor Auerbach says, all right then, I'm going to get a defamation lawyer. And I'm also going to submit multiple affidavits to your court case for Channel 10 in their bid to reopen this thing. And it worked.

ANGE:

And Rick these allegations, the many extensive allegations we've just been talking about, about how Channel 7 secured this interview with Bruce Lehrmann, they're obviously really explosive. How high did knowledge of these allegations go at the network, and what do we know about what else was going on at Channel 7?

RICK:

Yeah, I mean, this blows my mind and I've been around a bit. So this is where our third character enters the story. This is Mark Llewellyn. He was brought in as the executive producer of Spotlight. Now, it should be kind of noted that Llewellyn has denied all wrongdoing in relation to the Lehrmann interview, as has Channel 7, and they've said that some of Taylor Auerbach's allegations are completely fabricated, and that Llewellyn has said he plays the journalism game hard, but never at the expense of the truth. But what is clear is that Llewellyn was central to the network's pursuit of this interview with Lehrmann. And Llewellyn flew with Auerbach to Tasmania on that trip to play golf with Bruce Lehrmann, which is where Taylor Auerbach alleges that he was given some of the material from the criminal trial by Bruce Lehrmann. And most disturbingly, the reason why this is now relevant to this defamation trial, is that Auerbach alleges that Mark Llewellyn was involved in obtaining the 2300 pages of Higgins personal text messages, the diary entries, etc.. Which has been a key part of the trial because no one has been able to prove who leaked these text messages to Channel 7. And that's important, because all of this stuff was handed over to Bruce Lehrmann's legal team and Bruce Lehrmann, as part of the normal procedure in a criminal trial. Of course, if you are the defendant, you have access to this material so you can mount a case.
But according to the Harmon principle, and, kind of most of the traditional interpretations of the law, that material cannot be used in any other way. It cannot prejudice the person. You can't just use criminal proceedings, whether you're the accused or not, to gain access to personal information about some civilian, and then leak it to the press. It can't be done. And yet on the laptop screen, which Taylor Auerbach alleges Mark Llewellyn photographed private text messages from Brittany Higgins to Peter Fitzsimons about her book deal, which were only available in the criminal evidence that wasn't necessarily tendered in court. Now, if this allegation is proven to be true, then it implicates both Llewellyn and Lehrmann.

ANGE:

After the break, what Taylor Auerbach’s allegations mean for the looming outcome of Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial.

[Advertisement]

ANGE:

Rick, this case is about the original story that aired of Brittany Higgins' claim that she had been raped at Parliament House. That first story, which Bruce Lehrmann has always denied and is now suing Channel 10 over, how exactly does this new evidence fit into or kind of alter that, and what's at stake here?

RICK:

Auerbach has now become a sort of star witness for Channel 10, because his evidence goes both to Bruce Lehrmann's integrity and honesty, which is central to a defamation trial, which has to test the reputation in good standing of that applicant, in order to decide whether he's even got a reputation, right? But it's evidence goes to several points, really. First of all, the allegation of whether or not Lehrmann handed over the documents that he shouldn't have Channel 7, which Bruce Lehrmann denied in evidence under questioning from Lisa Wilkinson's barrister, Sue Chrysanthou, he said no, I only gave them an interview. So that would be an enormous breach of his oath for a start. Now secondly, the allegation that he made illicit demands of 7 in their courtship of him for an interview further goes to Bruce Lehrmann's integrity. And so we're now expecting a judgement in a defamation trial between Bruce Lehrmann and Channel 10, and Lisa Wilkinson, and the judge will have to rule on not only whether Channel 10 discharged its duties properly and that what it aired, which was an interview with Brittany Higgins, which never named Bruce Lehrmann but which could have identified him and which subsequently he was named in other media reports after the fact, whether that interview was substantially true or substantially false. And if it was substantially true, whether it was covered or not, substantially true whether it was covered by qualified privilege. But whether those allegations could reasonably believe to be about Bruce Lehrmann, and whether or not those allegations actually damaged his reputation. And that's the key decision now which we're awaiting. I think the court case... Well, certainly it's been closed again for decision. And barring any other major twists and turns, we will get a decision soon.

ANGE:

And, yeah, this trial is about Bruce Lehrmann's reputation, but I feel like the further along we get the reputations of media networks, especially Channel 7 and the Spotlight programme, are really on the line here. It feels like this trial is kind of turning into a fight between Network 7 versus Network 10. Just to go back to that, I'm wondering how is 7 handling this very unflattering publicity that's on them now?

RICK:

I mean, they're in damage control, both the Spotlight programme and the network in general. So Channel 7 were issued with two subpoenas as part of the defamation trial by Channel 10, the moment that they watched or their lawyers watched the Spotlight programme. And then the moment they watched the second Spotlight programme, there were two with Bruce Lehrmann, and in both cases, they were hit with subpoenas for all documents and information that might be relevant to the defamation proceeding. Now, Channel 7, in what was a six month courtship of Bruce Lehrmann, contended that there was only a single text message exchange relating to that between their employees, and they handed over, after much fighting, the deed and the contract for the interview itself, which they really couldn't pretend didn't exist. Which is how we found out that they had agreed to pay a year's worth of Bruce Lehrmann's rent, which was worth more than $100,000, which was never disclosed. So that stuff was handed over, but what we've now found out because of Auerbach’s intervention was that Bruce McWilliam wrote to the court in an affidavit, last week or the week before, and he's Kerry Stokes right hand man, who's always been there through thick and thin. And he says, oh, okay. Yes. So we didn't do any searches of our internal email service, because Mark Llewellyn told us, he gave us an untested assurance, that there was nothing to find. So we didn't do any searches. So Channel 7 didn't hand over stuff that they were legally required to. And Kerry Stokes is the chairperson of Seven West Media. And is no doubt furious, reportedly, about the allegations and Spotlight is under review at the highest level, there were emergency meetings between executives the moment these allegations started coming out. But now, of course, we've got Steve Jackson, who's out of two jobs. Lost the police commissioner job because of his friendship with Auerbach that soured, and he's resigned from Channel Seven already. He's probably not gonna get that one back. So that is gone. Auerbach’s career is over for now, at least, unless he pivots back into cooking shows. Mark Llewellyn and 7 were in emergency talks late last week. It's hard to see how anything good comes out of that. And, you know, just if you step back and try and fit it all in to view, the carnage of this alleged incident between Brittany Higgins and Bruce Lehrmannn is absolutely, absolutely staggering and gobsmacking.

ANGE:

And finally, Rick, you know, as someone who's worked in the media for some time, what do you think people should take away from what's been alleged here? I guess when it comes to the approach of people in mainstream journalism, is this an aberration or kind of the norm?

RICK:

You know, every journalist, you know, it's very easy for someone to kind of sit here like me and just be like, oh yes, naughty, naughty. But I do think it is required of all of us to have a long, hard think about what we actually do and why we do it.

I'm torn about all of this. I still think journalism can be good, but increasingly I see even kind of mild and sort of inoffensive versions of journalism just being like, well, what are you? What's the point? You know, you know, even just, you know, in a completely anodyne world where people are chasing exclusives, and their not even important exclusives, they're just like, I managed to report this piece of information about this program first, or this kind of manoeuvring in Parliament, I reported first, but only by an hour, and then everyone else reported it. But I got the exclusives, so that's what matters. It's like, it's just... it's bullshit. Like it doesn't matter.

And I'm... again, I'm not sitting here as someone who's better than that. It sounds like I'm having a crisis of confidence, which I am. I don't know that the culture is... it's certainly, you know, the Wild West days seem to be over, or at least I thought they were. The days of the staggering long lunches are vanishingly rare these days. But you can still have these cultures bubble up and you still do the kind of winner takes all, no holds barred, do everything you can to get the story. And it's distasteful. It's really... it leaves a bad taste.

ANGE:

Rick, thanks so much for speaking with me today.

RICK:

Thanks, Ange. It's always a pleasure.

[Advertisement]

[Theme Music Starts]

ANGE:

Also in the news today…

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has already hit out at the federal government review into supermarket prices, saying the appointment of former Labor ministers Craig Emerson and Wayne Swan meant he believed the final report would be dictated by current treasurer Jim Chalmers.

In a press conference yesterday he branded it a quote, “Mickey-mouse review.”

And,

Reports indicate that 17 homes have been left uninhabitable after flooding on the east coast over the weekend.

The Australian associated press reported flood damage was particularly bad around the Hawkesbury area of NSW, leading 800 people to be under an evacuation order, and more than 60 homes damaged.

I’m Ange McCormack, this is 7am. Thanks so much for listening. We’ll be back again tomorrow.

[Theme Music Ends]