Joe from what I read she disclosed to Minister Reynolds soon after the alleged rape happened, so its not a case of first raising the issue two years after the alleged rape. After consulting Reynolds she opted to withdraw the complaint she had already lodged with police.
"Ms Higgins says she was raped in March, 2019, by another staffer of Senator Reynolds in the Defence Minister’s office after security guards let them into the building late the previous night.The former Liberal staffer this week told of her distress when Senator Reynolds and the Minister’s then-acting chief of staff, Fiona Brown, set up a meeting on April 1 about the matter in the same room where the alleged rape took place."
disallowed/politics/federal/deeply-sorry-defence-minister-forced-to-explain-rape-allegation-response-20210218-p573ra.html'Higgins says she was raped on the evening of 22 March 2019 on a couch in Reynolds’ ministerial office. The Department of Parliamentary Services has confirmed the suite was cleaned on the afternoon of 23 March after a request from the finance department.Brittany Higgins: who knew what, and when, about the alleged rape at Parliament HouseRead moreThe alleged attack was initially flagged as a security incident and Reynolds has said the staffer who is alleged to have assaulted Higgins had his employment terminated for a “security breach”.Guardian Australia has been told the security incident report from DPS was withheld initially from the Australian federal police, despite multiple requests, and was only provided after the police escalated inquiries.DPS responded to a question about the handling of the incident report by stating: “The relevant reports of the incident were handed to the AFP at their request in April 2019.”This means the report went to police in the month after the alleged assault.
Higgins spoke with the Parliament House police unit on 26 March but withdrew her initial complaint on 13 April 2019;
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/18/linda-reynolds-refuses-to-say-if-payout-was-withheld-from-staffer-alleged-to-have-raped-brittany-higgins
