By Aaron Bunch in Perth

Former foreign affairs minister Marise Payne has told a defamation trial the forcefulness of the political attacks on Senator Linda Reynolds following Brittany Higgins’ allegations about a cover-up is rarely seen in parliament.

Senator Reynolds is suing her former staffer Ms Higgins, claiming her reputation was damaged by a series of social media posts containing mistruths – including that she mishandled the response to the rape allegation.

Ms Payne told the Perth court the allegations made against Senator Reynolds through the media in 2021 put her under an “enormous amount of pressure” in the Senate chamber.

“A level of pressure that they have rarely seen before or since …and I found that she was so distressed and so upset by the assertions being made about her that she was struggling to represent and to respond to those questions as she previously would have been able to,” she told the West Australian Supreme Court on Tuesday.

“It is very hard to describe the pressure of the parliamentary chamber and the question time environment when you are specifically and aggressively targeted by your political opponents in that way.

“Knowing that some of the material was being misrepresented, in her view, made it even more difficult.”

Ms Payne said she was worried for her friend and colleague of 30 years.

“(Senator Reynolds) had a long-standing reputation for her interest in and support of women’s participation in the political process … any issues which raised questions about her commitment and her level of commitment in that way would obviously be concerning for her,” she said.

“The serious nature of the allegations made about the events of some years prior would be enormously distressing to hear.”

Ms Payne said the stress was so great that Senator Reynolds experienced “physical trauma … a combination of shaking and what I regarded as elevated breathing”.

“That was most unusual for the woman that I had known for three decades,” she said.

Ms Payne said she became “very concerned” about the senator’s “well-being and the state of her health and the impact that (the political) attacks were having on her”.

“It was deeply disturbing, deeply troubling to see your friend and colleague and appear in such a situation, and I think that was the overwhelming view of the majority of our friends and colleagues across the coalition party rooms,” she said.

Ms Payne also said she was “significantly concerned” by Ms Higgins’ alleged sexual assault in 2019 and her allegations against the Morrison government.

“Concern as a senior member of the government, concern that such alleged events might have taken place in the parliamentary workplace, and concern that a young woman who had been part of the staffing team,” she said.

“It was almost incomprehensible to me that such an appalling act could have taken place in our federal parliament … absolutely devastating for the individual concerned.”

Senator Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett raised concerns about a series of bot messages that are understood to have been published on the social media platform X.

Mr Bennett said some were about Senator Reynolds’ former chief of staff Fiona Brown being excused from giving evidence and appeared to be in contempt of court.

The court heard they were reportedly created by foreign state actors and some of the accounts were in Wyoming, New Jersey and Osaka.

Mr Bennett suggested that Justice Paul Tottle should issue a warning.

“A warning issued by this court into the Twittersphere to users may be of absolutely no useful purpose at all but that isn’t to say that I won’t give it,” Justice Tottle replied.

Brittany Higgins, who is defending the defamation claim, was expected to testify at the trial.

But her lawyer Rachael Young on Monday said she would not be attending due to her medical conditions and because she didn’t need to.

Brittany’s big surprise no surprise, it was hiding in plain sight