The girlfriend of former Australian Border Force boss Roman Quaedvlieg has suffered stress and anxiety after being dragged into the stoush between him and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, says her lawyer.
Sarah Jane Rogers did not appear in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday, but her lawyer Bryan Wrench entered not guilty pleas to charges related to her giving evidence to the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity about her employment.
The 23-year-old is charged with two counts of giving false or misleading evidence on June 29, 2017 and one of disclosing the existence of or information about a summons to another person between June 26 and June 29, 2017.
Mr Quaedvlieg, 53, was sacked in March for abusing his power by helping his partner get a job at Sydney Airport.
Mr Wrench told the court Rogers was told in 2017 she would face charges but has “spent about a year in the dark” until she was handed a court attendance notice in August 2018.
“She has been under a lot of stress and anxiety at this stage,” he said.
Her partner and Mr Dutton had been involved in a “public stoush” and the minister had mentioned her in that stoush, the lawyer said.
On September 12, Mr Dutton used parliamentary privilege to accuse the former ABF chief of grooming a woman 30 years younger than him while in the role after Labor quizzed the MP over claims he pushed for two Queensland police officers to secure jobs at the agency.