In the oceanic commentary on the Bruce Lehrmann cases, little attention seems to have been given as to how he actually got into Senator Linda Reynolds' office in the first place.

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If he hadn't all could have been spared the terrible things that have happened as a consequence of his admission - the catastrophic ignominies he brought upon himself, the agonies of Brittany Higgins and the reputational injuries to many who've got within a bull's roar of the saga: Senator Reynolds and her chief of staff, the now former ACT public prosecutor Shane Drumgold, former judge Walter Sofronoff and the Seven Network and some of its unadmirable staff and on and on it goes.

Mr Lehrmann would have been employed under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act (the MOPS Act).

When it came into effect in 1984, that Act contained summary recruitment and dismissal procedures giving ministers (and other MPs) no-frills powers to employ staff.

Nevertheless, the public service minister at the time provided his colleagues with detailed........

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