Brittany Higgins said she regrets publicly calling out a political journalist who broke the story of her rape claims after she wrote a critical piece on Lisa Wilkinson.
Samantha Maiden published a story on Tuesday night claiming Wilkinson earned double the salary of her Today show co-host Karl Stefanovic for years at Nine.
But Ms Higgins, a former Liberal staffer who was allegedly raped by a colleague in Parliament House in March 2019, took issue with Ms Maiden's report.
'Pressing update in the midst of a sitting week from the political reporter of News,' Ms Higgins tweeted sarcastically alongside a link to the story.
Ms Higgins has since claimed she 'made a mistake' and that she should have personally approached Ms Maiden - who she once described as her 'hero' - rather than call her out on Twitter.
'I stand by my opinion but in hindsight it's something that I should have expressed to her (Maiden) personally and I can cop that,' she told The Australian.
'I was feeling a little impassioned but at the end of the day I have to delineate between the fact that I have a different profile, I can't just comment freely on things in the same way that I would have before.'
Brittany Higgins said she regrets publicly calling out a political journalist who broke the story of her rape claims after she wrote a piece on Lisa Wilkinson
Samantha Maiden wrote a story claiming Stefanovic earned half the salary co-host Lisa Wilkinson did for 'years' - drawing criticism from Ms Higgins
Entertainment reporter Peter Ford was quick to question why Ms Higgins appeared to be condemning Ms Maiden - who was the first journalist to publish her rape claims - in the initial tweets.
'Wasn't Samantha (Maiden) your original champion in breaking your story? Then Lisa (Wilkinson) gave it TV exposure?' Mr Ford asked.
'Is there anything specifically you object to in the report? Or just that someone presented details Lisa didn't?'
Ms Higgins hit back, writing: 'Yes, Sam facilitated me in being able to speak publicly about my assault.'
'At the same time, we had a major difference of opinions about the role of journalists calling out bad behaviour particularly around the Kunkel Review.'
The Kunkel Review was an internal investigation carried out by the Prime Minister's chief of John Kunkel into reports that members of Parliament were 'backgrounding' against her partner David Sharaz in the days after her rape allegations were aired.
That investigation found no concrete evidence of any such behaviour, something Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz reject and believe political reporters failed in questioning.
'She did a brilliant job reporting my experience however that doesn't require me to agree with everything she writes in perpetuity,' Ms Higgins said of Ms
