Jennifer Robinson On Amber Heard, Brittany Higgins & The Price Women Pay For Speaking Out
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How did Jennifer Robinson’s childhood and family influence her decision to become a lawyer?
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Everybody seemed to have a view that were Team Johnny or Team Amber, and even women I knew, uh I just found it astonishing that they could be so affected by this online by the by the manipulation of the online space. And when I sat down and spoke to women about it and they realized that I was personally involved and walked them through the facts, they were kind of horrified at themselves about the perception that they had adopted.
I had moments of that watching the film myself. Right. Yes. I I recognized it in myself. Hello, I'm Kate Langbrook, host of No Filter. Today's guest is Jennifer Robinson. Jeanne is one of Australia's most renowned human rights lawyers. She's represented people including Julian Assange and Amber Heard. and has spent much of her career using the law to push back against powerful institutions. Her new documentary Silenced looks at something Jen has witnessed happening to women around the world. After the Me Too movement encouraged women to break what she calls the cultural silence around violence and abuse. She began to see another kind of silencing emerge, with the law increasingly being used against women who dared to speak.
In this conversation, we talk about Amber Heard, Brittany Higgins, and the extraordinary personal cost women can pay for using their voices. We also talk about Gen Z representing Julian Assange. The grandmother who inspired her life's work, and what she's learnt about power, truth, and the people brave enough to challenge both. This is Jennifer Robinson. Jen Robinson. Welcome to No Filter. It's such an honour to have you. Um, I have seen a lot of you uh well, over the course of the last decade really, as a lot of Australians have. And I remember being struck by um I think it was particularly during uh Julian Assange's Troubles. Going. Vaguely, oh oh she's Australian. And you sure are. I am and very, very proudly so.
Yes. And you're from a town called Berrie in New South Wales. What what was Jennifer Robinson like growing up in Berrie?
Well, I grew up in a really big country family. My dad's the oldest of twelve kids. And so I lived this very kind of small town, country Australian life where I was surrounded by cousins. My dad trains racehorses, so there were horses everywhere. Uh and it was just this really pretty little country lifestyle. My dad trains racehorses on the beach, so I spent a lot of my time at Seven Mile Beach, which is still my favorite place in the world on the South Coast, and had this It's really I'd say quite idyllic. Childhood growing up in the countryside, surrounded by friends and cousins and horses and the beach and surf life saving. It was great. And so at at some
point you decided that you would be a lawyer?
I did, but you know what? Growing up on the South Coast, I didn't really know lawyers. My family most of my people, my family didn't have passports. We weren't wealthy, so we weren't travelling overseas. We didn't I didn't know a lawyer and I certainly didn't see women who were lawyers. So I didn't really know that the law was one an a an available career to me or nor did I see women doing it. So it wasn't something that I really thought much about as a teenager or at high school. And it when it w came to going to university, I Loved Indonesian studies at Bombado, Ohio. I'm a proud product of pro public education and, or Bomo, as we call it. And I wanted to go on and continue my Indonesian studies and do Asian studies at the ANU.
And I remember my parents were thinking, they're like, you cannot go to university and just do an arts degree. You've got to do something vocational. And so I chose law. And it was such a great decision.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Jennifer Robinson’s childhood and family influence her decision to become a lawyer?
0:00–8:37
2
What motivated Jennifer to take on the Amber Heard case and how did social media shape the trial?
8:37–18:03
3
Why does Jennifer describe the legal system as a tool that can punish women through defamation lawsuits?
18:03–26:48
4
How did the Amber Heard‑Johnny Depp defamation battle illustrate the weaponisation of law against women?
26:48–35:31
5
What were the key challenges and breakthroughs in the 14‑year fight to free Julian Assange?
35:31–43:38
6
Why does Jennifer consider Brittany Higgins’ story central to the global problem of silencing women?
43:38–52:22
7
What practical steps does Jennifer suggest to make it safer for women to speak out about abuse?
52:22–1:01:22
8
What projects and future goals does Jennifer have to continue fighting for women’s voices?
1:01:22–1:09:49
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from No Filter
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