Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been questioned over whether he planned with Brittany Higgins to pressure the Coalition over her allegation of rape inside Parliament House, which was never proven.
The Australian has reported Ms Higgins and her partner David Sharaz planned with journalist Lisa Wilkinson and her producer Angus Llewellyn to recruit friendly politicians to pursue their case, naming Mr Albanese, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher and Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek as potential allies.
In text messages between the couple, published by The Australian, Mr Sharaz claims that Mr Albanese gave him his number and offered to fly to Canberra to meet Ms Higgins and that Senator Gallagher was "really invested", with Ms Higgins suggesting they "feed everything" to the senator so that she could grill the government at senate estimates.
Ms Plibersek has denied any involvement, and Senator Gallagher rejected the suggestion of her involvement on ABC Radio yesterday.
"I've been very clear with those that are reporting this story about my responsibilities," Senator Gallagher said.
"Particularly it's been raised in relation to a settlement or a compensation package in relation to Miss Higgins and that I had absolutely no role in that at all."
The ABC has not seen the text message conversations, which came from material produced during the investigation of Bruce Lehrmann over Ms Higgins' claim.
Mr Lehrmann's trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct last year. There are no findings against him.
Asked at a press conference this morning whether he or other Labor MPs worked with the Higgins camp to further her case, Mr Albanese suggested he had not met with Ms Higgins privately.
"I don't take advice from - I had not met Brittany Higgins until I met her publicly on the same day she met Scott Morrison," Mr Albanese said.
Mr Albanese flatly denied coordinating with Ms Higgins to The Australian, and told reporters he had full confidence Senator Gallagher had acted appropriately.
While it is commonplace for journalists to discuss issues of policy with politicians, the concern in this case is whether politicians weaponised a potentially criminal matter for political gain.
The opposition has also challenged the government's decision to settle a compensation claim by Ms Higgins, without her former bosses Michaelia Cash and Linda Reynolds being able to participate.
Senator Reynolds said she would consider referring that issue to the National Anti-Corruption Commission when it begins operating next month.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the compensation case had been handled to the letter of the law.
"This decision, which I made, was made in exactly the same way as attorneys-general for many, many years," he said.
"It was an entirely regular decision, Linda Reynolds can do whatever she likes, anyone is free to make a referral to the National Anti-Corruption Commission."
Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said there remained unanswered questions about the MPs who were named in the media.
"People like Katy Gallagher and Tanya Plibersek and the prime minister have some real questions to answer here," Mr Taylor told Sky News.
"They should be up front about the answers to those questions."
Independent MP Dai Le said she was not satisfied with the government's answers so far.
"This is politics, right, and the opposition, now the government, will be always looking for things to use as a weapon against the government of the day," Ms Le said.
"They were advocating for this case a lot, and I think there's a political involvement, it's been politicised, it's been weaponised and we got distracted away from what the issue is.
"Somebody has to answer for it."