In a bizarre two-minute press conference on Monday,Auerbach also complained that he had featured in numerous adverse stories about the controversial appointment of his former colleague and one-time close friend,Steve Jackson,to run media affairs for NSW Police and its embattled commissioner,Karen Webb.
Former Sky News producer Taylor Auerbach leaves his Elizabeth Bay home before giving a press conference.James Brickwood
With a stained shirt and shaking hands,Auerbach called the media to a park near his harbourside apartment in the affluent Elizabeth Bay on Monday afternoon.
He had been an investigations producer at Sky News Australia until Friday,when he was dismissed by the News Corp-owned broadcaster.
However,reports at the weekend suggested he had also lost his job at Seven over an expense scandal at the investigations programSpotlight,which he left in August last year. Jackson also worked atSpotlight before his appointment last week as the executive director of public affairs for NSW Police.
Jackson has been the subject of intense media scrutiny since he was handed the job,with questions emerging over his suitability for the role.
But the sub-plot of the saga has been the bitter public falling out between Jackson and Auerbach.
The pair were once close but have fallen out over their time atSpotlight and in particular the circumstances surrounding the program’s controversial 2023 interview with Lehrmann,whose criminal trial for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins had earlier collapsed due to juror misconduct. Lehrmann has always denied wrongdoing.
“Over recent days I have been contacted repeatedly by members of the media from print,radio and television regarding the appointment of Steve Jackson to a senior public servant role advising NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb on media,” Auerbach said.
“Last week various stories and rumours emerged about Mr Jackson and me. They took on a life of their own and I can sum much of it up as gossip.”
One of the most controversial issues to arise over recent days was claims of a $3000 payment charged to a Seven corporate credit card for a Thai masseuse service in November 2022 as part of the bid to secure the exclusive interview with Lehrmann.
Lehrmann has denied using the services. In a statement last week,Lehrmann said the allegations were “an untrue and bizarre story from a disgruntled ex-Network Seven producer”.
On Monday,Auerbach said of that statement:“Mr Lehrmann very quickly issued a denial about the story...”
“I would like to make it abundantly clear that I reject Mr Lehrmann’s accusations. That’s all I can say for the time being.”
Former Sky News and former Seven Spotlight journalist Taylor AuerbachSky News
It was not clear whether Auerbach was criticising Lehrmann for saying the masseuse experience did not occur,or whether he was taking issue with being described as a “disgruntled ex-Network Seven producer”.
Auerbach left abruptly without taking questions from journalists seeking clarification over his remarks.
During his press conference,Auerbach claimed reports he had been “counselled and given a written warning” over the expenses saga and that he had lost his job recently over reports about the incident were “inaccurate”.
Jackson,who was not present on the night the Thai masseuses were charged to the Seven credit card,reportedly told Auerbach to reverse the transactions and pay cash instead. He texted Auerbach with a Google translation for how to say in Thai,“I’ll pay you cash instead.”
Spotlight ran its exclusive interview with Lehrmann titled “Trial and Error” in June 2023.
The interview was a finalist in the Walkley Awards for Scoop of the Year but the nomination was rescinded when details emerged in a separate court that Seven had a financial deal with the former staffer that involved paying Lehrmann’s rent for a year,worth an estimated $100,000.
Amid a backlash from the police force and members of the media over Jackson’s hiring,photographs began circulating last week of Auerbach and Jackson at the apartment of a former Sydney socialite on December 24,2019.
TheHerald has chosen not to name the woman. In one photograph,Jackson is sitting on a beige lounge nursing a beer and the woman is next to him with no clothes on. There is no sexual activity in the images. In another image,Jackson is aiming his phone camera towards the woman while she is naked against a wall.
Last week the woman claimed the two men were now “weaponising” her troubled history by leaking photos of the evening. “This story isn’t about me,it’s about men behaving badly,” she posted on X.
The photos have since made their way to NSW Police,who say they have “been provided with information which is currently being reviewed as part of the employment process”.
Asked to comment on Saturday,Auerbach told theHerald:“Jacko is like an iceberg. Ninety per cent of what he does you don’t see. But I do,and all I really need to say is that my lawyers have been engaged.”