Friends remember the life and career of the Adelaide woman who accused Attorney-General Christian Porter of rape

The many friends of the Adelaide woman allegedly raped by Christian Porter will continue the fight for justice, as they remember the positive influence she had.

A young woman full of promise, a champion debater, an individual haunted by inner demons and an alleged rape victim.

The Adelaide woman at the centre of criminal allegations against federal Attorney-General Christian Porter has this week been characterised as many things.

But above all, she was a loyal, loving and kind daughter, sister and friend to many.

It is for this reason that a powerful cohort of some of the country’s highest flyers have vowed not give up their fight for justice, nine months after her tragic death.

A circle of the woman’s friends – including a high-profile TV executive, fashion designer, writers, legal eagles, MPs as well as business and arts leaders – is today trying to help stop history being rewritten as they push for an independent inquiry.

Having excelled at an elite Adelaide college in the 1980s, the woman would have turned 50 last week but in June last year succumbed to her escalating mental-health problems.

This week, an alleged summer’s night incident more than 30 years ago between two teenagers has become a very public, national tragedy.

Her allegation, never formally detailed to police but relayed to friends and in a series of personal documents, was that Mr Porter, then 17, raped her as a 16 year-old at a national debating tournament in Sydney in January 1988.

Outing himself on Wednesday, Mr Porter, 50, denied the allegations, which he insisted “did not happen”.

Her death in Adelaide came a day after she told NSW Police that she was withdrawing her rape allegation. Their investigation has since closed.

SA Police are investigating the circumstances of her death for state Coroner David Whittle, who will consider a public inquest. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has ruled out a judicial-style inquiry. The eastern suburbs woman, who the Sunday Mail is not naming, was an academic and history expert, heavily involved in the arts.

Twice married, the second time a few months before her death, she was a historian for one of Adelaide’s top private schools, tutored and wrote research papers.

Her friends have pushed aside immense trauma, grief, and professional risk to pay tribute and push for justice.

Rick Kalowski: “She had such charisma, such an intellect and just the most amazing presence.”

“I feel such sadness, not only personally at losing such a good friend, but at a significant life snuffed out, as it were, at such a young age,” said university debating friend Rick Kalowski, 48, who until last year was the ABC’s head of comedy.

“She had such charisma, such an intellect and just the most amazing presence, and as a potential leader, I think, a future female prime minister.

“She was just a great woman – what can I say? Her friends are leaders in their respective fields but she was the best out of all of us.”

Mr Kalowski, a Sydney-based producer and screenwriter, was with the woman immediately after she visited NSW detectives.

COVID restrictions had prevented them from travelling to Adelaide.

He said while she was “up and down” in early 2020, “she was on that day of reporting, lucid and fierce in her determination to seek justice”.

Adamant she never recanted her claim, he said she had told him in May 2020 that she would only withdraw her complaint “if things became too unbearable and she had decided to end her life”.

Fashion designer Gwendolynne Burkin was a friend of the victim. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Leading Melbourne-based fashion designer, Gwendolynne Burkin, 49, wanted to pay a “lovely tribute to our valued friend”, who she went to school with in Adelaide.

Ms Burkin, who like many school friends reconnected with her a couple of years ago, said she was highly intelligent and bore no malice.

“I hope people will remember her for her happiness and that she was so inclusive,” she said.

“She particularly made such an effort to get all the girls from school back together from all the different groups, not just who she hung out with. She entertained us with her sharp memories of that time that she documented so well.”

Ms Burkin said she wanted to speak out about her friend in pursuit of justice for the alleged victim.

Close debating friends, Sunday Mail columnist Nick Ryan, 49, and head of Adelaide Writers’ Week, Jo Dyer, 50, have also gone public in tribute. Other high-profile friends include Macquarie Group senior managing director James Hooke, who dated the woman in the early 1990s, international clean-energy entrepreneur Danny Kennedy, and federal Labor MP Daniel Mulino.

Countless others have paid tribute but cannot speak publicly due to their sensitive jobs.

Nick Ryan was a close friend of the victim after meeting her in state debating circles in the 1980s.

Head of Adelaide Writers’ Week, Jo Dyer. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

Mr Ryan, who met the woman in state debating circles in the late 1980s, said her friends felt very strongly about a need for an independent inquiry.

“It is at considerable professional risk but no one is doing it to throw mud and see if it sticks,” Clare-based Mr Ryan said.

Her devastated Adelaide-based parents declined to comment but are said to have been cautious about the case’s impact on her mental wellbeing.

In a series of statements issued through the family’s lawyer, they laid bare their “considerable grief” and publicly backed “any inquiry” into their daughter’s death.

Both her former husband and widowed spouse were too distressed to speak. Having grown up in an unassuming middle-class family near her school, the woman’s academic prowess was clear. She excelled academically in humanities, drama, school choir, hockey, and public speaking. She was “everybody’s friend” and represented SA in the national final of Rostrum Voice of Youth, the public speaking competition for high school students.

She was also a once-in-a-generation debater, having a “mortgage” on the most challenging third speaker role, and made the South Australian team for three consecutive years. She was appointed SA captain in Year 12 aged 17, having secured a rare state berth in Year 10 and Year 11, before earning the coveted captaincy of the Australian schools debating team.

“There’s never an absolute interpretation of anything – you can always see another side,” the teenager told The Advertiser in an article on debating in 1988.

She captained Mr Ryan, Kamal Farouque and another woman, now a leading Sydney lawyer who was instrumental in her quest for justice.

Mr Farouque, 49, who is now an employment law partner with Maurice Blackburn firm in Melbourne, described her as “brilliant” and “phenomenally clever”.

“She was the cleverest of that generation,” he said. “She had great intellect, charisma and performance.”

Speaking on behalf of many school friends, Adelaide social worker Mel, 49, wept as she remembered their first meeting. “I was terrified as I didn’t know anybody at a new school and she basically bounded up to me like Tigger and was just so welcoming,” she said.

“I have never gotten over her influence, having thought ‘well, this is what a human can achieve, this is what a woman can achieve’ and I forget so often that she was only 16.”

For support, phone Lifeline 13 11 14.