Christian Porter denies historic rape allegation against him
Christian Porter warned a “new normal” of trial by social media was a threat to due process in Australia as he denied historical rape claims.
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Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter has strongly denied accusations he raped a 16-year-old girl in 1988, saying “what is being alleged did not happen”.
Mr Porter outed himself as the cabinet minister at the centre of the historical rape allegations that threw the government into turmoil, but refused to stand aside, saying he believed it would create a precedent and mean “there is no rule of law left to protect”.
In an emotional press conference, he said he would take several weeks’ leave for his mental health and is considering options around defamation action.
He described the allegations, in the media and online, as “the most wild, intense and unrestrained” accusations in modern Australian politics.
“Nothing in the allegations that have been printed ever happened,” he said.
“Prior to last Friday’s story… no one in law enforcement or the law or politics or the media ever put any substance or any specific allegations to me at all.”
During the 35-minute address, Mr Porter categorically denied the allegations, denied having sex with the complainant and said he had not heard from her in the 33 years since the alleged incident.
Calls for an independent inquiry from politicians and the complainant’s former lawyer are continuing, seeking to address the question over the nation’s first law officer and test the allegations.
South Australian coroner David Whittle said he was still seeking information and had yet to determine if there should be an inquest.
On Friday, reports first broke that a minister, now identified as Mr Porter, was the subject of claims alleging the rape of a 16-year-old dating back to 1988 when he was 17.
The woman who made the allegations raised the matter with NSW police in 2019, with a strike force set up for an investigation in February 2020, but it did not proceed as she died by suicide in June before signing any formal witness statement.
Mr Porter could not answer questions on why the woman made the detailed allegations, saying: “I don’t know what her circumstances were.”
The alleged events related to when Mr Porter, the complainant, and two others were in NSW as part of an Australian schools debating competition.
Mr Porter said he had few recollections of the time, mostly limited to a night at a college with a bowl of prawns, a formal dinner, dancing and a Hard Rock cafe.
He said he was never in the woman’s room and never had sex with her, saying it was “ridiculous” to suggest he could have forgotten the events detailed in the allegations against him had they taken place.
Mr Porter said that he had not spoken before now, as the NSW police investigation had not been closed until Tuesday.
“While I have followed the rules and stayed silent I have been subject to the most wild, intense and unrestrained series of accusations that I can remember in modern Australian politics,” he said.
“Maybe that’s the new normal. I hope for everyone’s sake it’s not.”
Mr Porter said he would not be stepping down.
“If I stand down from my position as attorney-general because of an allegation about something that simply did not happen, then any person in Australia can lose their career, their job, their life’s work based on nothing more than an accusation that appears in print,” he said.
“My guess is if I were to resign and that set a new standard, there wouldn’t be much need for an attorney-general anyway because there would be no rule of law left to protect in this country.”
While he said it was not up to him on whether there should be an independent inquiry, he said if one went ahead he would be “required to disprove something that didn’t happen 33 years ago”.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash will act as attorney-general in Mr Porter’s absence.
MR PORTER’S RECOLLECTION
■Mr Porter said he knew the woman “for the briefest periods at debating competitions”.
■The pair represented Australia at the World Schools Debating Championship at Sydney University in early 1988. “I was 17, the other person was 16.”
■There were two others in the team. “We were friends. We hung out together … I’d always remembered it as a happy time.”
■The complainant demonstrated how to iron a shirt for Mr Porter and two friends in their rooms at a university college.
■After a formal dinner for the debating tournament, the group went dancing at the Hard Rock Cafe.
■Mr Porter said: “I did not sleep with
the victim.”
■His last interaction with the woman was in January 1988.
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