Peta Credlin: Labor Party is playing the game of double standards

Labor wants an inquiry into whether Christian Porter is a fit to be Attorney-General and it’s impossible to miss the double standards.

This hasn’t been a great week for the reputation of our political class with a minister anonymously accused of rape and more argy-bargy over another minister’s handling of an alleged rape in her office.

But it’s been an even worse week for the rule of law and the fundamental principle of justice that says an accused is innocent until proven guilty.

Because NSW Police has said the woman at the centre of claims against Morrison government minister Christian Porter did not want to proceed and there is no admissible evidence on which a conviction could be secured; and because the South Australian coronial inquiry could only look at the circumstances of the woman’s death last year — not at what might have happened 33 years ago — Labor now wants another inquiry into whether Porter is a fit and proper person to be the Attorney-General.

Given the lack of admissible evidence it’s hard to see how Porter’s appearance could be anything other than a name-blackening exercise. If there is no admissible evidence on which to secure a conviction, Porter is innocent. Simple as that.

And requiring him to prove that he’s innocent of a troubled person’s claim against him from many years earlier — simply because he’s a conservative minister in a centre-right government — would be a monstrous perversion of the principle that everyone is equal before the law.

An emotional Christian Porter during his press conference. Picture: Stefan Gosatti/AFP

It’s impossible to miss the Labor Party’s double standards here.

In 2014, then-opposition leader Bill Shorten faced a similar claim of rape. The Prime Minister at the time, Tony Abbott, made it very clear to colleagues and staff that he would not tolerate the Shorten investigation being politicised.

The media kept away from it too, and when the matter was not proceeded with by police because of the lack of admissible evidence, Labor insisted “that was that”.

Even Malcolm Turnbull, the man now most insistent that Porter must go and the-then communications minister, dripped with sympathy.

Porter’s problem is that between then and now he refused Turnbull’s demand as PM to advise the governor-general that a leadership rival (Peter Dutton) was ineligible to sit in the parliament by way of section 44.

And the rest is history.

In 2014, Labor’s Bill Shorten faced rape allegations. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

But if the behaviour of the government’s habitual critics has been unworthy, even contemptible, sections of the media — who circled Porter like hungry sharks this week — have been just as bad, circulating “anonymous” documents and arguing for an extrajudicial course of action they never sought in the Shorten case.

Then there’s the extraordinary spectacle of the chief executive of law firm Minter Ellison, Annette Kimmett, advising 2500 staff by email that Porter’s engagement of the firm to advise on potential defamation had “triggered hurt” in her so she apologised to staff for any “pain” they might have felt.

Alongside the right to a presumption of innocence is another fundamental principle of justice — that everyone is entitled to a defence.

Yet here’s the head of one of our biggest legal firms saying lawyers needn’t act for people they don’t like or in circumstances they find distasteful. Does this mean no one accused of a sexual offence could be represented by her firm?

At least the Minter Ellison partners seem to understand the significance of what their non-lawyer chief executive has done and have launched a review.

But how did it ever get to this in the first place at one of the country’s largest law firms?

I’ve heard commentators claim this is a women’s issue. But that’s a simplistic as those who argue women vote according to gender — and they don’t; any basic analysis of candidates and election outcomes shows that.

Women care as much about justice as men do. And while women understand the failure of sexual abuse victims to be heard in the past, we are also the mothers, sisters, daughters, wives and friends of good men.

And because of that, we refuse to allow the rule of law to be diminished — because that, in the end, diminishes us all.

Watch Peta Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm