Christian Porter thanks Peter Dutton and Peter Van Onselen for standing by him against ‘the mob’
Former Attorney-General Christian Porter has thanked his mates who stood by him against “the mob” in his final speech to Parliament.
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Former Attorney-General Christian Porter has bowed out of politics, thanking his mates who stood by him against “the mob” including Defence Minister Peter Dutton and Project co-host Peter Van Onselen.
In a valedictory speech to Parliament, Mr Porter has thanked his friends and family for their support after he was hit with a rape allegation - that he strenuously denied.
It dated back to a debating conference he attended in the 1980s as a teenager with the woman.
Mr Porter’s accuser, an Adelaide woman who claimed she was raped as a teenager after an encounter that started off consensually after a night out, died before ever lodging a signed statement with NSW police.
But the WA MP said no sexual activity took place that night. He later took mental health leave after the allegation emerged at the behest of friends of the woman after her death.
“The rule of the law is the antidote to the mob. And then I experienced a mob,’’ he said.
“People so utterly convinced in their own judgment that they didn’t need anything else, other than their own judgment,’’ he said.
“They thought they could just through any law, abandon any process that would get between them and the target of their judgment.
“In that experience, I saw the real truth of how critical the protection of the rule of the law is. And how fragile it is.”
The WA MP ultimately accepted a portfolio change in the wake of the allegation before resigning from the frontbench after refusing to disclose secret donors to a blind trust to pay for his legal fees in a defamation case against the ABC.
“I’ve got to say they were acts of courage that will stay with me for the rest of my life,” Mr Porter told Parliament.
“Very few people ever try and stand in the way of a mob. And I watched people - friends - put themselves between me and the mob.
“I can mention more but Peter van Onselen and Peter Dutton - knowing the risks better than any two people could possibly know the risks - they stated plain public support for me while the mob was in its full fury.
“While serving in this place, as well as seeing some of the awful sides of politics, I’ve had incredible support ... I’ve witnessed amazing courage and the defining power of true friendships. As a bit of a loner, I think I probably didn’t understand that when I first came to this place.”
Van Onselen, a political journalist and author who also writes for The Australian newspaper, came under fire after he published an account of the dead woman’s diaries that raised questions about her mental health and the allegations.
The journalist also came under fire after telling the ABC’s Insiders program that while he supported women coming forward with allegations on the “on the macro level” that it was another matter on “’the micro level, if it’s someone you know and they claim they’re innocent, boy, it’s a difficult issue.”
During his speech, Mr Porter said the tough times saw him age prematurely and he sometimes felt “lost in space” as controversies raged around him.
“The closer you get to the centre of things here, the more we age hard in dog years unfortunately,” he said.
“It’s genuinely like being near a black hole. The closer you get to the epicentre of government, the more years of experience you feel get compressed into months.
“Time actually runs strangely in Parliament House.
Mr Porter said that he was proud he had played a role in delivering a better GST deal to his home state of Western Australia.
“You’ve got to get as far in the tent as you possibly can, as close to the usually four or five people who can actually effect the change. Better still, become one of them. And in the end it requires massive ongoing grinding effort.
“When you leave a job that’s that intense you naturally ask yourself well, was it all worth it? And my own answer is absolutely yes.
“I succumbed in politics to the instinct to bite off more than I can chew and just chewed until I was exhausted.
“That’s not always a bad thing. Because time is always shorter than you think it will be. So biting off more than you can chew I think has its benefits.”
Originally published as Christian Porter thanks Peter Dutton and Peter Van Onselen for standing by him against ‘the mob’
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