Former attorney-general Christian Porter wants to strike out ‘entire’ defence, court told
A lawyer for the ABC in a major defamation case claims former attorney-general Christian Porter is attempting to throw out their entire case.
Former attorney-general Christian Porter’s blockbuster defamation case against the ABC and a journalist could go to a hearing as early as October, a court has been told.
During a case management hearing on Friday, a lawyer for the ABC told the court that Mr Porter was effectively trying to strike out the “entire” defence with his latest application, which would affect the public’s ability to be informed of how the proceedings would be defended.
A lawyer acting for Mr Porter – who was stripped of his portfolio in a cabinet reshuffle earlier this year – claimed her client was forced to stand aside after the public broadcaster and journalist Louise Milligan reported a historic rape allegation made against him. Mr Porter was not named by the ABC at the time.
Mr Porter claims the ABC and Ms Milligan identified him and accused him of raping a teenage girl in the 1980s.
His legal team has asked the court to strike out parts of the ABC’s defence and ensure others are kept confidential. That strikeout application will be heard next Friday.
On Friday, barrister Renee Enbom QC, acting for the ABC and Ms Milligan, told the court that striking out the schedules would be unfair as it would “effectively strike out the entire defence”.
Ms Enbom also said it was inconsistent with the principles of open justice that the public be denied access to 25 of 37 pages of the ABC’s defence filed on Tuesday night. The court is keeping them under wraps for now.
Barrister Dauid Sibtain, representing News Corp Australia and Nine Newspapers, indicated that both organisations, who are not party to proceedings, would press the court to release all relevant documents to the public at the earliest opportunity.
“The effect of Mr Porter’s position is that the public would not be informed of the way the ABC and Ms Milligan put defence to the claim because they won’t have the schedules,” Ms Enbom said.
She said the move would affect how the proceedings were reported and the information that would be publicly available on the Federal Court website.
Ms Enbom said the schedules contained specific responses to the allegations and detailed “an enormous” amount of work that went into the publications.
She said there was a “substantial truth defence” the ABC could put forward and up to 15 witnesses could be called.
Sue Chrysanthou SC, counsel for Mr Porter, said a hearing date could be set down in September or October. The court was told the trial could go for six weeks.
She argued it was of “significant importance” for the case to be heard this year.
The case will return to the Federal Court for further hearing on the strikeout application next Friday.
Mr Porter’s legal action relates to an article that reported a letter had been sent to Prime Minister Scott Morrison containing a historical allegation of rape against a serving cabinet minister.
The woman at the centre of the allegation took her own life last year, shortly after telling police she did not want to proceed with the complaint.
Mr Porter strenuously denies the allegation.
He later fronted cameras identifying himself as the cabinet minister at the centre of the allegation.
Mr Porter’s lawyers have argued he would have been “readily identifiable” as the article’s subject, and he had suffered “substantial hurt, distress and embarrassment”.
The legal action also relates to an article published in November 2020, which Mr Porter’s lawyers argue portrays him as “sexist and misogynist” and accused him of an “inappropriate sexual relationship with a female ministerial staff member”.
The court was the ABC would rely upon the defences of qualified privilege and substantial truth to the defamation claim.