Rachelle Miller calls on Scott Morrison to release details of taxpayer-funded settlement

Education Minister Alan Tudge’s ex-lover Rachelle Miller has challenged the Prime Minister to release details of her taxpayer-funded payout.

Education Minister Alan Tudge’s ex-lover Rachelle Miller has released the Prime Minister of any confidentiality over her legal claim.

The decision means that any decision to keep the workplace payout secret is on the Morrison government’s head.

News.com.au revealed on Monday that government sources had confirmed they are finalising a taxpayer-funded payout of well over $500,000 to his ex-lover and staffer.

The Finance Department has also agreed to pay Ms Miller’s legal fees on top of this amount, which is also expected to run into six figures.

In a statement, Ms Miller’s legal team Gordon Legal said on Thursday that their client remained “fully prepared to abide by confidentiality in relation to this matter.”

“However, we are instructed that she irrevocably releases the Commonwealth (including the relevant Department and the Prime Minister) from any obligations of confidentiality in respect of her claim, any settlement of it, including financial terms,’’ her lawyer Peter Gordon said.

Education Minister Alan Tudge’s ex-lover Rachelle Miller (above) has released the Prime Minister of any confidentiality over her legal claim Picture : NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Gordon said neither his client, her husband nor anyone retained by her either at this firm of counsel has made any disclosure to anyone which could directly or indirectly be the source of these articles.

“It therefore must be the case that the source or sources of these articles came from the Commonwealth Government,’’ he said.

“The leak has caused our client acute stress and embarrassment as well as significant harassment by the media which continues.

“In the contest of the election campaign, our client sees no end to this harrassment until matter is satisfactorily addressed.”

The secret payout is being negotiated by the Department of Finance but the Prime Minister has told Channel Nine Today show host Karl Stefanovic that this was a “private” employment matter.

Asked about News.com.au’s story, the Prime Minister said he had not been briefed on the payout negotiations.

“I have no knowledge of that. That’s a private matter between her and the department and so that is not a matter I have any involvement in or oversight or visibility on,’’ he said.

Channel Nine’s host Karl Stefanovic then interjected, “If he didn’t do anything wrong though, what’s the money for? If he did, why is he still a Cabinet minister?”

The stunning cost of the Education Minister’s sexual entanglement with his press secretary proved a fresh headache for Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the campaign trail this week.

The revelations of the secret compensation payout follows negotiations between Ms Miller’s lawyers and the Department of Finance.

Ms Miller accused him of bullying her during the affair, claims Mr Tudge rejected and were not upheld by an investigation commissioned by the Prime Minister which Ms Miller declined to participate in on legal advice.

Despite confirming he was “intimate” with Ms Miller, including spending time with her naked in bed, Mr Tudge has insisted, like Bill Clinton, that he ‘never had sex with her.’

“We never had sex,’’ he said. “After each occasion that we were intimate, I assumed it was the last time.”

“What I did was morally wrong given we were both married at the time. I have never shied away from this.

“However, I did not consider this to be a “relationship” in the usual sense of the word.”

The Prime Minister confirmed in March that Mr Tudge was not found to be in breach of any ministerial rules.

However, he is yet to explain why that also involves Ms Miller securing a payout of over half a million dollars.

“Dr Thom found that ‘the evidence considered in this Inquiry does not provide a basis for a finding that Mr Tudge’s conduct breached the Ministerial Standards’,” Mr Morrison said last month.

“Today (Mr Tudge) has informed me that in the interests of his family and his own wellbeing and in order to focus on his re-election as the Member for Aston he is not seeking to return to the frontbench, and I support his decision.”

However on Sunday, he revealed Mr Tudge was “still in my cabinet” despite the Victorian MP remaining on gardening leave. His work as Education Minister is being done by Liberal frontbencher Stuart Robert but he remains, on paper, the Education Minister.

Earlier this year, an inquiry commissioned by the Prime Minister that Ms Miller declined to participate in on legal advice found that Mr Tudge had not breached the ministerial standards.

This was because the sexual relationship with his staffer pre-dated the so-called ‘bonk ban’ introduced by Malcolm Turnbull.

Ms Miller does not appear to be bound to a confidentiality clause under the deed of the agreement because she took to Twitter on Sunday night to slam the Prime Minister after he revealed Mr Tudge was still a cabinet minister.

“I am just disgusted. I am disgusted with my own party,’’ she said.

“The disrespect they have shown to me, one of their own, after 10 years of service as a Lib staffer. This is not the Liberal Party I joined.”

Originally published as Rachelle Miller calls on Scott Morrison to release details of taxpayer-funded settlement