ABC documents in defamation case against Christian Porter handed to SA Coroner
A key document used by the ABC’s legal defence in the defamation case by Christian Porter is to be handed to the coroner.
A key document suppressed in the Christian Porter defamation case and used by the ABC in their defence will be handed over as part of the coronial investigation into the death of the woman the Industry Minister was accused of raping in the 1980s.
On Tuesday, the Federal Court gave the South Australian Coroner’s Court approval to have access to the document in the ABC’s unredacted defence.
It was a document the public broadcaster created in a bid to prevent defamation action by Mr Porter.
The Federal Court instructed that the document be disclosed to South Australia’s state coroner, senior counsel assisting the coroner and anyone else involved in the investigation into the death of the South Australian woman, named Kate.
It said the document must be given “for the purpose of the investigation into the death of a person referred to in the unredacted defence”.
Mr Porter and Kate met when they were teenagers – he was 17 and she was 16 – and they were both selected on the Australian Schools Debating Team.
In 2019, Kate prepared a statement for her lawyer as she planned to pursue the alleged incident where she claimed Mr Porter had raped her in her room while on a debating trip in 1988.
Mr Porter has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
The woman planned to proceed with a police investigation but changed her mind before she took her own life in June 2020.
The former attorney-general launched defamation action against the ABC and its investigative reporter Louise Milligan for her reporting – Mr Porter alleged that Milligan had portrayed him as responsible for a “brutal” rape.
The case was settled in May.
However, one of the settlement conditions was to have the ABC’s defence removed from the court file – a matter that Mr Porter’s legal team is continuing to pursue.
The ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, revealed at a Senate estimates hearing in June that the defamation case had cost the national broadcaster $780,000 before it was settled out of court.
He also confirmed that the broadcaster had paid $100,000 in mediation costs to Mr Porter’s legal team.
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