Christian Porter lodges complaint to ABC over historical rape allegation

Former attorney-general Christian Porter demands independent review into the Four Corners episode which aired rape allegations against him.

Christian Porter gives his valedictory speech at Parliament House on March 29.

Former attorney-general Christian Porter has demanded the ABC establish an independent editorial review into the Four Corners episode “Bursting the Canberra Bubble” that aired details of an historical rape allegation made against him.

On Friday, Mr Porter lodged an official editorial complaint to the ABC’s Audience and Consumer Affairs department and directly to managing director David Anderson over the March 2021 episode presented by investigative reporter Louise Milligan into claims he alleged raped 16-year-old Kate 33 years ago.

Kate alleged Porter raped her in January 1988 in her room at the University of Sydney Women’s College when they were both at a school debating competition. She alleged the rape happened after an evening out in Kings Cross.

Kate died by suicide in Adelaide in June 2020. Mr Porter has vehemently denied the alleged the rape ever took place.

Mr Porter claims the Four Corners program failed to meet the recognised standards of objective journalism, did not mention Kate’s original 88-page signed statement despite having it, presented edited parts of a document to suit their narrative and suppressed large parts of her original statement that undermined the credibility of the woman’s allegations.

In the detailed complaint seen by The Australian, Mr Porter said there were two documents – one a longer 88-page statement document drafted by the alleged victim Kate and signed by her in late 2019 and a shorter 25-page document sent to Prime Minister Scott Morrison which was, Mr Porter said, a “selective editing down of the original 88-page document”.

In Mr Porter’s complaint he states, “as a stand-alone document and without any comparison to the 25-page document, the 88-page document contains content which relates directly and materially to the allegations, and which is variously incredible, implausible, fanciful, demonstrably incorrect or inconsistent”.

Mr Porter says in his complaint that there were, “media reports indicating that Marque Lawyers and Michael Bradley, acting for Kate as her lawyer, were in possession of both the 88-page document and the 25-page document”.

The later 25-page document was prepared by Kate with her lawyers and sent by Kate’s friends to the Prime Minister on February 23 last year.

On Friday, Marque Lawyers issued a statement in relation to the 25-page document saying: “We did not send it, nor have any involvement in or knowledge of its delivery, to the Prime Minister, or to anyone else.”

Mr Porter says that in the “Bursting the Canberra Bubble” program, the ABC failed to acknowledge the “existence” of the 88-page document and therefore did not “report in any meaningful or balanced way on the contents of the key document”.

ABC journalist Louise Milligan.

ABC managing director David Anderson.

Mr Porter also states in his complaint that it “would appear Louise Milligan had the 88-page document (as well as the 25-page document)” before publishing an article - “Scott Morrison, senators and AFP told of historical rape allegation against Cabinet Minister” - she wrote about the historical rape allegation on February 26 last year, and before the airing of the Four Corners episode on March 8.

Despite this Mr Porter says comments made by Kate and used in the February article, “did not come from the 25-page document”.

He goes on to explain that quotes used in Milligan’s article quote come from the 88-page document written and signed by Kate, where she writes: “This is my story, plain and simple. It’s not pretty, but it is mine.

“And I stand by it, every single word and image in this document is true.”

Mr Porter told the public broadcaster in his written complaint, “a basic comparative scrutiny between the two documents would have made it obvious that there existed serious discrepancies and inconsistencies, which on an objective assessment, detracted materially and significantly from the reliability and credibility of the allegations”.

In Kate’s 88-page statement she includes claims she suffered bruising and anal bleeding in late 2019 as she was writing her statement and this was caused by memories of the alleged rape that took places more than three decades earlier.

Mr Porter also states: “The 88-page document contains claims of injuries or bleeding spontaneously appearing on Kate’s body in 2019 for no apparent reason but which were attributed by Kate as being physically caused by alleged events 33 years earlier in 1988.”

Mr Porter has requested that an independent review be undertaken into the matter similar to that which occurred with the ABC documentary, Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire.

“This is the only process that can be substantially independent of the content making areas within the ABC,” he said in the complaint.

Mr Porter took defamation action against the ABC last year but later agreed to drop his case.

No charges were ever laid against him and the ABC said its legal expenses in the case had amounted to $780,000.

The ABC spent $680,000 defending the matter and agreed to pay $100,000 to Porter’s solicitor Rebekah Giles.

Jo Dyer, a friend of Kate and a strong advocate for her, objected to Mr Porter’s choice of defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC in the defamation action against the ABC, with a Federal Court judge ordering her to stand down during an ABC defamation case.

That decision has been appealed.

Ms Dyer, who is running as an independent candidate in the SA seat of Boothby, was awarded more than $400,000 in costs in relation to the matter.

In September Mr Porter moved to the backbench and announced in December he would be quitting politics at the upcoming election.

The ABC would not comment.