The problem was his decision to use a blind trust to help fund his legal case against the ABC, which itself spent $780,000 of taxpayer funds in the matter.
Porter’s decision to defend himself was a reasonable one given his political aspirations and reputation had been dashed on the back of a story containing an explosive allegation made by a woman who had since died in tragic circumstances and which, by its nature, could never be proved or disproved.
There are strong arguments that the February 26 article published by the ABC – which suggested an unnamed cabinet minister was facing historical rape allegations stretching back to a high school debating competition in 1988 – should never have been published.
But the result of the decision to fight back has been utterly devastating for the former attorney-general. He lost on two counts.
Firstly, the settlement did not see a retraction of the story. Instead, the ABC agreed to an editor’s note that it did not intend to suggest Porter had “committed the criminal offences alleged”. The ABC said it “regretted” the fact some readers had “misinterpreted the article as an accusation of guilt against Mr Porter”.
There were no damages and the story remains online.
Secondly, to secure this outcome, Porter took a huge risk in the funding of his defence by agreeing to the establishment of a structure that would facilitate anonymous donations. In a lengthy statement issued on Sunday, Porter said this was to shield them from media scrutiny and attack.
This was the decision that sealed his fate, with the revelations of the blind trust igniting a ferocious attack on Porter from Labor and the media, leading Scott Morrison to nip the issue in the bud through a resignation delivered on Sunday.
The reason officially given was the perception of a conflict of interest. But the reality is it was a political decision to end an ongoing distraction. Porter had become politically toxic.
The irony is that Porter had a much better chance of surviving politically and rehabilitating his career had he chosen not to retaliate against the ABC.
One of the clear lessons that emerges is the difficulty of funding a legal action against the taxpayer-funded ABC, a task compounded by the stringent disclosure requirements rightly expected of politicians but which limit their ability to measure up to the financial heft of the public broadcaster.
The moral for the media is the absolute need for responsible reporting, particularly around sensitive and unprovable allegations, by the ABC along with all outlets.
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The brutal irony of Christian Porter’s resignation is that it wasn’t triggered by the unprovable historic rape allegation levelled against him. It was his decision to fight back.