Christian Porter’s defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou faces legal action

Jo Dyer seeks orders to stop barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC from representing Christian Porter in case against ABC.

High-profile defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou is facing legal action to stop her representing Christian Porter in his defamation case. Picture: AAP

Christian Porter’s high-profile defamation barrister is facing legal action to stop her representing the former attorney-general in his case against the ABC.

Jo Dyer, director of the Adelaide Writers Week, is seeking orders to stop Sue Chrysanthou SC from representing Mr Porter.

Ms Chrysanthou, who has previously represented actor Geoffrey Rush and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, has been accused of having access to confidential information related to Mr Porter’s case against the ABC provided to her by Ms Dyer.

Ms Dyer was a friend of a woman, known as Kate, who alleged she had been raped by Mr Porter in 1988 when she was 16 and Mr Porter was 17. She committed suicide in June last year.

Jo Dyer. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

Mr Porter, now Industry Minister, is suing the ABC and journalist Louise Milligan over an online article published on February 26, which reported that an unnamed cabinet minister was facing historical rape allegations.

Mr Porter, 50, outed himself as the unnamed minister five days later and launched the defamation action on March 15.

In a statement on Wednesday, he said it had been “widely known for two months” that Ms Chrysanthou was acting for him in the case and he was concerned about the timing of Ms Dyer’s action, ahead of a key hearing in his defamation case against the ABC.

Barrister Michael Hodge SC, representing Ms Dyer in her bid to oust Ms Chrysanthou from the defamation case, told the Federal Court on Wednesday that Ms Chrysanthou had confidential information that was relevant to the dispute provided to her in the course of a “lawyer-client relationship” with Ms Dyer.

Ms Chrysanthou had reviewed a legal letter sent on November 26 to The Australian, on Ms Dyer’s behalf, claiming an opinion piece written by columnist Janet Albrechtsen had defamed her.

The column criticised an ABC Four Corners program about sexism in parliament, broadcast earlier that month, as “a poorly executed political hatchet job”.

Ms Dyer was quoted in the program criticising Mr Porter for his conduct as a young man and describing him as having “an assuredness that’s perhaps born of privilege”.

The program did not air any rape allegation against Mr Porter.

The legal letter said Kate had disclosed to Ms Dyer “an extremely serious allegation against Christian Porter regarding events that she alleged had taken place in January 1988” and Ms Dyer had agreed to be interviewed for the Four Corners program because she believed she had a responsibility to her late friend.

The letter — well before Milligan reported the rape claims — said Kate had told many people of the allegations and this “must have come to the attention of The Australian”. “It does not seem plausible that information concerning (Kate)’s allegations had not reached senior editorial staff at the Australian,” it read.

The criticism of Ms Dyer’s appearance should not have been published because The Australian should have been aware the interview was for the purpose of sharing Kate’s story, the letter read.

Christian Porter is suing the ABC and journalist Louise Milligan over an online article published on February 26, which reported that an unnamed cabinet minister was facing historical rape allegations. Picture: Joel Carrett

While the ABC argues that the publication of the allegations in February did not defame Mr Porter because the broadcaster did not name him, he will only need to show at least one person who had read it reasonably understood it referred to him to show that he had been identified.

Mr Hodge, dubbed the “baby-faced assassin” during the banking royal commission, told Federal Court judge Thomas Thawley there were two possible grounds for preventing Ms Chrysanthou from acting for Mr Porter — “misuse of confidential information” and “apprehension of an interference with the administration of justice”.

Ms Dyer’s court application, filed on Monday, seeks an order that Ms Chrysanthou be restrained from acting for Mr Porter “on the grounds that the order is necessary to prevent prejudice to the proper administration of justice and to preserve confidentiality and legal professional privilege”.

Ms Chrysanthou, one of the nation’s leading defamation lawyers, has not yet been restrained from acting for Mr Porter.

Justice Thawley agreed to join Mr Porter as a party to the proceedings. Mr Porter is being represented by Bret Walker SC and Nicholas Olson in relation to Ms Dyer’s legal action.

Mr Olson told the court it was a “bit rich” that Ms Dyer was bringing the action now when she’d known of Ms Chrysanthou’s engagement for months. Ms Chrysanthou is scheduled to appear at a hearing relating to the defamation matter on June 1.

Ms Chrysanthou’s barrister, Noel Hutley SC, told the court that Ms Chrysanthou had “no substantive recollection” of any confidential information provided to her by Ms Dyer.

“My client’s position is … she will do anything which the court thinks she ought do,” he said.