Former attorney-general Christian Porter facing $430,000 legal costs after losing appeal

Christian Porter has lost his bid to overturn a massive costs order awarded against him over his ABC defamation case.

The Full Court of the Federal Court on Thursday dismissed an appeal by former attorney-general Christian Porter. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Joel Carrett

Former attorney-general Christian Porter has lost his bid to overturn a $430,000 costs order awarded against him after his high profile barrister was barred from representing him in his defamation case against the ABC.

Mr Porter and the ABC settled the defamation case but arts ­administrator Jo Dyer won a Federal Court action last year to stop top silk Sue Chrysanthou SC representing Mr Porter in the case on the grounds of conflict of interest.

Mr Porter and Ms Chrysanthou appealed the decision and the costs order, but on Thursday all three judges of the Full Court of the Federal Court dismissed the appeal.

The pair will also have to pay the costs of the appeal.

Ms Dyer, who was the director of Adelaide Writers’ Week before unsuccessfully running as an independent candidate for the South Australian seat of Boothby, was a friend of “Kate”, the woman who claimed to have been raped by Mr Porter 30 years ago, and became a vocal advocate for Kate’s cause after she took her own life in 2020.

Ms Dyer spoke to Ms Chrysanthou in November 2020 about an article in The Australian to which she objected. Ms Chrysanthou said the meeting lasted less than an hour.

Three months after the meeting, the ABC published an online story that referred to an unnamed cabinet minister accused of rape.

Arts administrator Jo Dyer. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Mr Porter revealed himself as the minister in question, but vehemently denied the allegations.

“I did not sleep with the victim. We didn’t have anything of that nature happen between us … I can say to you all it didn’t happen,” he said at a press conference.

Mr Porter sued the ABC but was blocked from hiring Ms ­Chrysanthou when judge Tom Thawley found there was a danger of the misuse of confidential information received by Ms ­Chrysanthou.

On Thursday, the appeal judges backed that ruling, finding it “improbable” that a relevant topic was not discussed when the women met.

“Ms Chrysanthou’s denials that she was told about this topic during the conference were taken not as a pointer to the witness being untruthful, but as a matter (among others) reflecting a lack of accurate recollection,” the appeal judges ruled, in a partially redacted judgment.

It was open to the trial judge to conclude that Ms Chrysanthou was “proposing to act against Ms Dyer” in the ­relevant sense, they found.

It was also open to the trial judge to conclude that confidential information provided to Ms Chrysanthou by Ms Dyer was likely to contain evidence ­additional to that revealed by the ABC.

“One cannot exclude the real risk that this confidential information, either consciously or subconsciously, may inform ­actions taken in the performance of the brief to act for Mr Porter.

“It is no answer that Ms Chrysanthou had forgotten things: one cannot exclude the possibility that recollection can be triggered or of subconscious derivative use.”

By a majority, the appeal court also upheld Justice Thawley’s suppression of several documents in the defamation case. Mr Porter and the ABC settled the defamation case with no apology or damages, but the broadcaster paid $100,000 to Mr ­Porter’s other high-profile defamation lawyer, Rebekah Giles, for “mediation and related” costs.

In June, it was revealed Ms Dyer had a sexual history with Mr Porter when both were in debating teams at university, a liaison that Ms Dyer reportedly described as “entirely inconsequential and statistically insignificant”.

Mr Porter has quit politics and returned to work as a barrister.

He has recently joined the legal team of underworld identity Mick Gatto, who is pursuing a defamation case against the ABC.

In September last year, Mr Porter revealed that part of his defamation legal fees were paid by a blind trust with funds from an unknown source. It is not known whether any of those funds remain to cover costs of the appeal.

In a statement released after the judgment, Ms Dyer said Kate was “missed and mourned”.

Of Mr Porter’s decision to appeal the case, she said: “Perhaps one can be more cavalier about litigation if one sources ‘anonymous’ donations to fund it.”