Row over Four Corners’ sex expose on ministers Alan Tudge and Christian Porter

Christian Porter says he didn’t breach ministerial standards amid allegations of inappropriate behaviour, but may let legal action slide.

ABC managing director David Anderson in Senate Estimates at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday. Picture: Sean Davey.

Attorney-General Christian Porter has failed to rule out having “intimate relations” with a staffer but says he has never breached the ministerial standards, which prevents him from having a relationship with any of his staff members.

The senior West Australian Liberal MP, who was one of two cabinet ministers embroiled in Monday night’s Four Corners sex expose, insisted there was a “substantial basis” for suing the ABC but said he did not want it to become a distraction, indicating he may let legal action slide.

A former Liberal staffer Rachelle Miller, who admitted to having an affair with then human services minister Alan Tudge, said she saw Mr Porter at Public Bar in Canberra in 2017 allegedly cuddling and kissing a young female staffer.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said he confronted Mr Porter about his behaviour before appointing him attorney-general.

Asked on 6PR radio if he had ever had intimate relations with a staffer, Mr Porter responded: “I’m not even sure the program made that allegation.

“They (the ABC report) indicated I had, I think implied that I had with a person I had a drink at a bar with and I said to Four Corners that their depiction of those interactions in that bar three-and-a-half- years ago were wrong. I told Malcolm there was no substance to rumours around that bar story.”

When the question was put to him a second time, Mr Porter said: “I’ve answered your question.”

Mr Porter said he regretted how he behaved while he was at law school 25-30 years ago, which was “way too rowdy”, but maintained it was not a fair indication of who he was now.

The Attorney-General said his separation from his wife Jennifer Negus earlier this year was not because of “this sort of stuff”.

Alan Tudge.

Christian Porter. Pictures: Sean Davey.

“I feel so desperately sorry for my beautiful wife Jen that she had to watch all of that and see this stuff from university and see it cut up and chopped up in that way,” he said.

“No, like any couple we had our ups and downs and problems and difficulties and I would say I was far from a perfect husband in many regards but our separation was not about this sort of stuff.

“I’ve never breached that ministerial code of conduct and there’s never been any suggestion I have.”

Mr Turnbull introduced the “bonk ban” — a restriction on sexual relationships within ministerial offices — after The Daily Telegraph revealed his deputy prime minister, Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, was to have a child with his former press secretary Vikki Campion.

‘I’m not worried’: Porter rejects claims

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Porter dismissed allegations he acted inappropriately with staff when he was Malcolm Turnbull’s social services minister and said he was not expecting any women to come forward with complaints.

It came after extraordinary row erupted between the Coalition and the ABC after the public broadcaster accused Morrison government ministers of sexism and a ”pattern of inappropriate sexual behaviour”.

Mr Porter said he did not see what charge was put against him in the ABC report.

“What allegation? That I had a drink in a bar with someone? And who’s making that allegation?” he told Perth’s 6PR radio.

“I haven’t conducted myself in a way that would lead people to provide that kind of complaint about me.

“I’m not worried that there are people you’ve described, because I haven’t had those kinds of interactions with people.”

Tudge affair

The program also revealed an affair between the then human services minister Alan Tudge and a member of his staff, and quoted Labor’s home affairs spokeswoman, Kristina Keneally, and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who both raised allegations about sexually inappropriate behaviour by Coalition figures.

Mr Porter was considering legal action against the ABC as he rejected the program’s depiction of his actions in the bar and said reporter Louise Milligan failed to contact him or his office.

He also “rejected as totally false” Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young’s claims that he had been in “somewhat of a relationship” with a young female Liberal staffer who felt “caught”.

“The journalist, Louise Milligan, never contacted me or my office, despite my awareness that for many months she has been directly contacting friends, former colleagues, former students — even old school friends from the mid 1980s — asking for rumours and negative comment about me,” Mr Porter said.

He said he had denied a rumour put to him by Mr Turnbull before he became Attorney-General. “In my time as AG I never had any complaint or any suggestion of any problem from Malcolm regarding the conduct of my duties as AG until the last week of his prime ministership when we had a significant disagreement over the Peter Dutton citizenship issue,” Mr Porter said.

Law school material ‘regret’

Mr Porter continued: “At the outset I apologise for material I wrote in a law school magazine 24 years ago. I obviously wouldn’t write that now and it is something I regret.

“As a university lecturer I taught criminal law and evidence. By its very nature this involves dealing with confronting subject matter and images. To suggest I gratuitously focused on this required area of teaching is unfair.

“But Four Corners depiction of interactions in the bar are categorically rejected. The other party subjected to these baseless claims directly rebutted the allegation to Four Corners, yet the program failed to report that. This fact usually would be expected to be included in a fair or balanced report. The claims made by Sarah Hanson-Young were never put to me, my office or the other individual. They are rejected as totally false.’’

Liberal fury

Senior Liberal ministers are furious with the Four Corners report, which has inflamed a tense relationship between the public broadcaster and the government.

Scott Morrison had earlier called on the ABC to act in an “unbiased way”.

“If they are going to make inquiries I would think they would want to do them across the political spectrum,” the Prime Minister said.

The ABC program did not canvass any allegations against politicians in Labor, the Greens or on the crossbench, though it did acknowledge Liberal politicians were not the only ones to “cross this line”.

The program aired after ABC managing director David Anderson told a Senate estimates hearing earlier on Monday that “a couple” of government ministers had contacted the broadcaster before the program was aired, to question the public-interest value of the report. Mr Anderson said ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose had called him over the report and watched the program before it had aired.

Mr Anderson said that although he had received about “half a dozen emails” from ministerial offices about the program, he did not “see any direct threat in there”.

Mr Porter rejected comments by Mr Anderson that ministers who were the subject of the program were provided with all relevant information. “That is not the case,” he said.

The ABC said it had contacted Mr Porter’s office before the report aired.

“Mr Porter may not have been contacted personally by Louise Milligan, but more than one reporter worked on this investigation,” an ABC spokeswoman said.

“Multiple attempts were made to contact Mr Porter over a fortnight by Four Corners. Questions sent to the two ministers named in the program included detailed information about the allegations in the story.”

Rachelle Miller on Four Corners on Monday night.

Four Corners also spoke to barrister Kathleen Foley, who knew Mr Porter from the University of Western Australia. Ms Foley said he was “deeply sexist” and a “misogynist”.

Ms Foley went on to describe how Mr Porter would, during his time at university, go on pub crawls where students would attach plastic bags to their wrists, “vomiting into the bags and carrying the vomit around”.

A graduation profile found by Four Corners predicted that in a decade, Mr Porter would be: “Running for PM. Being kicked out of the Liberal Party for being a fat, unattractive, sexist, political powerbroker who tried to stick his tongue in a secretary’s ear”.   

The Australian on Monday revealed the government had raised concerns about the report.

Four Corners executive producer Sally Neighbour confirmed those reports on Monday, and described the “political pressure” as “extreme and unrelenting”.

Barrister Kathleen Foley who had attended law school with Christian Porter on Four Corners.

Despite warning Mr Porter, Mr Turnbull later promoted him to Attorney-General, which includes a position on the national security committee of cabinet — a portfolio Mr Porter continues to hold.

After Four Corners, Mr Turnbull said that if he’d known about the information aired “I would have made further inquiries before I made him Attorney-General.”

Rachelle Miller and Alan Tudge arrive at the 2017 Mid-Winter Ball in Canberra.

The allegations about the affair between Mr Tudge and his staff member, Rachelle Miller, relate to a period before that ban came into place.

Ms Miller told Four Corners that she noticed Mr Porter “was with someone in the corner, and they were clearly very intimate”.

“It was quite confronting given that we were in such a public place,” she said.

In a statement on Monday night, Mr Tudge said he regretted his actions and the pain it had caused his family “immensely”.

“I also regret the hurt that Ms Miller has experienced,” he said.

On Tuesday, Mr Joyce said the “bonk ban” was not just about his actions but those of other senior politicians. “My actions two years ago were not admirable, nor unique … it was not a bonking ban it was a Barnaby ban because people knew of others, including Mr Turnbull,” Mr Joyce told the Seven network.

“At the time I knew really what they were after was my scalp and that’s fair enough,” he said.

“But I don’t think we should be taking out Christian Porter, who was a good minister, Alan Tudge, he has answered for himself today and no doubt if people wanted to, you could go to both sides of politics.

“Three years ago I lost my job but that is three years ago and two children ago,” he said.

“If it is a consensual relationship, how are you going to ban them?”

Mr Joyce on Monday accused Mr Morrison of supporting the “bonk ban” because he wanted to “keep the Christian vote” after Mr Joyce’s affair with Ms Campion became public.