Liberal Party’s ‘Deep Throat’ in Bill Shorten scare

A Liberal Party figure secretly advised the Bill Shorten camp during the 2019 election that a historic rape ­allegation would re-emerge.

Former Labor leader Bill Shorten. Picture: AAP

A well-connected Liberal Party figure, dubbed “Deep Throat” by Labor, secretly advised the Bill Shorten camp during the 2019 election campaign that his push to become prime minister was about to be “blown up” by the ­­re-emergence of a historic rape ­allegation.

The inside information so distracted and distressed the then Labor leader that it derailed the ALP campaign, according to revelations in a book by Canberra veteran Samantha Maiden.

The Liberal insider passed on the explosive insights weeks ­before Scott Morrison called the election.

Mr Shorten took the threat of a looming sex scandal so ­seriously he set up a taskforce in his ­office.

His personal lawyer­, Leon Zwier, of leading commercial firm Arnold Bloch Leibler, also opened a file on the Liberal Party figure, who has close ties to the Prime Minister.

Mr Zwier recorded and ­diarised all of Deep Throat’s ­interactions with the ALP.

“The file notes prepared by the law firm do not name the Prime Minister’s friend who was feeding the Labor Party the informatio­n, although everyone involved knew who he was,” Maiden reveals in her new book, Party Animals­.

“He is referred to somewhat dramatically throughout the legal file notes as ‘Deep Throat’, the same pseudonym given to the secret informant who provided information during the Watergate scandal.

“The man claimed he had been ‘helping’ the Prime Minister with background on the rape claim, but that now he had ‘played him’ he was happy to hand it over to the ALP.

“He provided no documentary evidence to support his claim of discussions with the PM — it was simply a claim he made to the Labor Party and there was no way of verifying it.”

The rape allegation related to historic claims by Kathy Sherriff that she was raped by Mr Shorten as a teenager at an event organised­ by the party’s youth wing in the 1980s.

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Mr Shorten has vigorously denied the allegation and an extensive­ police investigation in 2013 concluded there was no case to answer and no charges were ever laid.

The Australian revealed Ms Sherriff’s claims at the time of the investigation but chose not to name Mr Shorten, as the alle­gations were unproven and highly defamatory.

Mr Shorten decided to self-identify after police dropped the investigation, saying: “The allegations were untrue and abhorrent. This has been deeply distressing for my family.”

Yet some stories never die and the claim began to circulate again online in early 2019. Around that time, “Deep Throat” approached the ALP claiming to have inside intelligence about the allegation and the devastating impact it was about to have on Mr Shorten’s campaign. When Mr Morrison appeared to allude to the allegation in the final question time before he called the election, alarm bells rang in the ALP.

“Morrison’s decision to use a rape claim in question time to psych out an opponent was a tactic Shorten regarded as ‘disgusting’ and beneath the office of prime minister,” Maiden writes.

“His reading was that it was a sign Morrison was under pressure and desperate.”

Mr Shorten appointed his chief of staff, Ryan Liddell, and ALP consultant Sharon McCrohan to deal with the allegation and also engaged Arnold Bloch Leiber and a Victorian silk, Neil Clelland QC, to prepare legal arguments and defamation writs.

“There were fears the tabloids would interview his accuser and the issue would detonate during the campaign. Those fears about how to handle the issue consumed the Shorten campaign,” Maiden says. “Staff talked about the constant threat of exposure of the rape allegations, which they felt was ‘very real’.”

A spokesman for Mr Morrison said any suggestion the Prime Minister was involved in political subterfuge regarding the rape allegation was “completely false”.

“This is yet another attempt by Labor to invent stories to try and excuse their poor performance at the election,” he said.

Mr Shorten’s office stressed the former leader did his best to compartmentalise the issue and focus on the election, saying: “Bill and the Labor team gave the campaign every ounce of their energy, attention and commitment.”

Maiden says the threat took a toll on the ALP campaign. “Labor’s Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen would later claim that ‘some idiot’ had told Shorten that News Corp was about to run the rape claim 10 minutes before the disastrous press conference on 17 April, when he clashed with Ten Network reporter Jonathan Lea over the cost of his climate-change polices.”

Ultimately, any concern about a major media outlet airing the ­allegation was unwarranted.

On May 14, 2019, Ms Sherriff revealed on Facebook that she had formally requested that Victoria Police re-examine her allegations. But as Maiden notes: “No News Corp or Nine newspaper reported her remarks, or the possibility of new evidence. Neither did any other paper, or breakfast shows on TV or radio.

“The only mainstream outfit to touch it was 2GB’s Ben Fordham, who interviewed her lawyer, Melbourne QC Peter Faris, on his afternoon show on 15 May. “Former radio broadcaster turned blogger Michael Smith also interviewed Sherriff on 17 May — the day before the election — for his website. News Corp, Nine newspapers, the ABC and Guardian Australia didn’t touch it.”