Tweets triggered Christian Porter outing

Would-be Labor senator Josh Bornstein started a Twitter pile-on where some of his followers prematurely identified Christian Porter as the cabinet minister ­accused of historical rape.

Melbourne lawyer Josh Bornstein. Picture: Ian Currie

Would-be Labor senator Josh Bornstein started a Twitter pile-on where some of his followers prematurely identified Christian Porter as the cabinet minister ­accused of the historical rape of a 16-year-old girl in 1988.

Mr Bornstein tweeted “Christian” to his nearly 37,000 followers on the same day that news broke that a then unidentified cabinet minister had allegedly raped a girl during a university debating competition in Sydney that year.

The original ABC story did not name Mr Porter but there was speculation that he was the minister being referred to after he had featured in an earlier Four Corners program on Canberra’s seedy political culture.

Mr Bornstein’s “Christian” tweet triggered a wave of identification of Mr Porter on February 26 and February 27 under Mr Bornstein’s Twitter account.

The posts included two photographs posted by followers of a barely concealed Mr Porter, another of a basketballer with the name “Porter” on his back and multiple mentions of Mr Porter’s name, even though he was not formally identified until days later.

Mr Bornstein’s “Christian” post attracted 69 comments, 51 ­retweets and 394 likes, along with a cryptic post about how Mr Bornstein had ­“finally converted”.

Mr Bornstein, who did not respond to The Weekend Australian, did not respond to his followers’ posts about Mr Porter.

Mr Bornstein is facing a tougher battle to win preselection for Labor in the Senate, amid doubts about whether his social media attacks on Labor figures and unionists makes him a viable candidate against veteran Victorian Left powerbroker Kim Carr.

More than 1000 tweets have also disappeared from Mr Bornstein’s Twitter account this week, suggesting they have either been deleted or archived.

On January 5 last year, Mr Bornstein attacked the daughter of former Liberal foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer, declaring: “Maybe Georgina Downer is really the love child of Sam Newman and Jeremy Clarkson.”

Victorian Labor powerbrokers are questioning now whether to back Mr Bornstein for the Senate, potentially rejecting him and keeping Senator Carr in the federal parliament.

Another senior Left source said that Mr Bornstein retained the backing of a near majority of Left unions, with support also from parts of the Right faction.

Mr Bornstein is a high-profile workplace lawyer and has worked for many unions, including in the Right faction, which could be crucial in any preselection deal.

When The Australian first ­reported that Mr Bornstein had apologised for likening a senior ­female unionist to a dog, he had about 27,700 tweets in his account.

By Friday afternoon, that number of tweets had shrunk to 26,500, suggesting that some had either been deleted or archived.

On February 26 and February 27, followers replied to Mr Bornstein with words including “Christian Porker”, #PottyPorter, crude references to Snow White and the number of Christians in the federal West Australian seat of Pearce (held by Mr Porter).

Mr Porter, who outed himself as the minister on March 3, has since launched defamation action against the ABC and his lawyers claim he was readily identifiable.

As part of Mr Porter's submissions to the Federal Court, his legal team has provided hundreds of tweets which show users of the platform quickly naming Mr Porter as the minister linked to the allegations of rape.

Mr Bornstein, 55, has also attacked two Labor frontbenchers, calling Chris Bowen a “Muppet” and suggesting Penny Wong would make a good Morticia from the Addams Family. Senator Wong responded: “Anyone seeking Labor preselection should understand they need to respect women in both word and deed.”