Christian Porter agrees to discontinue defamation court case against ABC

Christian Porter has dropped his defamation case against the ABC, but has sought to claim victory despite failing to secure an apology or retraction from the public broadcaster.

In a sudden development on Monday, the former attorney general announced he would drop his high-stakes case against the ABC, which he launched in March following a Four Corners report that aired allegations a cabinet minister had been accused of raping a woman in the 1980s. When Porter subsequently identified himself as the cabinet minister referred to, he strenuously denied the allegations.

After approaching Porter for mediation, the ABC agreed to add an editor’s note on its story saying it “regretted” that some readers had “misinterpreted” the article “as an accusation of guilt against Mr Porter”.

The note also said it did “not contend” that “the serious accusations could be substantiated to the applicable legal standard – criminal or civil”.

“On 26 February 2021, the ABC published an article by Louise Milligan. That article was about a letter to the prime minister containing allegations against a senior cabinet minister. Although he was not named, the article was about the attorney general Christian Porter,” the note states.

“The ABC did not intend to suggest that Mr Porter had committed the criminal offences alleged. The ABC did not contend that the serious accusations could be substantiated to the applicable legal standard – criminal or civil. However, both parties accept that some readers misinterpreted the article as an accusation of guilt against Mr Porter. That reading, which was not intended by the ABC, is regretted.”

But the broadcaster also said it “stands by the importance of the article, which reported on matters of significant public interest”, noting that “no damages” had been paid and that the only costs borne by the ABC would be for the mediation between the two parties.

The decision to drop the case came despite lawyers for the former attorney general saying when the defamation case was lodged that Porter would “exercise the opportunity to give evidence denying these false allegations on oath”, and challenging the ABC to “plead truth in their defence to this action and prove the allegations to the lower civil standard”.

Despite that, the former attorney general gave a bullish press conference outside court on Monday in which he said the ABC had been “forced to say they regret the outcome of the reporting”.

“They have been forced by my taking this action all the way to the court door, they have been forced to say they regret the article,” he said.

“I never thought that they would concede that the accusations that were put in the article could never be proven.”

Pushed on how he could be satisfied with the outcome despite the ABC saying it stood by its reporting and keeping the story online, Porter asked: “The question becomes, for the ABC, how do you stand by reporting that you have acknowledged in a settlement that you were forced into?”

“That to me seems hypocritical beyond measure,” he said.

“I don’t bind the ABC for all of time, they no doubt will try to spin what’s happened … They have backed down and have been forced by this litigation because they didn’t want it going to a trial. They have been forced to say they regret the outcome of the reporting.”

Porter also contended that the ABC had “backed down”, despite agreeing to drop the case.

“Had this action not been taken and they not backed down, that would have been to the detriment of every single Australian,” he told reporters, describing the article as “one-sided” and “sensationalist”.

“Forget being a public figure or a politician, it wouldn’t matter who you were or what you did, you would have faced a new standard or presumption of guilt by accusation,” he said.

Milligan also wrote on Twitter that she stood by her journalism.

Porter said he would run at the next election, but was coy when asked if he thought it would be possible for him to ever run for prime minister, saying: “You can never turn the clock back on this sort of reporting, and that’s why it’s so wrong.” He also told reporters he had no ambition to return to the attorney general portfolio.

Though Porter told reporters he considered the matter closed, Labor immediately called for the government to hold an independent inquiry after news broke that the case had been dropped.

In a statement the shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said the prime minister, Scott Morrison, “no longer has an excuse to refuse to hold an independent inquiry into these allegations”.

“Only a truly independent inquiry, conducted at arm’s length from government according procedural fairness to Mr Porter and all witnesses appearing before it, will provide an opportunity for the serious allegations against Mr Porter to be tested. Australians must be satisfied that Mr Porter is a fit and proper person to serve in federal cabinet,” he said.

“Contrary to claims made by the prime minister, no investigation into these allegations has ever been concluded. NSW police were unable to conclude their investigation into this matter due to the tragic passing of the woman at the centre of the claims, there has been no investigation by federal police, and no investigation by the prime minister or anyone in his government.

“The prime minister should stop making excuses. It is now time for him to take these allegations seriously and show some leadership.”

The settlement comes just a day before the court was due to hear a strike-out application over the public broadcaster’s defence.

Filed by Porter’s lawyers earlier this month, an application sought to have major sections of the ABC defence struck out on the basis it had filed material that was either scandalous, frivolous, vexatious, evasive or “otherwise an abuse of the process of the court”.

Porter announced in March he would sue the public broadcaster and journalist Louise Milligan over an article alleging an unnamed cabinet minister had been accused of rape in January 1988 in a dossier sent to Scott Morrison and three other MPs.

Although Porter was not named in the article, he identified himself as the subject of the article after a week of intense media scrutiny. Legal documents submitted during the case on behalf of Porter argued he was easily identifiable as the subject of the article.

Porter strenuously denied the allegations, and in his statement of claim argued the article contained a number of defamatory imputations including that he “brutally” and anally raped a 16-year-old girl in 1988 when he was 17 – and that he is “reasonably suspected” by New South Wales police of having done so – and that the alleged rape “contributed to her taking her own life”.

In a statement after he announced the legal action, Porter’s lawyer Rebekah Giles said the case had been filed to counter “false allegations against him in relation to a person who he met when he was a teenager”.

“Although he was not named, the article made allegations against a senior cabinet minister and the attorney general was easily identifiable to many Australians as the subject of the allegations,” Giles said at the time.

On Thursday Justice Thomas Thawley said in a separate ruling that Porter’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, would have to relinquish the brief because she had received confidential information which was relevant to the case and could present a “danger of misuse”.