Rape allegation denied Porter won’t stand down from Cabinet

AN emotional and at times nearly tearful Christian Porter warned that a “new normal” of trial by social media was a threat to fairness and due process in Australia as he strenuously denied historical rape allegations against him.

“The things that have been claimed to happen did not happen,” Mr Porter told a press conference in Perth, as he revealed that he was the individual who stood accused of sexually assaulting a young woman when the two were student debaters at a tournament in Sydney in 1988.

“Nothing in the allegations that have been printed ever happened.”

The Attorney-general apologised to the family of the woman who made the claims and who took her life last year in South Australia, saying: “I do not mean to impose anything more upon your grief.

“I hope that you will also understand that because what is being alleged did not happen, I must say so publicly.”

He added he was “deeply sorry” for the stress the claims had put on the Morrison government, and particularly his male Cabinet colleagues.

Mr Porter was also defiant, saying he had been subjected to a campaign of smears and rumours and he had never been given the opportunity to contest the charges.

“No one put anything in any detail to me seeking a response. None of the senior politicians or ex-politicians that have known about these allegations and rumours put them to me,” he said.

“No journalist has put the detail of the allegations to me in a way that would allow seeking a response, not ever.

“While I have followed the rules and stayed silent, I have been subject to the most wild, intense and unrestrained series of accusations I can remember in modern Australian politics,” he said “Maybe that’s the new normal, I hope for everyone’s sake, it’s not,” he said.

Mr Porter also said he would not step down or resign from Cabinet, although he revealed he was taking a short period of leave “to assess and hopefully improve my own mental health”.

Mr Porter spoke about the need for fairness and due process and the danger of public officials and private citizens being ruined on the basis of allegations alone.

“If I stand down from my position as Attorney-general because of an allegation about something that simply did not happen, then any person in Australia can lose their career, their job, their life’s work based on nothing more than an accusation that appears in print,” he said.

Mr Porter’s denials, and the fact that NSW police have closed the case, will not end his troubles, or those of the government. Labor has indicated it will continue to press the government on the issue.

“It is very clear … that this will require further leadership and action from the Prime Minister and I await the statement by the minister involved,” Labor leader Anthony Albanese said before Mr Porter’s media conference.

On Wednesday, South Australian coroner David Whittle held open the possibility of an inquest into the death of the woman.