Scott Morrison declares Christian Porter 'innocent' and says he will remain in role

PM flatly dismisses advice from former solicitor general as he digs in behind his top law officer

Scott Morrison has declared Christian Porter “an innocent man under our law” and says he will remain as attorney general when he returns to work after a period tending to his mental health.

Digging in behind Porter, the prime minister on Wednesday flatly dismissed advice from a former solicitor general, Justin Gleeson, that he engage the current occupant of the position, Stephen Donaghue, to help determine whether or not the attorney general is a fit and proper person to remain in a justice portfolio.

Gleeson told the ABC that seeking such advice could act as a “circuit breaker” to the current impasse over the accusation that Porter raped a 16-year-old in January 1988 when he was 17. Porter has strenuously denied the allegation.

Morrison on Tuesday revealed that he had not sought legal advice from the government’s most senior independent lawyer before rejecting calls for an independent inquiry into the sexual assault allegation against his minister.

Asked to respond to the former solicitor general’s opinion on Wednesday, Morrison noted that Gleeson – who was publicly at loggerheads with the then attorney general George Brandis during his tenure – wasn’t “a particularly big fan of our government”.

The eminent senior counsel was “entitled to his view”, he said, adding that he had not been advised to seek the view of the solicitor general “during the course of managing this matter”.

He also shrugged off the attorney general being referred to the legal board of practice in Western Australia by a group of legal academics – a development reported by the ABC on Wednesday. Any referral was “a matter for them”, the prime minister said.

Morrison faces concerted calls for an independent inquiry from across the parliament and from friends of the woman who levelled the 1988 allegation against Porter before withdrawing her police complaint shortly before her death in 2020.

Legal and business experts also insist there is no “rule of law” issue that would prevent Porter facing an arms-length probe.

But Morrison is continuing to contend that having an independent inquiry into the sexual assault allegations to satisfy himself of Porter’s fitness to serve in the attorney general’s portfolio would be a breach of the rule of law.

“I want to reinforce this point once more, no Australian faces a different law to any other Australian,” he said on Wednesday. He declared he would not be a prime minister who undermined that principle.

The prime minister insisted Porter would remain as attorney general. “To suggest there should be some different treatment applied to him, based on what have been allegations that the police have closed the matter on – I think it would be grossly inappropriate to take actions against him on that basis.”

New South Wales police have said there is “insufficient admissible evidence” to continue their investigation into the allegation, but the South Australian coroner has directed police in that state, where the woman died, to conduct further investigations before he decides whether to hold an inquest.

Contributor

Katharine Murphy Political editor

The GuardianTramp

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