Piles of moolah at stake … The Christian meddles in litigation with Minter’s media clients … “Purposes and values” gets rolled … Onward march of the (Big) Swinging Dicks 

One report claimed that the law shop’s defamation guru Peter Bartlett had been hired by Porter in October, when the ABC was sniffing about the alleged rape and other horizontal shenanigans in Canberra. 

Having Bartlett on the ticket was a sure sign to the reptiles of the media not to trespass too deeply into The Christian’s past. 

Certainly Porter could not sool Bartlett onto any of the Fairfax papers – longstanding clients of his at Minters. Nonetheless, many hacks idly speculated that their old defence lawyer had jumped the net, à la Mark O’Brien.  

As things stand, Bartlett is acting for Fairfax in the Ben Roberts-Smith war crimes mega-defamation case, with a trial date in June and running for anything up to two months. 

It will be the most important public interest journalism litigation in decades and Bartlett’s client Porter has been meddling in it extensively, using the National Security Information (Criminal and Civil Proceedings) Act to have slabs of the case conducted in secret – Porter’s favourite form of trial. 

The latest effort by lawyers for the rusticated attorney general is to obstruct Bret Walker SC joining the defence of Bernard Collaery in the whistleblowing case about Australian espionage in East Timor. 

Kimmitt’s all-staff email was too much for the Big Swinging Dicks at Minties. According to AusTender the law shop has 103 active contracts with federal government departments and agencies. 

One lucrative contract is with the ATO, worth over $42 million. There have been repeat gigs with Benito Dutton’s Department of Home Affairs including a current contract worth $10.5 million.  

All of these are loftily described as the provision of legal services. 

Since September 2013, when the Nasty Party took office, Minters has signed 818 government contracts with the feds worth over $260 million. 

In these circumstances you would never let an email about the pain caused by acting for Porter over the alleged rape of a 16-year-old woman to get in the way of a bucket of money. 

As for a thank-you call from the PM’s office, it’s enough to make you blush – or wince. 

Kimmitt was brought into the law shop because she was a champion of women in the professions. One of her early tasks was a purpose and values review, which was rolled out to staff last year. 

That was the “purpose and values” referred to in her all-staff email about Bartlett, Porter and pain. 

Some of the Minties’ staff sent her messages of support, which were forwarded to the board in defence of her decision to send the email in the first place. 

Those who sent supportive messages are now looking over the shoulders.