The Christian’s defamation campaign has been sidetracked … Now he’s a respondent fighting to keep one of his barristers on the ticket … Risk of misuse of confidential information … Discovery ordered … Who told others of concerns about potential conflict? … Layer upon layer of contention before we get to D-Day 

Ostensibly he is suing the ABC and journalist Louise Milligan over a story about a unnamed senior politician who allegedly raped a young women in 1988. The alleged rape victim committed suicide in June last year. 

Yet Porter is also the respondent in an action brought by the rape victim’s friend Jo Dyer. Ms Dyer wants to remove Sue Chrysanthou from Porter’s legal team, where she is the second chair next to Bret Walker. 

While Porter says it is critical that Chrysanthou stays on the ticket, Chrysanthou herself says she will do whatever the court decides. She is represented in the tussle by bar reader Jessie McKenzie. 

Jo Dyer went to Chrysanthou for advice in November last year about one of Janet the Planet Albrechtsen’s silly articles in The Australian. 

Planet was banging on about Four Corner’s November 2020 program Inside the Canberra Bubble and in the process attacked Dyer’s assessment of The Christian as a young man who was “very charming … very confident [with an] assuredness that’s perhaps born of privilege … brash, blond and breezy … quite slick [and an] air of entitlement”. 

Dyer had known Porter’s form since they were young debaters in the late 1980s. 

Albrechtsen implied that whatever Dyer said about Porter could be discounted because she is a failed Labor candidate for preselection and has attacked the South Australian Liberal government for wanting to privatise everything it could get its hands on. 

As Planet put it: 

“That background could help explain why she filled out a bingo card of progressive words and phrases when speaking against Porter.” 

In discussing with Chrysanthou whether she had been defamed by Planet and what to do about it, Dyer says she provided confidential information, presumably about her knowledge of Porter and the alleged rape victim known as “Kate” – information she says is directly relevant to the defamation case.  

Also at the meeting were Macquarie banker James Hooke, a boyfriend of Kate who has said he has “clear recollections of relevant discussions I had with Christian Porter from April 1992 through the mid-1990s”. 

He added that he would testify under oath about these “relevant discussions”. 

Apart from Dyer’s solicitor, barrister Matthew Richardson was also there. He’s is a friend of Chrysanthou and of Hooke. 

In an earlier round on May 12, Justice Thorley suggested that Porter have separate legal teams for the ouster application and the defamation action. Nicholas Olsen for Porter said: 

“In an ideal world perhaps, but he’s a private individual and money is a significant consideration.”  

The ideal world seems to have materialised because Porter has now saddled up with Christopher Withers SC and Emma Bathurst for the Chrysanthou ouster. 

On Wednesday, May 19, Dyer’s application had a case management hearing before Thomas Thorley in the Federal Court. 

Dyer’s brief, Michael Hodge, sought details of Richardson’s communications to other people about whether Chrysanthou should have taken the brief. 

For their part, Porter’s people want to know what Dyer has said to others about Kate and their client.  

Thorley ordered discovery be given, excluding information that was expressly or implicitly considered confidential by Dyer. 

The judge also ordered discovery of details of communications to other people from Richardson about whether Chrysanthou should have taken the Porter brief. 

Already, there has been a newspaper report of a heated exchange in Phillip Street between Bruce McClintock and Chrysanthou where it was claimed that the older silk “took umbrage at a potential conflict of interest” involving the younger silk. 

He’s in the mix with luminaries such as Margaret Cunneen and Chris “The Tamil” Merritt. What on each they will be talking about we can only imagine, but it’s bound to be a whole heap of fun.

Dyer’s application is set for a three day hearing from Monday, May 24. 

There’s also an application from Porter for the ABC to provide details of when it knew that Jo Dyer was making a complaint about Chrysanthou’s involvement in the case. 

And we haven’t yet got to Porter’s application to strikeout parts of the too-hot-to handle particulars on the ABC’s defence. 

That gets underway before Justice Jayne Jagot on June 1.