One friend of the woman who was allegedly raped by Christian Porter said she was appalled by his denials.

Dhanya Mani,who in 2019 became a close friend to the women she has previously described as “vibrantly clever”,demanded Prime Minister Scott Morrison call an independent inquiry into her allegations.

Ms Mani,who did not watch Mr Porter’s press conference on Wednesday live to avoid the distress of hearing and seeing him but read quotes and had parts described to her by others,said the Attorney-General’s protestations only confirmed her opinion of him as a man who did not respect women,in part because he said he had not seen the allegations him in full.

“If he claims that he didn’t look at a full copy of the allegations,why didn’t he ask to see one?” Ms Mani said.

In his press conference in Perth on Wednesday,Mr Porter said:“the only information I have about the allegations is what has been circulating online and in certain media outlets”.

“I can say categorically what has been put in various forms and allegations simply did not happen,” Mr Porter said.

On Friday the ABC reported that the Prime Minister’s office received a copy of an anonymous letter including a detailed statement from the woman who said Mr Porter had raped her.

Ms Mani said there was precedent for inquiries into allegations made by people who later died.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday it was the role of the police to investigate the accusations. NSW Police closed their investigation on Tuesday.

Attorney-General Christian Porter,accused of a historical rape,fronted the media visibly anguished and vehemently firm.

He did not do the things of which he is accused in the summer of 1988.

He began by addressing the family of his accuser,a 49-year-old Adelaide woman who died by suicide last year.

“You have suffered a terrible loss,and you did not deserve the frenzied politicisation of the circumstances of your daughter’s death,” he said. “I hope that...you will understand...that the things that are being claimed to have happened did not happen,that I did not mean to impose anything more upon your grief.”

Mr Porter said he had known the woman when he was 17 and she was about 16,and they had been champion debaters together. He did not know her well.

At times close to breaking down,Mr Porter said that prior to the story of the rape allegation breaking on the ABC last Friday,no one in the police,politics or the media had put “any substance of any specific allegations to me”.

He had not read the statement written by the woman detailing her account of Porter’s alleged attack on her.

But,he said,“nothing in the allegations that have been printed ever happened”.

He had not raped the woman who accused him.

Read the full analysis here.

Tasmanian independent Senator Jacqui Lambie,who has a key vote on the crossbench,said while she was not the judge of the truth of the allegations against Attorney-General Christian Porter,his position was untenable.

“For so long as there’s an untested allegation of this nature hanging over his head,I can’t see how he can do the job with a straight face,” Senator Lambie said.

“You can’t be the minister saying union officials need to be ‘fit and proper people’ while you’re defending yourself against rape allegations,” she said in a reference to Mr Porter’s role as industrial relations minister.

“You can’t be making the case for harsher penalties for sex offenders when you’re accused of being a sex offender yourself.“

The only way to deal with the allegations,Senator Lambie said,was an independent investigation.
“That’s how we deal with things fairly and transparently,” she said.

Mr Porter has rejected calls for an independent inquiry,arguing it would effectively require him to prove that something “did not happen” decades ago.

Greens MP Adam Bandt has also backed calls for an independent investigation into the rape allegations against Mr Porter,even if there are no foundations for a legal case.

“It’s about standards... it is up to the courts to decide who is innocent and guilty,but it’s up to the Prime Minister to decide who gets to run the country,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne host Raf Epstein this afternoon.

“There are standards that are set and there are standards that are set for ministers... and it’s up to the Prime Minister to decide whether or not someone who’s sitting in his cabinet meets those standards.

“The Prime Minister’s own rules allow that to happen. To help the Prime Minister satisfy himself about that,he can commission independent inquiries. And that is precisely what he should do here,in large part because we have the tragic circumstances[of the complainant’s death].”

Independent MP Zali Steggall has called for an independent inquiry into the allegations against Christian Porter despite the Attorney-General’s denials.

“I think we should have had the Prime Minister announcing an independent inquiry by a retired judge or eminent person,” said Ms Steggall,who represents the Sydney seat of Warringah.

Ideally that would have happened before the Attorney-General revealed himself publicly as the person at the centre of rape allegations from 1988,she said.

“The investigation should have occurred first,” Ms Steggall told ABC TV on Wednesday afternoon.

The Liberal MP for Goldstein in Melbourne,Tim Wilson,rejected Ms Steggall’s calls on the same program,saying the police were the proper body to investigate.

NSW Police closed its investigation on Monday on the basis that there was insufficient evidence they could put before the court.

“There’s nothing to stop all the other evidence that Ms Steggall or others have said may exist out there being provided to the police to conduct a proper independent investigation,” Mr Wilson said.

In South Australia,where the accuser lived and died,police are continuing to investigate on behalf of the coroner.

Early in his prepared statement,Mr Porter drew comparisons between how he believed the media had treated allegations against him,andthose that were levelled against former opposition leader Bill Shorten in 2013.

Victoria Police conducted a 10-month investigation into claims Mr Shorten had raped a 16-year-old girl in 1986,but concluded there was no reasonable prospect of conviction and no charges would be laid.

The Attorney-General today claimed there was no media reporting of the matter involving Mr Shorten,who is opposition spokesman for government services,while a police investigation was under way.

“I followed the rules - I did precisely the same thing the former opposition leader did –and I waited for the police to conduct and conclude the process they apparently had on foot,” he said.

“I make no criticism of the former opposition leader - I now understand what he went through - he also followed the rules and did the difficult thing asked of us all by law enforcement authorities.

“There weren’t any calls for him to stand down or public reporting of anonymous unsourced untested material designed to try him in public while he was duty-bound to remain silent.

“Indeed when something similar happened to the former leader of the opposition everyone followed the accepted process and for a very long time they did that. With me,certain outlets couldn’t even give it a week without trying - possibly convicting me publicly with allegations.”