Industry Minister Christian Porter.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The order said the information may be disclosed “to the South Australian State Coroner and Senior Counsel Assisting the State Coroner,Stephen Plummer,and such other persons as each of them may authorise for the purpose of the investigation into the death of a person referred to in the unredacted defence”.
A temporary suppression order over the 27 pages wasmade by Justice Jayne Jagot in May,pending an anticipated pre-trial application by Mr Porter to strike them out and remove them from the court file on the basis that they contained “scandalous” and “vexatious” material,or material that was “otherwise an abuse of the process”.
Mr Porter agreed in May towithdraw his high-stakes defamation case against the ABC,although the proceedings have not yet been officially discontinued.
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As part of a settlement deed,the ABC and Mr Porter agreed to seek a court order that the 27 pages “be permanently removed from the court file”. The pages are redacted in thepublicly available version of the defence.
Nine,the publisher of this masthead,and News Corp have argued that the unredacted defence should not be removed from the court file,as they seek to access the suppressed material. Justice Jagot will deliver her decision on whether the material should remain on the court file on Friday.
Mr Porter had claimed an article on the ABC’s website defamed him in a number of ways,including by suggesting he “brutally raped a 16-year-old girl in 1988”,when he was 17,and this contributed to her taking her own life last year,after she told NSW Police that she did not wish to pursue her complaint. He strenuously denies the claims.