A high-profile advocate of the woman who accused Christian Porter of raping her 30 years ago has been awarded more than $400,000 in costs after the federal court forced the former attorney general’s barrister to stand down during an ABC defamation case.
Jo Dyer, a former chief executive of the Sydney writers’ festival, became one of the most prominent advocates of Porter’s deceased accuser after the former attorney general outed himself as the unnamed minister in an ABC story revealing a dossier detailing the rape claim had been circulated to politicians.
The dossier contained allegations by the woman that Porter had raped her in January 1988 when she was 16 and he was 17. Porter has strenuously and repeatedly denied the allegations.
When Porter sued the ABC for defamation over the story, Dyer began her own legal action, seeking to block barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC from acting for him.
Dyer argued successfully that Chrysanthou had a potential conflict arising out of a meeting about a separate matter between the two women in November 2020. A federal court judge ruled in May 2021 the lawyer had received confidential information which was relevant to the case and could present a “danger of misuse”.
Four days later Porter dropped his case against the ABC, despite failing to secure an apology or retraction from the public broadcaster. Instead, the ABC agreed to pay mediation costs and publish an editor’s note stating it “regretted” that some readers had “misinterpreted” the article “as an accusation of guilt against” Porter.
The separate case between Dyer and Chrysanthou has continued to make its way through the courts. Following the decision that Chrysanthou should stand aside, lawyers for her and Porter sought to have the costs claim reduced, as well as access to timesheets and invoices to challenge the claim.
But in a brief hearing on Wednesday, national judicial registrar Tim Luxton found Dyer was entitled to costs of $430,200 as part of a lump-sum payment. The costs order applies to both Chrysanthou and Porter.
The ruling is complicated by the fact that lawyers for Porter last year announced the former attorney general would appeal the decision to bar Chrysanthou – despite his having ended the defamation case against the ABC.
In a case management hearing in October, justice John Middleton asked Porter’s barrister, Callan O’Neill, if the appeal was related to costs, to which the lawyer replied: “On one view, costs, but also a matter of principle.”
In November, a judge dismissed an attempt by Porter to access notes he claimed would assist the appeal, and made another costs order related to the exercise. The appeal is likely to be heard in February.
Dyer has since launched a political career of her own. In December, she announced her intention to run for the marginal South Australian seat of Boothby as an independent, held by the retiring Liberal MP Nicolle Flint on a margin of 1.4%.
In a video announcing her campaign, Dyer said she had “been involved in a campaign for women’s justice” and that she had “experienced first hand the way this government has treated that broad sweeping campaign as just another political problem preferably to be ignored, and if not ignored, managed”.
