The private lives of Attorney-General Christian Porter and fellow cabinet minister Alan Tudge were exposed in a Four Corners expose.
A secret affair between married Mr Tudge and former media adviser Rachelle Miller was revealed on the ABC’s Four Corners on Monday night.
Mr Tudge, in charge of the portfolio for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, was charged with having an affair with Ms Miller when he was Minister for Human Services in 2017, before then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull introduced a ‘bonk ban’ in February 2018 to stop politicians from having sexual relationships with staff members in their office.
Ms Miller said she has lived to ‘bitterly regret’ the affair and said she “lost a lot of self-confidence” because she felt powerless and like she “was being used as an ornament”.
Later, at a Canberra bar, an “obviousy quite drunk” Mr Porter approached Ms Miller. She said: “They came up to me and said, ‘you look really great. You look really hot. Of course Alan, being the media tart that he is would want to have you on his arm when he walked into the ball with all the cameras there. He’s a total media genius, you know, to have you walk in with him.’”
She eventually left a job she loved because she could see there was no other way out.
Following the airing of the show, Mr Tudge said he deeply regretted his actions.
“Tonight, matters that occurred in my personal life in 2017 were aired on the ABC’s Four Corners program,” he said.
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“I regret my actions immensely and the hurt it caused my family. I also regret the hurt that Ms Miller has experienced.”
Mr Porter “categorically rejected” claims about him kissing a woman in a bar in Canberra and that they were in “somewhat of a relationship”. Currently considering legal action, he said the allegations were “totally false” and he disputed an account given by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull of a conversation they had about his behaviour in 2017
