Christian Porter

Christian Porter

Charles Christian Porter (born 11 July 1970) is an Australian politician and lawyer who has served as member of parliament (MP) for the division of Pearce since 2013. He previously served as Leader of the House, Minister for Industrial Relations from 2019 to 2021, as Attorney-General of Australia from 2017 to 2021, and as Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science in 2021, holding office as a member of the Liberal Party of Australia. From Perth, Porter attended Hale School, the University of Western Australia and later the London School of Economics, and practised law at Clayton Utz and taught law at the University of Western Australia before his election to parliament. He is the son of the 1956 Olympic silver medallist, Charles "Chilla" Porter, and the grandson of Queensland Liberal politician, Charles Porter, who was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1966 to 1980.Before his election to the federal House of Representatives, Porter had served in the Parliament of Western Australia. He first entered the Legislative Assembly after winning the seat of Murdoch in a 2008 by-election following the death of the sitting member, Trevor Sprigg, and he was subsequently elected to the new seat of Bateman at the 2008 general election. After the Liberals formed government, Porter was appointed Attorney-General in the Barnett Ministry. In December 2010, he was also appointed Treasurer, and held both portfolios until June 2012, when he resigned from the ministry to contest the 2013 federal election. Before assuming his current position, Porter was Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister in the Abbott Government from December 2014 to September 2015, and then Minister for Social Services in the Turnbull Government from September 2015 to December 2017. In March 2021 a historical rape allegation against Porter became public in the midst of the 2021 Australian Parliament House sexual misconduct allegations. Porter denied the claim and launched a defamation case against the ABC. The case was later dropped, with the ABC agreeing to pay all of Porter's mediation costs and appending an editor's note to the original article. Porter resigned from the front bench in September 2021, after media reports revealed that he was a beneficiary of a blind trust relating to his legal action against the ABC. In December of that year, Porter announced his retirement from politics.

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