This post deals with sexual assault and might be triggering for some readers.
On Wednesday afternoon, March 3, Attorney-General Christian Porter identified himself as the cabinet minister who is at the centre of a historical rape allegation.
In a widely watched press conference, 50-year-old Porter tearfully fronted the media as he denied that he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl in 1988.
It comes after a letter was sent to Prime Minister Scott Morrison last Friday, as well as Labor's leader in the Senate Penny Wong and Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, alleging rape by a senior minister before he entered politics.
This week, NSW Police said there was "insufficient admissible evidence" to investigate the alleged incident. The case is now closed.
The complainant first contacted police in 2019, but died by suicide last year.
Following Porter's press conference, where he said the incident did not happen, he would not be standing down, and he had not read the report, Australians were left with a number of questions.
Here are the most pressing, and our attempt to answer them.
1. Is it true that no journalist approached Christian Porter about the historic rape allegations?
During Wednesday's press conference, Christian Porter said:
"Before last Friday, all I can say is that I had heard — I think about November last year — a rumour being spread by a small number of people that I had somehow offended against someone decades ago in a way that was never specified to me.