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.

[6] Chilla's father, Charles Robert Porter, was a Queensland Liberal state MP between 1966 and 1980 and served in the ministry of Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

Porter later studied at the London School of Economics for a Master of Science in political theory, from which he graduated with distinction at the top of his class.

[13] Prior to entering Parliament, Porter worked predominantly as a lawyer, starting as a commercial litigator at Clayton Utz before moving to public practice.

He spent a year as an advisor to the Federal Minister for Justice and then began working for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions as a senior state prosecutor.

[14] Porter was first elected to the Parliament of Western Australia in the now defunct seat of Murdoch in the February 2008 by-election following the death of the standing member Trevor Sprigg.

[17] In 2009, Porter proposed Western Australia follow the other states by introducing legislation that would prevent members of outlaw motorcycle gangs associating with each other.

[20] In 2011, Porter fought against a court decision to award a sexual assault victim compensation of A$40,000 as she was smoking amphetamines with her attacker when the offences occurred.

[32] In 2016, Centrelink, operating under Porter's senior oversight as Social Services Minister, became involved in the Robodebt recovery controversy.

Despite heightened media interest and complaints, after meeting with the Department of Human Services,[33] Porter stated that the program was working "incredibly well".

[37] In May 2020, Porter (now in the position of Attorney-General rather than Social Services Minister) conceded that the Robodebt recovery scheme had "no legal basis" and was "unlawful" but refused to apologise for it.

[44] During his time in this ministry, Porter was instrumental in the formation of the Coalition policy of performing drug tests on welfare recipients, which was criticised by experts, since there was no evidence anywhere in the world of a similar project working.

[46] This section of the legislation was eventually dropped to allow the passage of the remaining elements of the bill, which contained large budget cuts to the welfare system.

[47][48] Porter was criticised for skipping the final sittings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in order to attend a cricket match with John Howard.

After the reshuffle, some of the national security powers and responsibilities previously held by the Attorney-General were transferred to the new position of Minister for Home Affairs, which was given to Peter Dutton.

Porter and the Federal Police said the restrictive privacy when it comes to security matters, "may justify very large incursions on the freedom" of individuals.

Porter hailed the negotiations as a success, with McManus stating that; "We had been concerned that several employer groups had been advocating for a widespread removal of workers' rights akin to WorkChoices".

[61] Scott Morrison said this was a compromise due to advice from the solicitor-general regarding whether Porter could remain Attorney General while taking legal action against the ABC.

[61] Porter resigned from cabinet on 19 September 2021 after concerns that he had accepted anonymous donations via a blind trust to cover his legal expenses.

[66] In July 2022 Porter was acting for underworld figure Mick Gatto in a defamation case against the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

[68] On 28 March 2023, Porter was engaged by Zeph Investments, Clive Palmer's Singapore-based company, to represent them in a lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Australia for AUD$296 billion over the alleged loss of contractual entitlement, "moral damages" and "sovereign risk", in relation to an iron ore project for which Palmer's company, Mineralogy, had already lost a lawsuit.

[3] In November 2020, it was alleged on Four Corners that, although married, Porter had kissed and cuddled a colleague's political staffer in a public setting.

[95][96] In September 2021, Porter revealed to Federal Parliament in an interest declaration that the defamation case was funded in part by an anonymous donor, though he did not indicate the value of the donation nor his overall legal fees.