To my knowledge, this was being done by staff within the Prime Ministers media team, she wrote.
Mr Morrison later told Parliament in afternoon question time that another person had contacted Mr Kunkel to support Ms Higgins claim. Describing the person as a primary and direct source, Mr Morrison said he had asked Mr Kunkel to investigate the claim of backgrounding with the assistance of the Department of Finance.
We have a process for dealing with that [allegation] and I think it is important that with things like this, that I allow how you deal with these matters to be done properly, Mr Morrison told A Current Affair.
Days after the sacking of a Liberal adviser for filming himself in a solo sex act in a Liberal MPs office, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said he was taking all steps possible to ensure there were consequences for anyone found to have done the wrong thing.
But the government is waiting for staff to volunteer themselves or identify others involved in sharing the images.
The reshuffle, expected within days, will move Mr Porter out of the Attorney-Generals post over concerns of a conflict of interest while he takes defamation action against the ABC over its reporting of an alleged rape, which he denies. While he could remain in his other portfolio of Industrial Relations, another option is to transfer him to the employment portfolio held by Michaelia Cash so she can take his dual portfolio in a job swap. The would limit other changes to the cabinet. An alternative is a similar swap with Communications Minister Paul Fletcher.
The leading contender to replace Senator Reynolds is Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, with Government Services Minister Stuart Robert named as a likely choice for the defence portfolio.
A key concern for the government is that dropping Mr Porter from cabinet and the ministry would be a concession that an accusation was enough for a minister to lose their job.
Mr Morrison commended Mr Porter in Parliament on Thursday on his work in his portfolio and has argued for weeks that it is not for the Prime Minister to judge the claim against him, saying it was a matter for the police.
Asked if he had full confidence in Mr Porter and Senator Reynolds, the Prime Minister told A Current Affair that they would stay in cabinet.
They will continue to play a very important role in my cabinet, he said.
Asked if he would move them to different ministries, he said: When I make judgments about those things Ill announce them.
Mr Morrison criticised Senator Reynolds over some of her response to the alleged rape in her office, saying it was disgraceful she called Ms Higgins a lying cow last month.
He also acknowledged that people in the government failed to give Ms Higgins enough support after the alleged rape in March 2019, even though they were seeking to help.
But they were relying on the very processes that were not up to the job as well, he said.
Mr Morrison said he was gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges for women and believed the country had to deal with the issues so women would not face the daily humiliations and degradations that included but were not limited to violence.
Each and every day, it saps women in this country, he said.
And thats what Im hearing. And I need to keep hearing of because I need to understand that even more deeply than I believe Ive been able to understand in the past month.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese declared Mr Morrison was trying to dodge taking action over sexual harassment and assault.
After eight long years what weve seen over this last fortnight is a tired, stale government thats unravelling before our eyes, disintegrating before our eyes, Mr Albanese told Parliament.
This is a Prime Minister who has an ear of tin, a heart of stone and a wall of concrete to shield him from the concerns of his fellow Australians. He is an angry man who has mastered the rare art of clenching a glass jaw.
Labor education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek questioned whether Mr Morrisons tears in a press conference on Tuesday were all an act about the concerns of women given his angry response to a journalist moments afterwards.
The tragedy for Australian women today is, if we started crying about the women we know who have been raped and murdered and sexually assaulted and sexually harassed, if we started crying for the women that we know that this has happened to, we would never stop, Ms Plibersek said.
She named rape victims Anita Cobby, Janine Balding and Eurydice Dixon as well as Hannah Clarke, who was murdered with her three children by her estranged husband.
I remember all these women. We all do. It takes more than tears, Ms Plibersek said.
It takes legislative change. It takes culture change. It takes working with our young people from their earliest days.
National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line: 1800 737 732. Crisis support can be found at Lifeline: (13 11 14 and lifeline.org.au), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467 and suicidecallbackservice.org.au) and Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636 and beyondblue.org.au).
