An Australian cabinet minister accused of rape is set to make a public statement The Australian federal cabinet minister accused of a decades-old rape is considering making a public statement as early as tomorrow to declare his innocence after NSW police closed their investigation because they did not have enough admissible evidence to proceed. The minister has spoken to others about going public after widespread conjecture about his identity and the allegations made to police last year about a rape in Sydney in January 1988. The move would have a clear parallel with a statement from former Australian Labour leader Bill Shorten in August 2014 when Victorian Police closed an investigation into him over an allegation of rape in the 1980s.