Australia abuzz after politician's confession

Jim Cairns was an Australian politician of rare charisma; Junie Morosi was his glamorous private secretary, 20 years his junior. Her arrival in Canberra in 1974 sparked gossip and innuendo, but the pair strenuously denied suggestions of a sexual liaison.

Dr Cairns, the Deputy Prime Minister in Gough Whitlam's Labor government, finally confessed last week to an affair with Ms Morosi – and unwittingly exposed them both to the danger of being prosecuted, Lord Archer-style, for perjury and sued for the repayment of libel damages.

Dr Cairns, the leader of anti-war marches and a hero to a generation of anti-Vietnam war protesters, shocked radio listeners when he declared: "I don't think the ordinary person thought I was wrong or a fool in going to bed with Junie Morosi. They thought it was a pretty good thing."

"Did you go to bed with Junie Morosi?" asked the astonished interviewer.

"Yes," replied Dr Cairns.

The admission was greeted with interest by Australia's two newspaper groups, Fairfax and Rupert Murdoch's News Limited. In a 1982 action against The National Times, a now defunct Fairfax paper, Dr Cairns told a libel jury that he "never" had an adulterous relationship with Ms Morosi. She had already been awarded A$17,000 (£6,000) against The Mirror, a News Limited paper, and A$10,000 (£3,500) against a radio station, 2GB.

Dr Cairns, now 87, had previously acknowledged only that he had "a kind of love" for Ms Morosi. Both were married when she joined his staff. Ms Moroni was strikingly clever with exotic looks, inherited from her Italian father and Portuguese mother, both of whom had Chinese blood. The couple used a friend's flat in Canberra, and Ms Moroni also accompanied Dr Cairns on overseas trips.

Ms Morosi, now 69, told the libel jury the suggestion that she was Dr Cairns' girlfriend was "demeaning". "I saw myself as a professional, as a competent person doing her job." Last week she said briskly that, while she had no regrets about the relationship, "talk of the sexual aspect is distracting to my professionalism".

Dr Cairns, whose wife Gwen died two years ago, appeared to be ruing his admission. "I'm sick and tired of hearing about it," he said.