Through its attack on Gillian Triggs, the Federal Government has allowed Labor to avoid scrutiny for its own role in allowing children to suffer in detention, writes Annabel Crabb.
Of all the weird developments in the past week – and this is a period, keep in mind, during which Foreign Minister Julie Bishop conducted an interview communicating only in emoji – surely the strangest is this: the Australian Labor Party now fancies itself to be on the moral high ground, refugee policy-wise.
The airwaves were full this morning of Labor figures denouncing the Government’s treatment of Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs.
The Australian Federal Police, no less, has been invited by the Opposition to examine the circumstances under which the secretary of the Attorney General’s department, Chris Moraitis, came to wander past Professor Triggs’ office to let her know that the Attorney General had lost confidence in her impartiality, and would be open to her spending a little more time with her family, or at any rate in another part of the organisation (accounts differ as to the exact terms of this interaction, but it seems roughly agreed that Professor Triggs was in some way encouraged to pop her clogs).
Related: Explain to me: Who is Gillian Triggs and what has she done?
This is the bipartisan miracle of the Government’s extraordinary attack on Professor Triggs: It’s given 95 per cent of the elected population of Parliament House something else to talk about besides children in detention.