
The government is bullying, hounding and trying to get rid of Gillian Triggs. And we need to care about it.
It’s clear as day. It’s as dark as mud.
The government is bullying, hounding and trying to get rid of the President of the Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs.
It’s easy to just shake your head and look away from the unedifying brawl. But we need to care.
Not just because this is an obvious attack on a professional woman. Not just because it shows that when criticised, our fearless leaders in the Abbott government come out swinging like thugs in the playground.
We should also care because of the playground. Because the democracy of Australia is not a plaything.
Here’s the background:
In February, Professor Triggs spoke out about Australia’s treatment of children in immigration detention in a report that criticised both the previous Labor government and the current government. In response, the government declared it had lost confidence in her and the Attorney General offered her a job overseas. She refused and revealed the offer in a Senate Estimates Hearing. A newspaper columnist, sympathetic to the government, criticised Gillian Triggs’ the way she treated her disabled child.
Then, last week Professor Triggs criticised the major political parties for teaming up to pass “scores of laws” over the past 15 years that threatened fundamental rights and freedoms.
She also made comments about Australia’s policy to push boats back to Indonesia and Indonesia’s refusal to engage with “other issues that we care about, like the death penalty”