This Gillian Triggs situation has never not been a debacle from the moment it began. Which is sad, given that the Government’s focus has been drawn away from what started it in the first place – the Human Rights Commission‘s damning Forgotten Children report – and any fair assessment and implementation of its recommendations.
Following the farcical Senate Estimates hearing in which several Liberal Party senators more or less hung her up like a punching bag and lined up to take swings, Professor Gillian Triggs revelation that the Attorney-General‘s office had attempted to persuade Triggs to leave her post as President of the Human Rights Commission with the dangling carrot of another role being found for her has sent the Government scrambling into containment mode. Primarily because if it’s found to be true, then it constitutes an inducement – or, in other words, a bribe – which would, at the very least, cost a raft of high ranking politicians their jobs.
The official dialogue from the Government has so far been flat out denial – no other position was ever offered to Triggs. If it were, it was entirely coincidental. And the original notes can’t be found anyway so maybe everyone should just drop it and move on.
‘Course that’s simply not good enough for Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. In an extremely heated Question Time session yesterday, Bishop admitted that a specific role in International Law had been discussed for Triggs in a meeting in February.
The Labor Party‘s attack on the Government was sustained and vehement, pointing out the inconsistencies between Prime Minister Tony Abbott‘s assertion that no job offer had been made to Triggs, despite Chris Moriatis – the Secretary of the AGD – admitting in the Senate Estimates hearing that a specific role had, in fact, been discussed.
Bishop confirmed as much in Parliament.
“A role was raised that related to international affairs, the details of which … as the secretary of the Attorney-General’s department said in Senate estimates, it was a sensitive matter that he did not wish to give details of in Senate estimates so I don’t give details of it.”
This, in opposition to the Government’s blanket denial of any such offer or request to resign. Instead, the Government maintains the viewpoint that the Forgotten Children report is little more than a partisan stitch-up, and refuses to even consider any of the recommendations within the report on that basis.
Australia remains the only country in the world who detains child asylum seekers as a first choice option.
The average time spent in detention for a child currently sits at well over 400 days.
That is unacceptable, as is this pointless political bickering.
Photo: Stefan Postles via Getty Images.
