I Know the Balmin Gillian Will Make Me Hold Again

Stand with heroic Gillian Triggs

• 25 October 2016

55 Comments

This damnable pursuit of Gillian Triggs must stop at once. The Human Rights Commission has called out the government's lamentable failure to protect the human rights of children in detention at an inconvenient time. No government likes watchdogs on the moral and legal limits on its power.

Our Chaser-Full general George Brandis does not empathise the use of the law to protect fundamental human rights and freedoms. Nor does he respect such niceties as the constitutional independence of the solicitor general, Justin Gleeson, who has honourably vacated the field to preserve the rule of law.

Triggs is an outstanding independent statutory role holder, 1 of the many appointed by governments over decades to remind them of Commonwealth of australia's international human rights obligations and to oversee the functions of laws to mitigate social wrongs such as age, race, disability and sex discrimination.

This is an essential chemical element of a representative democracy. Civil liberties and homo rights must be protected from obstinacy, expediency and ignorance.

I have practised police force for 45 years, every bit a partner and possessor of my own law house, as a full-time consultant in a now international law firm, and every bit a barrister.

I accept besides held statutory appointments set past governments to protect people from bigotry, persecution and corruption, among them commissioner for equal opportunity in Victoria and in Western Australia and hearings commissioner of the Homo Rights and Equal Opportunity Committee (HREOC or AHRC). None of these offices are ever popular with governments, or with those who wish to rent and fire at will or ridicule, despise and encourage detestation of unpopular minority interests.

Courts have limited or removed such bodies' power to determine complaints and grievances. For instance, when I was AHRC hearings commissioner the commission had a statutory, quasi-judicial formative power to hear and uphold or dismiss complaints, just this has now passed over to the judicial arm of federal authorities. The commission, having lost its decision-making ability, is at present pursued fifty-fifty if it expresses an stance, for example, on Neb Leak'south unpleasant Ancient cartoon in The Australian.

"The constabulary has fallen short in protecting rights and freedoms in Australia. We demand to do something braver and more than central. We must respect the moral core of the law which, until Triggs said information technology out loud, our federal governments comfortably overlooked."

All legislation has sharp edges that cut both means, and the Constitution also has teeth to protect the Commonwealth's judicial power from encroachment or attack. We demand balanced and sane discussion, both of which take been absent from public debate for far too long.

Protecting civil liberties and private human being rights and preserving the dominion of police are the greatest challenges to the post-modern age. Waves of globalised investment and economic downturns and technological innovation create uncertainty, insecurity, and waves of workless people. Police force provides for order, but commonwealth as well requires that people feel they can influence and control of their personal circumstances. Resilience requires an internal locus of control.

The law has fallen short in protecting rights and freedoms in Australia. We need to practise something braver and more central. We must respect the moral core of the law which, until Triggs said it out loud, our federal governments have comfortably overlooked.

The function of judges and courts in developing the law by reference to homo rights standards, where those rights are clearly and direct affected, is a legitimate and important influence on the rule of law. It is illegitimate to deny this office in even the AHRC's ability to inquire and report. Nonetheless this has long been a feature of Australian political life, particularly with regard to Australia'southward treatment of children, especially Aboriginal and asylum seeking children.

Children demand adult champions to protect their interests and to claim their rights. Nearly oft these are there parents. They are powerless in detention, on Nauru or on Hand.

There may be no effective remedy for the breach of a right, but as the late Scottish legal philosopher Neil MacCormack pointed out, sometimes a right is so clearly 'of such importance that it would be wrong to deny it or withhold it from any member' of our human club; that information technology must exist, a remedy must be found, and the person who ought to fulfil the duties attached to it identified and made to act.

John Stuart Mill argued it would be unjust to punish children for their parents' irresponsibility, poor judgment or poverty. The police must provide means to ensure that children's rights are protected, not only through their families. Triggs, the Human Rights Commission and their state and territory counterparts are there to remind publicly those who are privileged or unthinking that there are of import human rights claims to be considered.

Jailers know nothing about child welfare. It is not their business. Politicians choose to prefer the business of politics than the authority of the dominion of law. Triggs offended Abbott and Brandis by speaking truth to ability. Her verbal 'sideslip' nether bullying last week about the accurateness of a headline in a pocket-sized weekend newspaper was no prevarication, merely provided an opportunity to incite hate.

Janusz Korczak wrote: 'Children are not the people of tomorrow, only people today. They are entitled to be taken seriously. They have a right to be treated by adults with courtesy and respect, as equals. They should be immune to grow into whoever they were meant to be — the unknown person inside each of them is the hope for the future.'

Triggs, in speaking out for those rights, is a hero. Stand with her.

---

Moira Rayner is a barrister and author.

Topic tags: Moira Rayner, Gillian Triggs

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