Tim Wilson takes up his new job later this month. Credit:Justin McManus Others in the community welcomed Wilson's appointment. But certainly, surprise was a common element of many of the reactions, negative and positive. Wilson, who resigned from the IPA and the Liberal Party, is here as the first guest in The Zone for 2014 to discuss his values and intentions, as well as his views on issues including freedom of speech, discrimination, whistleblowing, same-sex marriage, asylum seekers and drugs. A short video statement by Wilson and the full transcript of our interview are at theage.com.au/federal-politics/the-zone. He will be online for an hour from midday to respond to questions and comments. He says he is excited by his new job, and that the IPA's opposition to the commission was based on two notions: that it was failing to focus sufficiently on the rights of the individual and that there is a logical inconsistency in having a government body protect people from the abuse of power by government.

Wilson clearly intends to reposition the commission. He says he is not anti-government per se, nor, obviously, is he against the public institution he is joining. So, what is his overarching view? ''I think the role of the Human Rights Commissioner is really to instil in public discourse and amongst the Australian community a culture of rights and responsibilities. Australia's political tradition evolves out of an idea of the sanctity of individuals and individual rights and that the individual is at the centre of national life and that everybody has a contribution to make. ''Government, while a very worthy and important institution, has its limits, particularly because it can end up suppressing individuals or groups within the community. Human rights are the basis on which we protect people's individuality and their opportunity to go after life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, to borrow a phrase.'' Wilson believes the terms ''left'' and ''right'' have become all but meaningless, and that they just muddy debate. His world view was formed by some revelatory early experiences and evolved when he studied public policy, diplomacy and trade at Monash University. He read much political philosophy and considers himself a ''classical liberal''.

''I believe that human rights are the bedrock and foundation of classical liberal political philosophy, which very much believes in the idea of the individual and that society is at its best when we unleash the maximum potential of the individual.'' Wilson grew up on the Mornington Peninsula, south-east of Melbourne, where as a 13-year-old he observed the effects of the 1992 recession, the one Paul Keating said ''we had to have''. Wilson was struck by the number of shops that closed down. ''It sparked an interest and a connection between the idea of enterprise and commerce and these shops and how they provided people with employment and opportunities and how that reinforced people's economic opportunity and the human consequences when there was not economic activity.'' Several years later, another formative experience cemented his belief in freedom of speech and, generally, in the rights of the individual. He was set to give a speech at a student politics conference but instead found himself enduring a two-hour public debate about whether he should be allowed to address the group, during which he was subjected to verbal abuse.

This helped inform his argument that the Racial Discrimination Act should be amended. Specifically, he wants to see the abolition of Section 18C, which prohibits anyone doing anything in public likely to ''offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate'' a person or a group on the basis of ''race, colour or national or ethnic origin''. Wilson believes this test sets the bar far too low - in effect allowing people to take legal action for hurt feelings. He argues a much better remedy against those who abuse freedom of speech by making offensive, even vile, public statements is to hold those statements up to ridicule and to attack them with rational, decent argument. There is also recourse through defamation laws and anti-bullying and anti-harassment protections. The Age has consistently argued for the abolition of Section 18C, and, in an editorial marking his appointment, welcomed Wilson's support for the position. Equality of opportunity is also fundamental to Wilson's world view. He believes human rights are universal, and are at risk of being undermined when particular groups receive special treatment. He is, for example, wary of special pleading by individual businesses and lobby groups. ''There is a big difference between being pro-enterprise and pro-business. People who want things to be pro-business often want things for their own benefit or for a select number of people's interest.

''I want an open economic system and an open social system so people can progress with minimum interference, so that they are not burdened by regulations which limit what they can achieve.'' One of the issues our new Human Rights Commissioner intends to investigate is asylum seekers. ''One of the first things I have actually asked for before even taking up this role is a full briefing about every different aspect of law and policy and how that is currently in operation, because like everybody else I'm mostly reading this from the front pages of the newspapers. ''But there is, of course, nothing fundamentally wrong from my perspective that the government says people can be detained until their identity is established and their application is processed. The issue is how, how long and how just that detention is.'' But isn't it the case that there is no law against arriving by boat and seeking asylum here, and beyond that, doesn't Australia have an obligation as a founding signatory to the UN Charter on Refugees to accept such people once they have established their bona fides. (Disclosure: I am an ambassador for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.) Wilson won't be drawn on whether he believes there are legal impediments to seeking asylum after arriving, by boat or by plane, without papers, but he is committed to studying the situation from a human rights perspective.

He is dismayed that so many asylum seekers have been in mandatory detention for up to six years, and says people have a fundamental right to seek asylum. He says it is difficult to weigh the rights and needs of people awaiting processing in offshore refugee camps and those who arrive here and seek refugee status. Many of those people have fled places where there is no queue to join. Wilson says the hardest thing he has ever had to do was come out of the closet as gay, which he did when he was 18. ''In one sense you go to hell and you have to haul yourself back, or that was my experience. But it steels you against anything else you ever deal with in your life because by comparison it seems stupid and trivial that somebody doesn't like you.'' Coming out, he says, was also ''the greatest gift'' because in confronting his fears of rejection he found the strength to simply be himself. ''I am a better, happier, more fulfilled person.''

He understands and to some extent supports those who advocate a change in the law so that same-sex couples can marry in the same way as heterosexual couples. But his position is nuanced. ''I would like to see it changed not through the simple way of just changing the law and saying 'a man and woman' becomes 'two people'. I would like to see it [happen] because government gets out of marriage or that we set up some sort of new competitive system of marriage contracts, because that is a better way of protecting religious freedom while also protecting the rights of the individual.'' He does not think people should be looking exclusively to the government for the solution to marriage discrimination against same-sex couples - he wants the state removed from the entire process. He is urging people to subvert the status quo by creating their own marriage contracts. ''If you are relying on government as the source of the legitimacy of your relationship, I actually think you've completely misunderstood your own self-worth.'' One type of person with a robust sense of self-worth and of the rights of individuals is the whistleblower. While Prime Minister Tony Abbott and others in government describe Edward Snowden, who leaked copious information from the US National Security Agency about governments' surveillance of individuals, as a ''traitor'', Wilson is sympathetic to those who see him as a ''hero and a freedom fighter''.

''I think he was probably well within his rights to go out there and say publicly that he is aware of it and this is what's going on and he was in a privileged position to disclose that.'' But, in line with his theme of rights and responsibilities, Wilson also believes that Snowden - and another high-profile distributor of leaked information, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange - should have stopped short of releasing huge amounts of unedited material. Wilson suggests it would have been better to release limited information to demonstrate the issues. ''He has a right and, in one sense, a responsibility to whistleblow on the United States government, but you can't trade off that to abrogate all other responsibilities that damage the country, particularly if he hasn't even read everything that he's dumping out into the public domain.'' Home is the place where many people exercise liberty. Most people who use drugs do so recreationally - and relatively safely - in the privacy of their own homes. Wilson says he has ''always had a pretty negative view of illicit drugs''. But that does not mean he supports their prohibition. ''The more I have learnt about the prohibition movement, the more I see the same failed policies being replicated on illicit drugs.''

He does not have a formal position of how society should manage illicit drugs, but believes education ought to be central and that people with substance-use problems should be treated in the health system, rather than in the criminal justice system. Several years ago Portugal decriminalised all drugs, a policy that has successfully reduced harm and one he says that should be used to inform debate here. He says he favours decriminalisation, and will be watching events in the US, where more and more states are legalising cannabis, following a number of places in Europe. Above all, Wilson argues innovation, leadership and change come primarily from the ground up, rather than being handed down by government, and that protecting individuals from undue government intervention is the key to thriving, fair and prosperous societies. ''When you unleash your full self, you can give so much more to yourself and to the world and to the community.'' Loading

The Zone is about activism and advocacy. It seeks to bring fresh thoughts into the free market for idea. It is collaborative, presenting arguments for moving from what is the case to what ought to be the case. EMAIL: mshort@theage.com.au

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