The attorney general sent the request to the human rights commission head in a move Labor called a ‘disgraceful attack’ on a statutory agency

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The Abbott government asked the president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs, to resign ahead of the publication of the commission’s critical report into children in detention.



Guardian Australia can confirm the resignation request, reported in the Age on Friday, and understands it was relayed to Triggs on behalf of the attorney general, George Brandis, by the secretary of his department, Chris Moraitis. It is understood that Triggs was offered another position in the same conversation.

Government backbenchers have also ramped up their public calls for her resignation and threatened a parliamentary inquiry into “bias” in her organisation.



Triggs is understood to have refused to resign from her position. She was appointed the president in July 2012 for a five-year term and can be removed for bankruptcy or serious misconduct only. She is understood to have the support of her fellow commissioners, who all approved the report before publication.

It is understood Triggs has been unable to arrange meetings with the prime minister or the new immigration minister or, in recent weeks, the attorney general. The commission has said it would welcome a public inquiry into its work.

“I have more confidence in getting impartial advice from Green Left Weekly than from Gillian Triggs,” the Queensland backbencher George Christensen told the Australian on Friday.



Christensen chairs the House of Representatives social policy and legal affairs committee which has had early discussions about terms of reference for an inquiry into allegations of “systemic bias” in the commission.



“She has effectively sidelined herself and the HRC from having any credibility with the Abbott government. If she wants to do the right thing by the commission and have their views listened to by the government again, she needs to tender her resignation,’’ he said.



Another committee member, Queensland LNP senator Barry O’Sullivan, told the 7.30 Report: “It’s no doubt a question that she is asking herself at the moment as to whether she has the confidence of the government, the confidence of the nation.”



The Tasmanian backbencher Andrew Nikolic said her position was “absolutely untenable”.



The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said the government’s move was “a disgraceful attack by the attorney general on a statutory agency in his own portfolio”.



“The first law officer should be defending the independence of the national guardian of human rights,” he said.



A Greens spokeswoman, Sarah Hanson-Young, said the “bullying and intimidation from the Abbott government is all about trying to shut down dissent”.



“The government thought it could scare Gillian Triggs out of her job, but it turns out they picked on the wrong person. Good government shouldn’t have to resort to brutish, bully-boy tactics like this.”



After the government released the Forgotten Children report on Wednesday night – having received it in November – Tony Abbott described it as a “transparent stitch-up” and a “blatantly partisan exercise”.



Launching the report, Triggs said: “I totally reject any suggestion that this report is a politicised exercise. The facts, frankly, speak for themselves and this report speaks for itself.”



The report is critical of both Coalition and Labor policy on immigration detention and records the decline in the number of children in detention after the 2013 election, but the government is angry the commission did not launch the investigation during Labor’s administration.



The report found that more than 300 children committed or threatened self-harm in a 15-month period in Australian immigration detention, 30 reported sexual assault, nearly 30 went on hunger strike and more than 200 were involved in assaults.

