EMBATTLED Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs will allow the Australian Bureau of Statistics to discriminate against hiring men partly because they are more likely to commit domestic violence.

The ABS, which plans to ran an eight-month survey on violence, sought a temporary exemption of the Sex Discrimination Act so it can hire only women to carry out interviews

But the move has outraged Conservative Turnbull Government MPs, who have accused the Human Rights Commissioner of reverse sexism and demanded she resign.

The plan has also split male workers within the ABS, who questioned why the Government agency would perpetuate stereotypes and not consider an employee’s qualifications and training.

Professor Triggs granted the ABS the exemption, accepting their submission, which included studies from not-for-profit groups, stating men were more likely to be perpetrators of DV and women were more likely to tell their stories to other women.

Hard-right-leaning Senator Eric Abetz told The Courier-Mail Professor Triggs had showed poor judgment, while Nationals whip and Queensland Federal MP George Christensen said she should reign.

“Professor Triggs who prosecuted teenagers for calling out ‘fighting segregation with segregation’ is now fighting gender inequality with inequality,’’ Senator Abetz said.

“Staff at the Australian Bureau of Statistics have every right to be angry that the Human Rights Commission signed off against merit based appointments.

“This isn’t the first time Professor Triggs has displayed poor judgment and I suspect it sadly won’t be the last.

“It seems the AHRC always prefers extreme political correctness to override commonsense and sound judgment.”

Mr Christensen said Prof Triggs’s decision made little sense.

“Professor Triggs has a funny view on what constitutes sex discrimination. Both men and women are capable of conducting surveys,’’ he said.

“I think that as the Human Rights Commissioner, if Professor Triggs can’t see that the request by the ABS was discrimination on the basis of gender then she should resign.

“I would also question why the ABS is asking to put in place sexist employment practices in the first place.”

A rough week in the gender debate A rough week in the gender debate

The ABS will conduct the research, the personal safety survey, from October 1 to June next year and interview 22,000 adults.

In May, the ABS wrote to the Human Rights Commission seeking an exemption from the Act so it can predominantly use female interviewers and advertise for women only.

Part of evidence to support their claim was that men and women were more inclined to tell sensitive information to women and that most violence is committed by men.



Prof Triggs did not comment yesterday.