Sure, attack Triggs. But, PM, what about your law?

I am all for criticising Gillian Triggs over her record for bias and untruths. But Malcolm Turnbull attacking her - inaccurately - for administering the Racial Discrimination Act is like a government blaming the warders for building the jails and passing the laws that filled them. 

I am all for criticising Gillian Triggs over her record for bias and untruths. 

But Malcolm Turnbull attacking her - inaccurately - for administering the Racial Discrimination Act is like a government blaming the warders for building the jails and passing the laws that filled them. 

MALCOLM TURNBULL: There is a, there is and has been, and I have, I have sympathy for this argument and have expressed that in the past, there is a view that the test is, the bar that is set is too low. In other words, in particular that, that proscribing conduct which insults and offends is, is too much of a restriction on free speech. You're obviously trying to get the balance between ensuring that we maintain the courteous discourse and debate that, again, underpin... mutual respect that underpins our strong multicultural society, and on the other hand freedom of speech, which is of critically, critical importance in a democracy. I think the Human Rights Commission has done a great deal of harm to its credibility by bringing the case against the Queensland students. You know, the reality...

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: But doesn't show that it, that 18C works though because...

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, well, well...

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: ...because they ruled against the...

MALCOLM TURNBULL: ...what it shows is that the...

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: It shows the law works.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: What it shows is that the Human Rights Commission must urgently review the way in which it manages these cases. To have a case like that, which will have involved the expenditure of considerable Commonwealth money, taxpayers' money, considerable money on behalf of the students, imposed enormous stress on them, and have it chucked out, struck out as having no reasonable prospects of success; that, what that court was saying, what the judge was saying to the Human Rights Commission is: you've been wasting the court's time, you've been wasting government money.Now, you, frankly, what the Human Rights Commission has, needs to do is reflect on whether in making its decisions as to which cases to pursue and which cases not to pursue, it has been doing so in a manner that enhances the reputation both of the commission and respect for that, for the Racial Discrimination Act.

But the Human Rights Commission did not and could bring the case against the students. It did not bring the case to court. It can only mediate cases brought to it, and the rest is up to the complainer. Turnbull was simply wrong about this aspect. If there's a criticism of the commission, it is that it touts for complaints, seems predisposed to encourage them, exaggerates the problem these laws supposedly address and does not defend the right to free speech.

But back to the real issue: what about changing the Racial Discrimination Act, PM?

PS: And sure, scrap the commission, too.

Originally published as Sure, attack Triggs. But, PM, what about your law?