GILLIAN KEEPS ON WRONGING RIGHTS

The Human Rights Commission attacks cartoonists, columnists and university students. But look at who the Human Rights Commission defends.

Triggs: unelected and out of control

The Human Rights Commission attacks cartoonists, columnists and university students. But look at who the Human Rights Commission defends.

If you’re a university student who has made an observation on Facebook about racial issues, Gillian Triggs’s HRC will set about costing you money. If you’re a thief, a child pornography collector, a convicted child molester or a liar, however, the HRC will score you a nice payout:

Bosses are being forced to pay compensation to crims who lodge a discrimination claim when they are sacked over their criminal records.

Already under fire on a number of fronts, the Australian Human Rights Commission has told employers to compensate or apologise to criminals who lied on their job application forms.

A company that sacked a storeman after discovering his convictions for burglary and theft had to pay him a staggering $2900 and give him a reference after a secret conciliation session with the AHRC.

An assistant store manager convicted for possession of child pornography pocketed $2000 for “hurt and suffering’’ after he was sacked over the four-year-old offence.

ANZ Bank was told to apologise to a convicted armed robber who it refused to hire as an IT project manager.

And a liquor store shelled out $5000 in compo to a sales assistant who was sacked for lying about his conviction for “indecent dealings with a minor’’ five years earlier.

This is obscene. Even more so is the Human Rights Commission’s twisted justification for these decisions:

The AHRC said employers should only ask job applicants and employees to disclose a criminal record if it is relevant to the job and employees should not have to disclose spent convictions.

Shut it down. Sack every commissioner. Destroy the HRC. And in another perverse HRC development, Melissa Dinnison has withdrawn her racial hatred claim against Bill Leak – and suffered absolutely no penalty whatsoever. Bill is justifiably furious:

“It shows what a farcical process this is. I’ve got News Corp backing me legally. But if I was a private citizen, this would have cost me an absolute fortune.

“She has put me through a month or so of incredible stress. She never met me, she doesn’t have to justify anything she does. No one asked her any questions and it doesn’t cost her a cent. As a consequence my life has been thrown into utter chaos. And at time when it just happens to suit her, she just decides this could turn into a bit of a hassle, so she can withdraw it.”

Something about processes and punishment comes to mind.