Gillian Triggs ‘jamming language code down throats’ says Dutton

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has launched a scathing attack on HRC president Gillian Triggs.

Peter Dutton has demanded that Gillian Triggs resigns. Picture: AAP

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has launched a scathing attack on Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs, demanding she resign as he accused her of “jamming” an unnecessary “language code” down Australians’ throats.

Gillian Triggs. Picture: Hollie Adams

The cabinet minister, who has called for Professor Triggs’ resignation in the past, also said people would not “tolerate” The Australian’s cartoonist Bill Leak being “raked over the coals” for drawing a controversial cartoon depicting an Aboriginal man who has forgotten his son’s name.

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Leak and The Australian are being investigated by the commission under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act after Melissa Dinnison lodged a complaint arguing the cartoon was “racially offensive”.

The HRC has split on whether to reform section 18C, with Professor Triggs saying replacing the words “offend” and “insult” with “vilify” could strengthen the law.

But Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane says there is “no case” for change – a position also taken by Labor.

Asked on 2GB radio if Professor Triggs, whose term ends halfway through next year, should resign, Mr Dutton said: “Yes, it’s a no brainer.

“Her performance on the 7.30 Report the other night with Leigh Sales was nothing short of humiliating. Her evidence that has been commented on (during a parliamentary committee) again was humiliating. She’s a lady that is earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from the taxpayer.

“The case with Bill Leak, Australians want freedom of speech, they want to be able to talk to their mates in a sensible way without political correct nonsense. They don’t want to have Gillian Triggs and other officials out of Canberra jamming down some sort of language code down their throat.

“For a cartoonist in this country to be raked over the coals when he’s just expressing thought and putting his words into pictures, people won’t tolerate that. So Gillian Triggs should do the right thing absolutely.”

It comes as the Singapore-born Liberal MP who chairs federal parliament’s new free-speech inquiry has rejected a Labor claim that only “white men of a certain age” want to change race-hate laws, amid fears the debate over reform will descend into personal slurs.

‘Stop nanny state enforcement’

Liberal senator Eric Abetz has urged the Human Rights Commission to “stop its nanny state enforcement” and back change to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Senator Abetz also hit out at Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane’s “ham-fisted” approach after he insisted there was “no case” to change the law.

“Despite the (HRC) president Gillian Triggs being dragged kicking and screaming to support changes to 18C, the Race Discrimination Commissioner is defending the indefensible,” Senator Abetz said.

“This contribution from Dr Soutphommasane shows that the Human Rights Commission is incapable of changing its own ways and that the only way to stop the oppressive enforcement is to change 18C.

“It is deeply troubling to have a quasi-government body seeking to enforce this law and stifle free speech on Facebook posts, as we saw with the QUT students case, and actively calling for submissions to shut down the media but worse still is that the Race Discrimination Commissioner can’t see that there is any problem with this ham-fisted approach.”