Gillian Triggs throws her support behind Greens candidate

Gillian Triggs has revealed she is backing the Greens candidate in her home seat in the federal election due by May.

Former Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs. Picture: Kym Smith

Gillian Triggs — lauded by the Left and attacked by the Right during a five-year term as Australia’s human rights commissioner — has revealed she is backing the Greens candidate in her home seat in the federal election due by May.

She said she was backing the Greens’ Steph Hodgins-May in the Melbourne seat of ­Macnam­ara because her values aligned with those of the minor party’s candidate.

Professor Triggs sparked ­national controversies over her inquiries into children in detention and the case of the Queensland University of Technology students who faced action over objecting to being evicted from an indigenous-only computer room.

The Australian has obtained a speech Professor Triggs made to 500 Greens members and supporters in Melbourne on Sunday, endorsing Ms Hodgins-May in the seat that covers the bayside suburbs of St Kilda, Port Phillip and South Melbourne.

Macnamara, formerly known as Melbourne Ports and held by outgoing Labor MP Michael Danby, is a three-cornered contest. Labor won in 2016, despite a primary vote of just 27 per cent, ­because of Greens ­preferences.

Professor Triggs, who was ­accused by Coalition MPs of being partisan after launching an inquiry on children in immigration just months after Tony Abbott was elected as prime minister, said parliame­ntary politics was letting Australians down. She hailed the Greens for their commitment to tackling climate change and their policies on refugees.

“My reason for supporting Steph is because of her personal commitment to good policy and to the political values that have been important to me as a former ­president of the AHRC,” Professor Triggs said.

“Steph, as a member of the Greens, is committed to the scienc­e of climate change and will ­represent community concerns to protect the planet and work for sustainable practices in Australia and globally to meet our Paris ­targets. I have said I support Steph because­ of the policies she and the Greens advocate, but she is also a smart lawyer who can use her analytic­al skills to gather her facts and develop coherent policies under the rule of law.”

Professor Triggs’s speech was criticised by Coalition MPs, including ­Attorney-General Christian Porter, but lauded by Greens leader Richard Di Natale, who said: “She’s taken that decision ­because she’s seen the Greens’ track record on human rights and (she’s seen the Greens) deliver on key issues like refugees, marriage equality and climate change.’’

Professor Triggs told The Australian she supported Ms Hodgins-May personally rather than her party. “I am not a supporter of any party but consider certain issues important,” she said in a statement. “In this instance, I support Ms Hodgins-May as the candidate in my electorate that best reflects my values on these issues­.”

Professor Triggs was criticised by senior Coalition figures over the timing of the inquiry into children in immig­ration, as well as for using her position to speak at a fundraiser for the Bob Brown Foundation and supporting racial discrimination complaints — dismissed by the Federal Court — against the three QUT stud­ents.

Mr Porter described her decis­ion to back the Greens’ candidate in Macnamara as “a shocker”.

Cities Minister Alan Tudge said Professor Triggs had “never disguise­d her left-wing views” as leader of the AHRC. “But she would have been more honest had she openly declared her alleg­iances several years ago,” the ­Victorian MP said.

Liberal senator Eric Abetz said the content of Professor Triggs’s speech showed she backed Greens policies as well as the candidate.

“The one good thing about this is that the pretence has stopped. She is now fully endorsing the ­extreme Green policies, which ­explains her bizarre attitude on border protection and providing compensation to a man who killed his wife with a pushbike,” Senator Abetz said.

In her speech on Sunday, Profes­sor Triggs lashed the government for opposing the Kerryn Phelps-­inspired medivac bill, which became law last week with the support of Bill Shorten.

She criticised Labor for failing to take a stronger stand against the government’s treatment of asylum­-seekers. “The opposition has lacked the courage to challenge polices for fear of opening up a chink of light between it and the government of the day,” she said.