Gillian Triggs decries ‘Orwellian post-truth politics’

Gillian Triggs says the government has turned to ‘post-truth’ politics.

Gillian Triggs said yesterday that Australian governments had resorted­ to populism when it came to asylum-seekers, refugees and terrorism. Picture: Gary Ramage

Gillian Triggs, the former president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, has accused the government of succumbing to “post-truth” politics in which evidence-based policy is rejected in favour of populist decision-­making that “responds to fear”.

Professor Triggs said yesterday that Australian governments had resorted­ to populism when it came to asylum-seekers, refugees and terrorism. She suggested the same-sex marriage debate was also taking place in the new “post-truth” climate and disputed claims that there were insufficient protections for religious freedoms.

Speaking at the Australian National­ University in Canberra, Professor Triggs said that religious freedoms were upheld in the Constitution. “It’s one of the best-protected­ rights under Australian law,” she said. “Yet we now have a full-on daily campaign to argue that we do not have the right of adequat­e protection of religious freedom in this country.”

Professor Triggs, who is now a vice-chancellor’s fellow at the University of Melbourne, also identified an “extraordinary” and “unprecedented” growth in executive decision-making, contrary to the separation of powers.

She pointed to the recent critic­ism of the Victorian judiciary by a trio of government ministers­ who narrowly escaped contempt charges after apologising to the court. “We’ve seen a corresponding diminution in the role of the courts,” Professor Triggs said.

She warned that truth was being increasingly manipulated by political forces, as in George Orwell­’s novel 1984.

“I think we are coming closer and closer to that every day as information is manipulated in the interests of party politics,” she said.

“A culture of post-truth has enabled government and parliament to reject evidence-based reports by credible agencies in favour of populist decision-making that denies the truth and responds to fear. This is particularly the case in relation to refugees and asylum-seekers, to terrorism, to conflict, and to criminal matters in general.”

Professor Triggs extended her criticism to public servants and questioned their ethics in the provision of advice. “I think there has been a definite trend in Australia for public servants to be more concerned about doing what the minister has asked them to do,” she said. “I think that they have not always­ met the ethical underpinnings of good government.”

She also returned to the issue of her report into children in immig­ration detention, accusing the Coal­ition government of politicising and ignoring her findings.

She argued that the political messaging had made it hard for the report to cut through. “One of the greatest myths that we had so much trouble dealing with is the myth that you need to treat people in these inhuman and illegal ways in order to stop the boats and to save drownings at sea.”