Triggs replacement ready to ‘reset’ relationship with government

The new Human Rights Commission president has pledged to reset relations with the federal government.

New Human Rights Commission president Rosalind Croucher in Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage

The new Australian Human Rights Commission president, Rosalind Croucher, has pledged to “reset” relations with the Turnbull government following the departure of Gillian Triggs.

Professor Croucher, who has served for three months in the role, told a Senate estimates hearing that she saw her ­appointment as an “important opportunity to reset the relationship” with government.

She also noted HRC was an “extraordinarily well functioning” organisation which was contacted each year by about 15,000 people, leading to the lodging of about 2000 formal complaints with nearly all resolved through conciliation.

“The number of complaints that end up in court are very, very few,” Professor Croucher said. “With respect to race discrimination complaints last year there were around 500. So, that’s 500 of the 2000. And only one of those ended up in court.

“(It) points to a very high success rate of the conciliation process itself. Of those that are conciliated, about 75 per cent are conciliated successfully.”

Particular areas of interest for the new president, appointed for a seven-year term, included a deeper engagement with business on human rights issues, as well as advancing “cultural change” through further work with groups such as the NRL and AFL. “They’re the things I think in the long term we should be extremely proud of,” she said.

Professor Croucher defended contentious anti-racism ads running as community service ­announcements and which cost the commission $18,000.

One of the advertisements features a man holding open an elevator for a white woman but he fails to do the same for a black woman running towards the lift.