Lawyers demand apology over Triggs’ cartoon comments

Lawyers for cartoonist Bill Leak have demanded AHRC president Gillian Triggs apologise for “inaccurate” comments.

Professor Gillian Triggs, president of the Australian Human Rights Commission. Picture: Kym Smith.

Lawyers representing cartoonist Bill Leak have demanded Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs apologise for “blatantly inaccurate” comments in parliament that he did not defend one of his works that was subject to a complaint under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

In a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday, Professor Triggs said The Australian cartoonist provided “no response” when asked to justify a cartoon depicting a neglectful Aboriginal father and his son. She said the complaint, which was dropped in November, could have been resolved sooner had Leak invoked the defences in section 18D of the act.

“We asked Mr Leak or gave him the opportunity to advise us that he had produced the cartoon in good faith and had he responded by making a good faith point, we would almost certainly have ended the matter precisely at that moment,” Professor Triggs said.

“But despite these two requests to him to justify an 18D basis for the cartoon, we received no response.”

Lawyers for Leak and The Australian yesterday sent a letter demanding an apology, quoting correspondence between them and her delegate, Jodie Ball, sent on October 21 specifically mentioning 18D’s defence clauses for the cartoon.

Liberal senator Ian Macdonald, chairman of the parliamentary committee that questioned Professor Triggs, flagged the possibility she may be recalled to explain this “apparent misleading”.