Attorney-General has no confidence in Triggs

Abbott says Government has lost confidence in Triggs

(SMH) February 25, 2015

The Abbott government has been accused of breaching the criminal code by offering Gillian Triggs an incentive to resign as president of the Human Rights Commission.

It came after both Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Attorney-General George Brandis stepped up their attacks on Professor Triggs, accusing her of orchestrating a political stitch-up and losing the confidence of the Australian people.

 Attorney-General Senator George Brandis and Professor Gillian Triggs. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Labor's shadow attorney-general, Mark Dreyfus, has written to the Australian Federal Police commissioner, Andrew Colvin, saying the offer may "constitute corrupt and unlawful conduct". He has asked that the matter be investigated as a priority for possible referral to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. The Greens are set to request their own investigation.

The secretary of the Attorney-General's department, Chris Moraitis, on Tuesday confirmed that Professor Triggs was told a senior role would be available if she resigned after being told she no longer had the confidence of Attorney-General, George Brandis.

Mr Moraitis denied explicitly linking Professor Triggs' resignation to the job offer and said he did not take the offer as "an inducement" and did not use the word "resignation" during a meeting with Professor Triggs on February 3.

On the attack: Prime Minister Tony Abbott in Parliament on Tuesday. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

But he conceded under questioning from Labor and Greens senators that "one would flow from the other", effectively confirming that the job offer was contingent upon Professor Triggs accepting that her position was untenable.

As Prime Minister Tony Abbott escalated his attack on Professor Triggs in the Parliament, accusing her of losing the confidence of the Australian people, she signalled a determination to resist political pressure to resign.

"I believe I am very able to carry out the work of the commission and that I have the support of the commissioners and the staff," a defiant Professor Triggs said during a day-long appearance before a Senate committee.

Confirmation that Professor Triggs had been offered an incentive to resign, reported exclusively in Fairfax Media on February 13, prompted Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young to declare during the hearing: "It sounds like a bribe, it smells like a bribe. What we're trying to work out is whether it is."

Senator Hanson-Young later said the Greens were considering a formal referral to the Australian Federal Police.

"This is an extremely serious case. If a position was offered, as an inducement to encourage the President to resign, that would be a clear breach of the Criminal Code," she said.

"The government is obsessed with shutting down dissent and, this time, may have gone too far."

Labor's Senate leader, Penny Wong, said Senator Brandis's attack on Professor Triggs and his failure to defend the commission "shows he is unfit to be the Attorney".

Mr Moraitis told the Senate committee he had visited Professor Triggs on February 3 and conveyed three messages: that the Attorney-General had lost confidence in Professor Triggs as president of the commission; that he retained significant "goodwill" towards her; and that there would be a "senior legal role that her skills could be used for" if she wanted to pursue it.

Under questioning, he confirmed that accepting this role would mean resigning at President of the commission.

During question time, Mr Abbott then launched an assault on Professor Triggs saying she has lost the confidence of the government and her recent inquiry into children in detention was a "political stitch up".

"It's absolutely crystal clear, this inquiry by the President of the Human Rights Commission is a political stitch up," he said.

"It's a political stitch up and it will be called out by members of this government.

"I don't know what matters have been canvassed with Professor Triggs, all I know is that she was asked by Labor 'Do you understand it to be an inducement?' And she said, 'I'd prefer not to use that term.'

"If she'd rather not use that term, members opposite should not either."

Senator Brandis had earlier on Tuesday told Senate estimates that he had lost confidence in Professor Triggs after her "error in judgment" in conducting an investigation into children in detention had opened the Human Rights Commission to accusations of bias. He said he had reached the decision in the weeks following her explanation to Senate estimates last October on the timing of the investigation during the Coalition government.

"I felt that the political impartiality of the Human Rights Commission had been fatally compromised," Senator Brandis said.

"By catastrophic error of judgment she placed the Commission where it could no longer command the confidence of both sides of politics, nor indeed my own confidence as the Minister in her own political partiality," he said.

"I had reached the conclusion, sadly, that Professor Triggs should consider her position."

An unbowed Professor Triggs said the commission would continue to meet its responsibilities and expressed confidence that the report would be accepted by the public as fair and impartial.