Gillian Triggs seems to have a habit of telling the senate stories that differ significantly from the truth.

It's my opinion that she is a disgrace to the position and either needs to resign or be charged with contempt or perjury.

"Correspondence from the Australian Human Rights Commission shows that Gillian Triggs has made more misleading statements to parliament, this time about section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Professor Triggs, who chairs the commission, has misled parliament about unexplained delays in the commission’s complaint-handling process, the impact of the defences to section 18C and how her organisation dealt with Bill Leak, The Australian’s ­cartoonist.

The discrepancies between her statements to parliament and the content of correspondence from one of her most senior officers is the latest in a series of incidents in which she has been forced to apologise for memory lapses.

Her latest fumble, which came to light on Tuesday at a Senate estimates hearing, left senators with the false impression that Leak and The Australian did not try to justify a cartoon that was the subject of a complaint under section 18C.

“We received no response,” she told the hearing.

Section 18C, which is the focus of disquiet within the federal ­parliamentary Liberal Party, makes it unlawful to do anything that causes people to feel offended, insulted, intimidated or humiliated because of their race, colour or ethnic background. She also gave evidence the complaint would ­almost certainly have been terminated immediately if Leak had sought to justify it by using the defences in section 18D.

Legal correspondence between the commission and lawyers for Leak and The Australian indicate that those assertions are at odds with what was set down in the formal exchange of letters. Leak and The Australian did respond to the complaint and, when they invoked the defences in section 18D"

I don't know what Triggs committed or didn't commit. I just know that the woman is a disgrace; the Human Rights Commission is a disgrace, and Section 18C of the Human Rights Act is a disgrace.

Now we know that the committee looking into 18C is also a disgrace, lacking the guts to abolish or even emend the foul, anti-democratic thing. This country is in one hell of a mess, with the most gutless, self-serving PM in history, and not a single person able to replace him. 95% of Australians believe in freedom of speech; 5% of Australians say that we cannot have it. Australia is rooted.

Hi Ttbn,

Your astute observation that "Australia is rooted" is pregnant with possibilities. Will Turnbull grasp the nettle, bite the bullet, go the extra mile, and negotiate with Abbott to give him a role in government, a cabinet position, as a sort of United Front inside the tent ? Will One Nation expand or implode ? Will Trump turn up at the Correspondents' Dinner ? So many imponderables.

Hi SM,

Yes, what an appalling woman. She has no compunction about destroying the careers of students, and of our best cartoonist. She lies about what she or her staff should have done. Clearly, she cares little about freedom of expression. She held back on illegal refugee numbers UNTIL the Libs had been in power and reduced them considerably, then sunk the boot in, using false numbers into the bargain.

Leak's cartoon today was a ripper ! Maybe Triggs needs to spend a month or two out on remote 'communities' to understand realities.

Cheers,

Joe

Being 50% for /against the Leak cartoon in the Australian context and noting the absence of court sentence due to 18D, there is a question:
Supposing a Chinese paper in Oz did a cartoon in Chinese text about a wife-bashing , drunken , surfie and overweight whitey , what would the OLO comments be?
If the cartoon was in a Muslim newsletter in Oz .....hmmmm ?

"Has Gillian Triggs committed perjury a 3rd time?"

Yes, but I do not believe there should be any action other than censure by the Parliament. No way anyone would want to make a 'victim' out of her.

She will, like the awful 'Juliar' Gillard and others, be buffed up by the national broadcaster, just imagine the fawning feminist interviewers, and feted by the Emilys Listers when she retires.

Hi Nick,

Do you really think most Australians would do anything but shrug ? 'Well, duh,' they would think.

So you know nothing about life in remote 'communities' ?

Better for a fool to stay silent than to ........

Actually, I've found that that has been a fairly common practice in Indigenous organisations. I recall one person who accidentally broke that rule, and destroyed herself, by asking an utterly dumb question, after being five years in the job: something equivalent to a football coach asking "Is Collingwood in the ARL or the AFL ?" Her feet barely touched the floor on the way out.

Joe