Extract from ABC News
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Immigration Minister Peter Dutton called human rights chief Gillian Triggs' comments disgraceful. (AAP: Penny Bradfield, Alan Porritt)
The Opposition has accused Immigration Minister Peter
Dutton of bullying Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs
after a new round of hostilities broke out between the professor and the
Government.
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said Professor
Triggs was doing her job despite being bullied and vilified by the
Government, after Mr Dutton launched a scathing attack on the human rights chief following two speeches she gave late last week."It's no way for any government to behave and they need to just get an understanding of what's called for," Mr Dreyfus told the ABC's AM program.
"Next we'll see them attacking judges," he added.
The renewed tensions between Professor Triggs and the Government began on Thursday, when she criticised the policy of turning asylum-seeker boats back to Indonesia at a forum in Adelaide.
"Have we thought about what the consequences are of pushing people back to our neighbours, Indonesia? Is it any wonder that Indonesia will not engage with us on other issues that we care about, like the death penalty?" Professor Triggs said.
The next day, Mr Dutton accused her of linking the execution of the Bali Nine drug smugglers with Australia's border protection policies, although Professor Triggs did not mention Andrew Chan or Myuran Sukamaran specifically in her comments.
Mr Dutton demanded a retraction from Professor Triggs, calling her insensitive to the Chan and Sukamaran families and saying it was a complete outrage to link the Government's successful policy of turning back boats with the deaths.
"Professor Triggs needs to front the cameras today to retract this outrageous slur," Mr Dutton said on Friday.
Undeterred, Professor Triggs made another speech that night, criticising the government on several fronts, including its plans to remove Australian citizenship from dual nationals involved in terrorism.
"The overreach of executive power is clear in the yet-to-be-defined proposal that those accused of being jihadists fighting against Australian interests will be stripped of their citizenship if they're potentially dual citizens," Professor Triggs told a Melbourne audience.
Yesterday Mr Dutton was asked if he'd like to see Professor Triggs gone.
"When you reduce the position to basically that of a political advocate I think it is very difficult to continue on," he told Andrew Bolt on Channel Ten, adding that the appointment of Professor Triggs was a matter for Attorney-General George Brandis.
"These are issues for Professor Triggs to contemplate," he said.
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