Kill the Commission: free speech
There is nothing that the Australian Human Rights Commission does that cannot be done by the Parliament, the media or the courts. In the cause of free speech, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should kill the Commission.

Bring in the clowns
In 1987, Justice Marcus Einfeld, Commission President (1986-90), and latterly guest of her Majesty’s prisons (sentenced in 2009 to three years in prison for perjury and for attempting to pervert the course of justice) addressed a Parliamentary committee at old Parliament House, Canberra. I was present, as was John Howard, Leader of the Opposition, and I vividly remember Howard making a firm promise that if he ever came to power, he would abolish the Commission, which had been established in 1986. Alas, he did not.
The late Sir Ronald Wilson, Commission President 1990-98, ran the so-called Stolen Generations Inquiry, later to admit that he failed to test any evidence brought before the Inquiry. He and Mick Dodson, who was Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, found that taking children was ‘genocide’. My colleague, Dr Ron Brunton accurately described the Inquiry as ‘one of the most intellectually and morally irresponsible reports to be presented to an Australian government in recent years’.
Hon. John von Doussa, Commission President 2003-2008, presided over the 2001 action by the developers of the Hindmarsh Island Bridge in Goolwa, South Australia to recover their costs after activists tried to use Aboriginal custom to stop them. Von Doussa was the only person in Australia who did not believe the secret, sacred women’s business, was a recent invention. He was a good fit for the Commission.
Professor Gillian Triggs has well and truly worn out her welcome, but appears not to have the presence of mind to resign from the position and save herself from further embarrassment. In any event, her contract ends soon. The government should take the opportunity to close down the whole show. In the meantime, it should be gunning for section 18C.

Complainants reluctant and primed
In addition to the actions of past presidents, 18C has brought the Commission’s failings into sharp relief. There are two complainants against the much-loved Bill Leak cartoon about a responsible Aboriginal policeman confronting an irresponsible Aboriginal father about his wayward child.
One complainant is reluctant to talk, but thanks to the great work of journalists from the Australian, has been tracked to Perth. She is someone who identifies as an Aborigine. I have to write ‘identifies as’ because her Facebook photo as published provides no clue as to her racial origins. One might   describe her as a cultural Aborigine. She is also purported to be ‘terrified’ of returning to Australia from holidaying in Germany because she fears she may suffer racial taunts. She may like to take the time to read a little history while she is in Germany and see that she may have jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
The other complainant is Aboriginal but was unaware that he is a complainant. Two white Aboriginal legal aid lawyers had him sign a statement against Leak to the Commission but neglected to tell him.
The Commission should knock both complaints on the head, just as it should have knocked on the head the complaint against three QUT students, now thankfully dismissed by the Federal Circuit Court. The students allegedly offended a woman of Aboriginal descent who threw them out of a ‘segregated’ and empty computer laboratory. It was empty because, in all likelihood, Aboriginal students at QUT have laptops and quite happily hang out at the many campus and off-campus cafés and, in any event, do not need protection.

Three men awake in Caucus
In 1994, along with Jim Snow and Graham Campbell, I voted in Caucus against 18C, the ‘racial hatred’ amendments to the RDA. Unfortunately, the rest of the Caucus were asleep, and this appalling piece of legislation passed.
On Monday 4 March 1996, following my defeat in Petrie and the fall of the Keating government, I wrote in the Age that ‘the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission acts as “judge, jury and hangman” on whatever issue it or its publicity-hungry spokespeople, want to raise.’ I have on numerous occasions called for its abolition.
I understand that at least one Senator is drafting a Bill to abolish the Commission. Should the Bill get into the Senate it would place pressure on the Turnbull government to move beyond its mooted inquiry into 18C. At the very least, Turnbull should both amend 18C and take up the suggestion of the New South Wales Solicitor General, the inimitable Michael Sexton SC, that the Human Rights Commission should not proceed to investigate a complaint about a publication without the consent of the federal Attorney General.
Of course, Labor, Greens and Senator Xenophon and cronies would vote to maintain the beast, but lots of their voters would peel off under sustained attack. The trouble is, too few argue the case for free speech in the Coalition party room. Incidentally, Xenophon’s concerns for his fellow South Australians are phony because he only ever supports a case for SA at the expense of the rest of Australia. Pauline Hanson, for example, now with Senators in three states, is less able to play that game. She may be a good ally.
The Prime Minister needs to press his well-heeled heel firmly onto the neck of the anti-free speech lobby in this country, some of whom exist in his party. The overwhelming majority of the electorate will thank him.

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