It’s clear now that the Coalition government is not only uninterested in the idea of restructuring the bureaucracy, but it also is not even interested in making decent appointments.

The Commonwealth government has an almost untrammelled ability to appoint anyone it likes to powerful bureaucratic positions such as the AHRC presidency. The choice was for the government was to pick someone that would defend fundamental human freedoms like freedom of speech, or to pick someone who represents the status quo who would oversee the continued erosion of our freedoms.