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Gillian Triggs: Speaking Up. #SydneyWritersFestivals
She was attacked relentlessly:
Her work was picked up in Senate Estimates 8 months into her Presidency of the Human Rights Commission
Then got bound up with the political fight over Section 18C of Racial Discrimination Actpic.twitter.com/Dx4LQrJioK
Gillian Triggs was an academic, with no public service background. She specialised in international law, not human rights law. But she had the research skills to lead a rigorous investigation into the mental health and medical impact of indefinite detention on asylum seekers
Dr Triggs: "Canberra is a noxious place. It's a dangerous place. It diminishes what we are in Australia" "As a woman, I couldn't get away with being angry. A man could get angry. If I'd done it, I wouldn't have gotten away with it" Despite this "I'm optimistic about the future"
"Meaness & spitefulness of these policies... is due to poor leadership. And the inability of courts to act [on breach of policies]" Our legal system should be keeping policy makers accountable. When we lock up refugees indefinitely, that contravenes our law.Courts should step in
What can we do to achieve genuine equality? "Take back our individual citizenship." Use your vote, but speak up. "We've been too passive for far too long, especially women. Women expect that we'll eventually achiece equality but it won't happen if we don't speak up." - Dr Triggs
Dr Triggs will continue to argue for a charter of rights. She doesn't think it should overtake constitutional recognition of Indigenous rights. Instead, the Charter should reinforce constitutional recognition
Audience member asks if she'd accept role of Governor General. YES! 
An interesting dynamic: Dr Triggs' husband is a federal public servant. In the first year of her role heading the Human Rights Commission, he was not supportive and they fought a lot. Working in policy, he didn't think she should publicly criticise the Government. 1/2
But then Dr Triggs gave her husband all the literature and he saw that it was her job to criticise those in power, because her work had shown that the Government were breaking the law in their detention of asylum seekers and refugees.
Her husband was henceforth supportive. 
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