Despite having moved on from the AHRC, she is still determined to see one introduced. With this comment, Triggs implies that a thick skin is something required of anyone wanting to confront injustice Melissa Dinnison’s experience is just one anecdote that Triggs uses to show how even trying to do the right, fair thing doesn’t always result in justice, and that Australia’s legal system needs to change.Īt the heart of this book is Triggs’s belief that that Australia needs a Charter of Rights to help make our society a better place for everyone. Meeting up with Dinnison after the furore had died down, Triggs learned that the young woman wished to finish her studies and work for a few years before ‘venturing again into the public arena’. A young Aboriginal woman, Melissa Dinnison, lodged a complaint with the AHRC about the cartoon, but ended up withdrawing her complaint as the relentless media attention made her feel unsafe. Bill Leak, a cartoonist working for the paper, depicted an Indigenous father and son duo in an overtly racist style, the apparent aim of the cartoon to perpetuate the offensive stereotype of Indigenous men as negligent parents. One of the situations she describes in Speaking Up is a situation that unfolded following the publication of a cartoon by the Australian in 2016. In her book, Triggs illustrates human rights violations in contemporary Australia in two ways: in legal terms, and in personal terms. Triggs shows how trying to do the right, fair thing doesn’t always result in justice, and that Australia’s legal system needs to change. As a public figure rallying against such human rights violations, Triggs has been treated harshly by the media and politicians, most frequently those on the political right. She would oversee a number of high profile cases, including a national inquiry into children in detention. After marrying and having children, she worked in a number of roles across the legal field and in academia, and in July 2012, was appointed president of the Australian Human Rights Commision, a position she would remain in for five years. Triggs began her career working in international law. In Speaking Up, Gillian Triggs chronicles the years she spent heading up Australia’s Human Rights Commission dealing with these and other issues, and offers a vision for a fairer Australia. Human rights violations occur almost constantly – offshore detention, racial discrimination, sexism are all unfortunate but undeniable realities of daily life in Australia. Speaking Up is our First Book Club pick for October – read an extract from the book here. Speaking Up Gillian Triggs (MUP, available now)
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