It is truly hubristic to say: I told you so. But just 18 months after predicting the appointment of Lorraine Finlay to the Australian Human Rights Commission would be a terrible idea and yes, I told you so.
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Our nation is about to vote on its understanding of the useful ways we can address racism. We are crap at recognising this about ourselves. We are even worse at understanding the multiple ways we've damaged First Nations people. Here we are in the weeks after the Australian Human Rights Commission affirmed its support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the proposed establishment of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, in the days after the stunning rebuke of Liberal "values" in the Aston by-election and in the hours after the death of First Nations leader Yunupingu. At a time when every contribution should be thoughtful and measured, we have a human rights nobody chucking her oar in.
Just to remind you of Finlay's lack of human rights credentials - when she was appointed she was a junior law academic with zero human rights credentials and was parachuted into her gig as commissioner with no apparent process, unless you could call lobbying by the Institute of Public Affairs process. Actually, forgive me, IPA lobbying probably passed for process during the Coalition government. Finlay is clearly still listening to its advice.
None of this makes her a bad person - but it does make her the wrong person for the job. Last week, she wrote an opinion piece published in The Australian that the Voice would "insert race into the Australian constitution in a way that undermines the foundational human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination".
As it turns out, five former human rights commissioners undid Finlay's baseless arguments in about two minutes flat.
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Those five former human rights commissioners - Ed Santow, Catherine Branson, Graeme Innes, Chris Sidoti and Brian Burdekin - said her position was "likely to mislead Australians". Embarrassing for Finlay and harmful for her colleagues.
I can't imagine what it would be like to be one of her colleagues at AHRC. I doubt whether anyone at the commission would be a desk-bomber, someone who might just turn up and share their views but my god, it would be hard to be President Ros Croucher who had to keep calm and put out a statement last week reaffirming the commission's position. I don't want to imagine what it might be like to be June Oscar, the commission's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, who must take this personally (if she doesn't she's a better person than me. Probably is a better person than me).
The good news for Australians is that Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus came into his gig and pretty much announced straight up he wouldn't put up with more of this kind of appointment. All appointments will now be advertised and subject to a merit-based appointments process. The Coalition subjected the AHRC to various horrors but Dreyfus has acted to fix as much of that as humanly possibly and so avoid the ignominy of being downranked by the UN Human Rights Council. All promising.
The bad news is that it depends very much on who is in charge. Of course Coalition governments will continue to appoint Finlay and others of her ilk, such as former member for Goldstein Tim Wilson, Australia's very own Ambassador for Franking Credits.
Dreyfus has also sought a parliamentary joint committee review of Australia's human rights framework and that will kick off this year, set to report in 2024.
So we are about to head into a period of change at the commission. Within a few months, a bunch of commissioners are finishing up: Sex Discrimination Kate Jenkins finishes her extended term (and boy was I wrong about her. Soz), Disability Discrimination Commissioner Ben Gauntlett is off to do very good things at the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the nearly invisible Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan is going and so will Age Discrimination Commissioner Kay Patterson. That's a lot of good people to find in a short space of time.
Strength to the minds and judgement of those who make these choices. Got actual experience in human rights law? Keep your eye out for the ads.
- Jenna Price is an honorary fellow at the Australian National University and a regular columnist.
Jenna Price is a Canberra Times columnist and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
Jenna Price is a Canberra Times columnist and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
