Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Critics claiming the government's attack on Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs is partly fuelled by gender are hypocrites if they don't also condemn calls for Peta Credlin to resign, a cabinet minister says.
The opposition has asked the Australian Federal Police to investigate "serious allegations" stemming from a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday in which it was revealed Professor Triggs was offered another posting in return for her resignation. It prompted claims the offer constituted an inducement, which could be a breach of the criminal code.
Mr Moraitis denied explicitly linking Professor Triggs' resignation to the job offer. Prime Minister Tony Abbott also denied there had been any wrongdoing, saying on Wednesday that Professor Triggs "was not asked to resign and no inducement has been offered".
Labor senator Penny Wong, who was on the Senate committee that grilled Attorney-General George Brandis and his top bureaucrat Chris Moraitis, said Senator Brandis was unfit to be the nation's chief legal officer.
"From the Prime Minister down to the bovver boys we saw in the Senate estimates committee yesterday, we've seen nothing short of outrageous attacks, personal attacks and, at worst, bullying attacks," Senator Wong said on Wednesday.
During the hearing, Coalition senator Ian Macdonald directed Professor Triggs about how he wanted her to answer questions. That prompted an angry retort from Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who suggested that was the way Senator Macdonald spoke to his wife.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton on Wednesday defended Senator Brandis against what he dubbed Labor's "political allegations" and said the Attorney-General had dealt with the issue appropriately.
"Senator Brandis is one of the most competent legal minds in the country, he is an outstanding Attorney-General. I have no doubt that he has acted absolutely appropriately in the circumstances," Mr Dutton said.
"Statutory officers need to respect the roles within Parliament as well, I think they need to act not in a partisan way but in an independent way."
Mr Abbott said the government lost confidence in Professor Triggs after she commissioned an inquiry into children in immigration detention after the Coalition's 2013 election victory, despite the high number of children in detention during the Rudd and Gillard governments.
Mr Dutton also hit back at suggestions the government's attack on Professor Triggs were fuelled by her gender.
"I presume that the same people levelling these sorts of claims would be out defending [Mr Abbott's chief of staff] Peta Credlin but of course they're not because they're hypocrites," he told Fairfax Media.
"The worst people in politics are those with duplicitous approaches and some of the people that would be making these claims would fit that bill."
But Senator Hanson-Young, who has previously stated that Ms Credlin is being unfairly blamed for the Prime Minister and Treasurer's failures leapt to Ms Credlin's defence again on Wednesday.
"It's obvious that Peta Credlin is being used as a scapegoat for the failures of Tony Abbott's boys' club," Senator Hanson-Young said.
"The sexist behaviour of Coalition senators yesterday made them look like Neanderthals."
Ms Credlin's position has been under further scrutiny this week after an explosive leak from inside the Liberal Party headquarters. The party's honorary treasurer, Phil Higginson, said it was not a sustainable situation to have the federal director Brian Loughnane, who runs the party's administrative wing, married to Ms Credlin, who runs the government's political arm.
Mr Higginson said the positions were a conflict of interest but Mr Dutton said it was no more a conflict than a journalist in the press gallery marrying a journalist from a rival outlet.
"I think suggestions that she isn't able to separate her private from her professional life is a slur on her and on all women," Mr Dutton said.
While Labor has not specifically defended Peta Credlin they have not joined in on internal attacks on her performance as chief of staff.
Labor's deputy leader Tanya Plibersek has said Ms Credlin's marriage should not be a focus of political commentary.
The complaints have been raised, mostly in private but increasingly in public, by government backbenchers, senators, ministers and staff. Last year Mr Abbott accused Ms Credlin's critics within his party of sexism, saying his chief of staff would not be under the same level of scrutiny if it was someone named "Peter", not "Peta".
