The Useful Idiocy of Gillian Triggs

Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs is due to step down from her role in June. (We pause at this point until the cheering subsides.) Many wonder what she might do next. Conservatives worry that Triggs will find another tax-funded sinecure and from there continue her jihad against civility and reason.

Yet there may be a role for the ridiculous woman that satisfies both conservatives and Triggs’s adoring followers—a role that at once allows both groups to feel that they have emerged triumphant from the long-running Battle of Gillian. Personally, I’d leave her in charge of the AHRC. (We pause while Quadrant editorial authorities complete mandatory drug and alcohol testing.) Please, people, hear me out. Triggs is a wonderful resource and a brilliant national asset as AHRC boss, and should be allowed to remain in that role for as long as she wishes.

This isn’t because she’s doing a good job. Far from it. Rather, it’s because the longer Triggs…