Senators chide, prod, bicker over Triggs

It's almost a given now that any appearance by Gillian Triggs before a Senate committee will descend into acrimony and farce.

Tuesday was no exception.

The Human Rights Commission president was scheduled to appear before a Senate estimates committee for one hour.

Over nearly four hours, government, Labor and Greens senators chided and prodded Professor Triggs and bickered among themselves.

Committee chairman, Liberal Ian Macdonald, even complained about the unflattering images photographers were taking of him and another human rights commissioner Tim Wilson while posting "nice" pictures of Prof Triggs and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

In an earlier exchange, Senator Hanson-Young took exception to the questioning of Nationals senator Barry O'Sullivan over the impact immigration detention was having on children.

Senator O'Sullivan asked Prof Triggs whether it amounted to torture.

"There is a difference between torture and cruel punishment. My job is to comment on the laws, not on the policies," she said.

As Senator O'Sullivan took issue with the commission president and interrupted Senator Hanson-Young's questioning, Senator Hanson-Young told him: "You can wait to be a pig then."

Senator O'Sullivan suggested it would make no difference to the health of asylum seekers if they lived on Nauru or in a suburb of Australia.

That was an entirely inappropriate comparison, Prof Triggs countered.

"It is illegal under international law to subject children and their families to the conditions on Nauru," she said.

"It is not illegal to allow refugees and asylum seekers to settle in our suburbs."

Mr Wilson faced Labor questions about using a business trip to the United States to attend a wedding.

In a tit-for-tat Senator Macdonald wanted Prof Triggs to advise the committee about her international travel.

Labor senator Jacinta Collins suggested the human rights commission was becoming a holding pen for Liberal Party candidates.

She used as evidence reports that suggested Mr Wilson might be a candidate for Liberal preselection and speculation Peta Credlin, the chief of staff to former prime minister Tony Abbott, was being considered for the vacant sex discrimination commissioner position.

Not so, Attorney-General George Brandis said of the latter. Ms Credlin was never a candidate.

Senator Collins, conveniently, didn't mention that two commissioners - Susan Ryan (age and disability) and Tim Soutphommasane (race discrimination) - previously had links to the Labor Party.

Prof Triggs lamented she was left off the selection panel which considered seven candidates for Elizabeth Broderick's replacement.

And neither she nor Senator Brandis were consulted about Liberal MP Philip Ruddock's appointment as Australia's special envoy on human rights.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan pursued Prof Triggs over marriage equality, asking her why the commission supports it.

She told him Australia was not required to recognise it but that international law was generally moving towards supporting the principles that allow it.

Lunch brought the committee's proceedings to a temporary and welcome end.