Triggs wouldn't know human rights: senator

Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs wouldn't know a human right if it bit her on the backside, a crossbench senator claims.

Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm was responding to her call for a bill of rights, saying Professor Triggs focuses on positive rights instead of issues such as freedom of speech.

"I even sometimes wonder whether she'd know what a human right was if it bit her on the backside," he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.