Outgoing Disability Commissioner Graeme Innes has flagged concerns that no public process has begun to find a replacement for him in time for his July departure and that the disability role within the Human Rights Commission may be downgraded when he leaves.
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Mr Innes, who has been Australia's Discrimination Commissioner since December 2005, said that a proper recruitment process - with a public advertisement, interviews and sign-off by government - would take four or five months, while he has only three months left of his term.
"I've had no information as to the replacement process," he told Fairfax Media. "It's now just three months out and so that is a concern for me because I think the role is a very important one for people with disability."
Mr Innes acknowledged that a full process was not carried out when Tim Wilson was appointed as Human Rights Commissioner last December. Unlike the other appointees at the Human Rights Commission, Mr Wilson simply received a call from Attorney-General George Brandis to ask if he was interested.
"I actually don't think that's a very good process," Mr Innes said.
The Disability Commissioner said this threatened the commission's global standing, as it did not abide by the internationally agreed standards for national human rights institutions (the "Paris Principles"), which emphasise the importance of being independent and "representative" of society.
Mr Innes also flagged concerns that the government may roll the Disability Commissioner into other positions at the commission. It is not uncommon for commissioners to have performed dual roles and Mr Innes himself has also been Human Rights Commissioner and Race Discrimination Commissioner at times while in the disability position.
But he said that if commissioners have to double up, "you're only getting half a person". He cautioned against giving disability a lower human rights profile, particularly as the National Disability Insurance Scheme was rolled out and there was a "significant problem" with underemployment of disabled people.
When asked about the future of the Disability Commissioner role, the Attorney-General's office said Senator Brandis was returning from the United States and unavailable for comment.
Mr Innes' concerns come as the Human Rights Commission feels the squeeze after having to find an extra $700,000 to accommodate the appointment of Mr Wilson. President Gillian Triggs said that the whole commission, which has an annual budget of about $25 million, had been forced to tighten it's belt.
"Normally, a commissioner comes in with $700,000 or something like that to pay for their salary, for staff, for add-ons, travel and expenses of their office and so on," she said. "As Tim came in with none of that, it’s meant that monies ... I would have used for other things, I can’t do."
Professor Triggs said she would have liked to have spent more money on Age Discrimination Commissioner Susan Ryan's work as well as on Children's Commissioner Megan Mitchell, who was appointed a year ago.
"But what I’ve had to do is squeeze everybody’s budget, including my personal budget … in order to pay his salary."
When asked about funding for Mr Wilson, a spokesman for Senator Brandis pointed Fairfax Media to his statement last December, which said that as a statutory agency, the Commission was expected to "find the funds for the remuneration of statutory officers from within its budget".
With Sarah Whyte
