Protecting one's rights is a noble cause, and it’s one I’ve supported for most of my life. We have an Australian Human Rights Commission to help us with this endeavour. Well we did but not so anymore.
In the past we rarely heard about the commission. But in recent years that has changed. The commission of today is more about ‘trampling’ rights rather than protecting them. With that comes the ever increasing distrust of the electorate who after all pays these people.
There have been a string of questionable decisions emanating from the AHRC over recent times. With the exit of Jillian Triggs I was hoping the practices of the commission would return to core business. But Rosalind Croucher’s decision on BE vs Suncorp shows it’s a case of Triggs Mark II.
Ms Croucher has determined that lying about your CRIMINAL history is not as serious as the company discovering you lied and on that basis deciding not to offer you a job. Note, Suncorp didn’t FIRE the candidate they didn’t HIRE him because he lied. She fined Suncorp.
BE was convicted of accessing and possession of child pornography, that’s abhorrent. But, I’d like to park the crime and focus on a principle. A principle of rights.
The principle I want to raise is a businesses rights to decide who they hire based on the worthiness and fitness for their organisation.
When an employer discovers someone lied in an interview, that’s not good. But when that lie has the potential to blow up in the employers face, that’s serious.
In today’s information rich world it doesn’t take too long for people to discover someones past. When that happens it’s not long before it’s all over social media. We see this stuff happening regularly and often for the most trivial of things.
Remember Bega Cheese? Their name was plastered all over the media (and social media) for weeks. Why because a former CEO was charged and convicted of paedophilia. Now in that case the crime wasn’t trivial but the man charged hadn’t even worked for Bega Cheese for 10-years. It had nothing to do with company but that didn’t stop the media from roping them in.
If I was in Suncorp’s position and I’d discovered a prospective employee tried to hide something as serious as BE did I wouldn’t hire him. If he lied about that what else would he lie about? It’s about risk assessment and it’s about trust. Knowing what you are potentially letting yourself in for.
Ms Croucher stated that once a sentence has been completed that every one deserved a second chance. I agree with that but, there is a caveat and that is truth. If you want a second chance be truthful.
My forlorn hope of commonsense returning to the commission has been shattered. Ms Croucher has fallen at the first hurdle. As a strong advocate of rights I’ve previously defended the existence of AHRC. But they’ve forgotten about equal rights. They’ve traded rights away in favour of victimhood. Maybe it’s reached its usefulness, and perhaps the time has come to close the AHRC down. I’ve lost faith in them and I suspect I’m not the only one.
Well done to Suncorp for basically telling AHRC to take a flying leap and refusing to be bullied.
