Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs has bought into the same-sex marriage debate, criticising its absence as a constitutional right and the "failure of Parliament to provide leadership on the issue".
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Professor Triggs also described the "chilling effect" on freedom of speech and the right to privacy of recent anti-terror and data retention laws, and how they went well beyond what was "deemed proportionate".
Speaking on Friday at a Law Institute of Victoria president's lunch, she argued that the issue of marriage equality illustrated other points made in a speech about the "exceptionist" nature of Australia's protection of human rights.
Professor Triggs spoke of the "politicalisation" of the same-sex marriage issue in Australia and highlighted Ireland's 75 per cent support in a referendum on marriage equality and the recent US Supreme Court majority decision to recognise same-sex couples.
Professor Triggs suggested it was time that "we gave a little more credence" to the development of international jurisprudence and "give effect to the equality principle".
On this point, the US Supreme Court decision reflected, she said, the role of the judiciary in interpreting its constitution and the way it reflected the contemporary view of marriage.
Australia did not have the constitutional provisions or legislation to adopt those principles, but it was time to, she urged.
On same-sex marriage, Professor Triggs noted that the US Supreme Court decision reflected the role of the judiciary in interpreting the constitution but that in Australia courts did not have the "benchmark of equality before the law".
The closest Australia may get to a bill of rights, a reality she felt remained "highly improbable", was to rely on a "fair go".
Her appearance followed months of intense pressure from the federal government to resign over her report into children in detention, which the government claimed was withheld until after the election of the coalition to cause it damage.
She was also attacked after News Corp claimed she had linked the government's policy to "turn back the boats" to the execution of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, which she denied.
The theme of Professor Triggs' speech was the expansion of executive power and the lessening of the judicial role in the application of common law principles.
She quoted senator Cory Bernardi's take on the overreach by the executive as "power creep", and noted to laughter that she did not usually quote him.
The government's citizenship legislation, she believed, "strikes at the heart of our largely migrant nation" from which courts of review were "effectively excluded from the process other than theoretical power to review the unreviewable".
