Seriously bizarre

The Guardian appears to have confirmed the "the government invited Gillian Triggs to resign" story, yet it appears no one from the government has commented on it yet.

The whole puffed up government and News Limited campaign of outrage on Triggs for not starting her enquiry while Labor was in power is truly baffling.   Isn't it obvious that the mere number of children in detention is but one factor - the other crucial one being how quickly they are coming out of detention. With the Labor/Liberal change of policy just before the election, it looked clear that getting children out of detention was going to start taking longer. 

Abbott's belligerent demand yesterday that Triggs should be thanking Scott Morrison for stopping the boats just sounded like the churlish attack of a man who can't handle any criticism, and who is crushed when he doesn't get the acclaim that he thinks he deserves.   He honestly looks psychologically more fragile (and more like Rudd) every day.  

The Abbott government (and Murdoch press) behaviour over this is plainly, completely, out of proportion to the offence of which they are complaining.

Why not simply respond to any alleged bias in the report (if they can point out to factual errors in particular) with a calm rebuttal?

Why not  express regret at the fact that children are still in detention?   Say that you know it is not good for them and you are doing your best to help alleviate their situation?

Instead, why present yourself as an needy psychological cripple who wants the sacking of a person in a statutory appointment because you don't like being criticised?  

The other curious thing about this is the question of Tim Wilson.   Could it be that the Abbott/Brandis plan really was to hope to get Triggs to resign so they could elevate the Commissioner for Selfies (and Gays) to the top job?   I mean, I think that would be a patently ridiculous plan, given Wilson's complete lack of qualification to be on the Commission at all, but this government looks so incompetent and stupid, who knows?

The other thing I wonder about is whether there is any Wilson connection in terms of the government reaction to Triggs - I mean, would he leak back to Brandis if she said something careless and stupid about (say) plans to hurt the government?   Could that explain their intemperate attacks on her?   I like to think that Wilson - although I make my disdain for him obvious here - is not so low as to do that; but it strikes me as odd the way this has all blown up since his arrival on the scene.

Wilson apparently spoke on the radio about the report yesterday, but I have found no comment on line about what he said.  He is also going to be on Sky this afternoon.  Given that his appointment was so blatantly political, he ought to be asked for comment on the obvious politics going on in relation to this report.

Twitter is really running red hot with outrage about the government conduct towards Triggs.  It is very clear that their attack is blowing up in their face, and making Abbott's destiny in the dustbin of history all the closer.