He's on the record saying that "in the second half of the 20th century the rise of international human rights law has perverted and distorted our understanding of where our rights come from".

The basis of all international human rights law is the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the human rights conventions developed in the past six decades to protect women, children, minorities and other vulnerable groups. These have been ratified by Australian governments after careful examination.

He refers to positive rights and negative rights and reasserting the necessity of traditional human rights. But human rights are universal.

Freedom of expression is important and when there has been a challenge to this right, the commission has taken a strong stand.

However, the commission also bears a responsibility to ensure that the rights of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our society are protected -- the homeless, mentally ill, asylum-seekers and refugees among others.

This is not a matter of competing philosophies. These groups deserve Wilson's continued advocacy.

I wish him every success in working with his colleagues to effectively discharge his responsibilities.

THE Labor Party is a strange organisation in that it is always prepared to go for the populist point of view. Labor's protestations about Tim Wilson's appointment as Human Rights Commissioner is hypocrisy of the first

degree. It's as if individuals aligned to the Labor Party have never been appointed to this body.

Has it ever dawned on the opposition that if Nicola Roxon's legislation to clamp down on freedom of speech had been passed, much of Labor's attack on the Abbott government and its appointments might be in breach of that legislation?

Attorney-General George Brandis is on the right track to nail Labor and the Greens for their hypocrisy in an area of life they have always claimed as their own. Where are the true believers hiding?

IT is good to see Tim Wilson laughing ("Wilson laughs off his Twitter-zone critics", 20/12). The very piece of legislation that Wilson disagrees with -- an offence to offend someone -- is now seeing those critical of his appointment biting themselves on the bum. That is why he is laughing.

How dare they offend with their vitriol? For too long we've seen this country being turned into a society with diminishing resilience and with

a delusional belief that political correctness would make us better.

We now pin labels on those we disagree with, thereby seeing emotional blackmail as a conversational strength rather than using our ability to unpack the issues and debate the realities.

Of course, seeing people unfairly labelled as a way of silencing those who see things differently is too easy. Wilson will seek to have people debate the issues, rather than complain about being offended. That will build knowledge and resilience, two vital ingredients for a better Australia.

IN Joe Kelly's story, he reports that left-wing academic Robert Manne insisted his statement about past comments by Tim Wilson, our new Human Rights Commissioner, be published in full. Manne's comment consisted of a single sentence of 107 words filling 20 lines.

It brought to mind Samuel Johnson's rejoinder to a critic: "Sir, it is the height of rudeness to quote a man against himself."