Distinguished international lawyer and former Australian Human Rights Commission President Professor Gillian Triggs joins the Breakfasters to reflect on democracy, human rights, and Australia’s place in a rapidly shifting global order.

Speaking from decades of work in international law, including recent years in Geneva with displaced people and refugees, Gillian discusses the erosion of public trust in democratic institutions and the urgent need to re-engage people at a local level. She argues that while Australia remains one of the world’s more successful working democracies, restrictive laws, declining faith in government, and growing social division reveal a need to revitalise democratic culture.

The group discuss conflict, displacement, surveillance, privacy, and the weakening of global institutions, before returning to where Gillian finds hope: community organisations, faith groups, women’s groups, local action, and everyday people working together. Gillain makes the case for a legislated Human Rights Act in Australia, stronger civics education, and a clearer understanding of the shared values we so often invoke but rarely define.

Drawing on Australia’s role in shaping the Universal Declaration of Human Rights through Doc Evatt and Eleanor Roosevelt, Gillian calls for a return to the basic principles of dignity, fairness, freedom of speech, education, family, and the rule of law.