Former Liberal senator among newly appointed discrimination commissioners

The federal government has named three new commissioners within the Australian Human Rights Commission.

File image of then health minister Kay Patterson at the National Press Club in Canberra in 2003. Source: AAP

The woman credited with kicking-off the career of Tony Abbott's chief of staff has been appointed to the Human Rights Commission.

Former Liberal senator Kay Paterson, who gave Peta Credlin her start in politics in 1999, will become age commissioner.

Human rights advocate Edward Santow will take over as freedom commissioner from Tim Wilson, who resigned to contest the seat of Goldstein for the Liberal Party.

Mr Santow is chief executive officer of the law and policy organisation Public Interest Advocacy Centre.

Alastair McEwin, once the head of the disability rights group People with Disability Australia, is the new disability discrimination commissioner.

The government had been facing pressure to reinstate the post after advocates argued disability-related complaints formed the commission's biggest case load.

The post was abolished in 2014 and absorbed into the age discrimination commissioner's job.