“Now we can say people are just stupid, or we can say that people are bogans … we can say whatever we want, but if people are not buying what we’re selling, then blaming everyone else is not necessarily the solution,” The Australian Financial Review quoted Shorten as saying.
“We can say that people are bogans … but if people are not buying what we’re selling, then blaming everyone else is not necessarily the solution,” says Bill Shorten.Credit: Oscar Colman
Universities Australia, a lobby group representing 39 of the country’s universities, said debate over vice-chancellor salaries was a distraction from the conversation about properly funding universities.
“Vice chancellors lead major organisations that underpin local economies, support thousands of jobs, educate thousands of students and generate private revenue streams which are reinvested in support of Australian employment, education and research,” its submission said.
Charles Sturt University senior law lecturer Dr Bede Harris said members of university councils were now drawn from the corporate world.
“Managers see themselves as the masters, rather than the servants, of the university community,” he said.
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National Tertiary Education Union national president Dr Alison Barnes told the inquiry on Wednesday that she was pleased there was action being taken on governance after numerous underpayment scandals.
“Today we have a sector where unelected corporate influence holds disproportionate power on university senates and councils, where exorbitant executive pay, insecure jobs, wage theft, lavish spending on consultants and hiring, firing, firing cycles have become ingrained,” she said.
In its submission, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), which regulates universities, suggested legislation could be broadened to reflect its role in gathering and sharing information about systemic issues.
At the hearing, opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson told TEQSA chief executive Dr Mary Russell: “I would say this has taken far too long, because when we had the antisemitism crisis on university campuses, Dr Russell, TEQSA did basically nothing, wrote a few letters.”
Russell rejected the assertion that her organisation had not acted in relation to antisemitism on campus.
“[We] have, of course, now issued a statement of regulatory expectations in response to specific concerns raised by students about grievance and complaints processes,” she said.
Russell also said TEQSA was undertaking individual compliance case work with ANU, Sydney University, Macquarie University and Queensland University of Technology in relation to antisemitism.
“They may or may not, and by the conclusion of those matters, result in the imposition of conditions according to our findings.”
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