- by Canberra CPA
- The Guardian
- Issue #2160
Dr Liz Allen Appreciation BBQ
On the 20 August, the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU), Geniveve Bell, showed a blatant disregard for the well-being of the workers in her employ. The VC announced in an all-staff email that there would be no future forced redundancies under the current ANU restructure. About one hundred staff, who had been told that their positions were identified as “surplus,” were jubilant. They believed the decision to sack them had been reversed, and that they still had jobs after all.
It wasn’t true. Several hours later, different work areas received emails from their local administrators, telling them that no, actually the VC’s email was misleading, and that they were being made redundant after all. It’s just that there will be no “new” redundancies. This wasn’t just bad communication. This was a planned publicity stunt. The email coincided with the VC publishing an op-ed written in advance in the Canberra Times, and speaking to the ABC, and not correcting any reporters who mistakenly assumed that “no new forced redundancies” meant the cuts to the College of the Arts and Social Sciences, the abolishing of the Humanities Research Centre and the School of Music weren’t going ahead. Make no mistake, these cuts are still going ahead, and this deliberate obfuscation was an attempt to get a couple of nice headlines at the expense of the emotional well-being of workers being sacked.
The cause of this ostensible pivot is clear, ANU leadership is on the defensive as the result of ongoing action by unionised staff and organised students. ANU senior management wants us to forget the devastating Senate testimony by former elected members of ANU Council. They especially want us to forget what was said by Dr Liz Allen: that Chancellor Julie Bishop bullied her, and that the stress made her suicidal and caused a miscarriage.
ANU workers made their feelings known in an NTEU-supported BBQ held in honour of Dr Allen. The university is yet to allow a full investigation into Dr Allen’s allegations, and her attempts to seek justice have been met with multiple institutional obstructions. Justice for Liz Allen! Shame on ANU senior leadership and the corporate, managerial class of corporatised Australian universities that steal a good education from university students and treat their workers with the worst disrespect imaginable.
