Hundreds of Australian National University workers have passed a vote of no confidence against chancellor Julie Bishop over job cuts and leadership issues.
The ANU staff were asked by their union whether they had confidence in the leadership of former foreign minister Bishop and vice chancellor Genevieve Bell, who worked for Intel in the US.
ANU chancellor Julie Bishop.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Of the more than 800 employees who took part in the vote, which was open to all National Tertiary Education Union members, 95 per cent said they did not have confidence in their leadership.
The move comes after it was revealed Bishop used the university’s funds to pay her business partner as a consultant, and that Bell held a second job at Intel while in her role.
“It’s not just the very serious conflicts of interest,” the union’s ACT division secretary, Dr Lachlan Clohesy, said. “It’s the culture of fear and intimidation, the financial mismanagement, the job cuts, blaming staff and referring to them as ‘inefficiencies’, the parking fee hike, the childcare closures, and attempting to take away a staff pay increase.”
Professor Genevieve Bell, vice chancellor and president at the Australian National University.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The union’s national president, Alison Barnes, said it was emblematic of a governance crisis across the country.
“The ANU scandals have piled up higher than the Telstra Tower, yet the council continues to back in a vice chancellor and chancellor who have both failed to take any responsibility for terrible mismanagement,” Barnes said.
According to the union, its 2024 budget forecast – which was the basis of job cuts and an attempt to take away a pay rise – overestimated the size of the deficit by more than $60 million.
The Australian Financial Review reported that Bell was presiding over a “culture of fear”, with people scared to voice opinions about a planned overhaul.
The university’s chief operating officer, Jonathan Churchill, sent a message to staff after the vote, saying the result had no legal or binding effect.
“Many people have raised concerns with me about the credibility of this ‘vote’ and the lack of proper integrity of the voting process,” he said.
The result was not representative of the majority of the university’s nearly 5000-strong staff, he said.
“However, I understand that this is a difficult time for our community and that many of you participated in this exercise to express your sincere views in good faith,” Churchill said in the email.
He said the university, led by Bishop and Bell, remained committed to securing financial stability for ANU.
“This will involve decisions which are not easy but are necessary to ensure we can keep delivering world-class teaching and research for our long-term future.”
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