Suspended student Drew Pavlou claims victory as parliamentary inquiry announced
Suspended activist Drew Pavlou is celebrating the Morrison Government’s new parliamentary inquiry into foreign influence at Aussie universities – and at the same time threatening to reveal secrets from UQ’s Senate meetings under parliamentary privilege.
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SUSPENDED student activist Drew Pavlou has threatened to expose secrets from University of Queensland Senate meetings when speaking about his suspension at a government inquiry, under the protection of parliamentary privilege.
Drew Pavlou, 21 yesterday smoked a “victory cigar” at the UQ campus from which he is suspended, celebrating the Morrison Government’s new parliamentary inquiry into foreign influence at Australian universities.
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Mr Pavlou had strongly criticised his university‘s business ties with the Chinese government, particularly the Confucius Institute as being an arm of the Chinese Communist Party.
“The Australian parliament, our hallowed institutions of Australian democracy will be investigating UQ,” he said.
“Just imagine me with parliamentary privilege, not being able to be sued for defamation, it’s going to be beautiful,” he said.
Mr Pavlou said he had many things to tell the world about the UQ Senate.
“I took notes of everything, and they’ve said you cannot expose these notes because you will be held in contempt,” he said.
“There’s going to be some very interesting things to say about Peter Varghese and Peter Høj when I’m in Canberra with parliamentary privilege.”
The University of Queensland has strongly denied it is driven by political motivations and maintained that Mr Pavlou was not disciplined for his political beliefs about China or Hong Kong.
A University of Queensland statement said the University would fully co-operate with the inquiry.
During a press conference he revealed details of freedom of information requests that Mr Pavlou claims showed “that this entire process has been politically motivated.”
Mr Pavlou also said Mr Varghese had publicly stated that the former Vice-Chancellor Professor Høj had not been involved in the disciplinary process but freedom of information requests revealed that Mr Varghese sought comment from Professor Høj about a public statement regarding Pavlou’s suspension on May 29.
Pavlou said the Chancellor wrote “grateful any comment you or Kelly have on what I am proposing,” in an email to Professor Høj relating to a statement about Pavlou’s suspension.
The Chancellor later issued a statement that said: “ … In consultation with the Vice Chancellor, who has played no role in this disciplinary process, I have decided to convene an out-of-session meeting of UQ’s Senate next week to discuss the matter.”
In celebrating the win, Mr Pavlou quoted the famed Ezekiel 25:17 monologue from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.
“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men … And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee,” Mr Pavlou said.
“It’s just a short quote but it is something that I think is very apt and very relevant today as we discuss this because UQ, they thought they had beaten me, they thought they had bullied me into the ground,” Mr Pavlou said.
A University of Queensland spokesperson said they were yet to receive terms of reference about the inquiry but “look forward to a balanced discussion on these important issues.”
“The University will fully co-operate with an inquiry into the sector’s international engagements,” the spokesperson said.
“The University is very supportive of the University Foreign Interference Taskforce (UFIT), which has put in place clear guidelines to enhance safeguards around research, IP and cybersecurity. UQ is committed to continued collaboration with government, security agencies and the sector in these areas.”
Originally published as Suspended student Drew Pavlou claims victory as parliamentary inquiry announced