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Yoni Bashan

ACU’s council shrugs off concerns; Get your Games face on, says Sneesby

Yoni Bashan
Australian Catholic University chancellor and former Queensland Supreme Court judge Martin Daubney.
Australian Catholic University chancellor and former Queensland Supreme Court judge Martin Daubney.

The Australian Catholic University convened a marathon sitting of its governing council on Monday, a gab-a-thon that ended with leaders assuring themselves that management hadn’t been running the place into the ground – as ACU staff and academics have been raising hell about for months.

It was always on the cards that vice-chancellor Zlatko Skrbis would keep his job. Few, however, thought the Senate would shrug off entirely the evidence of governance failings and breaches of academic freedom made known in these pages over the past fortnight.

The ACU Senate is chaired by chancellor Martin Daubney KC. He issued a statement on Tuesday asserting unwavering support for Skrbis, without the dignity of actually naming the vice-chancellor.

“Having received a briefing from the vice-chancellor today in relation to management’s response to recent media activity, the ACU Senate is supportive of the university’s management and committed to the pursuit of Vision 2033,” he said.

Framing the purpose of this extraordinary meeting around “management’s response to recent media activity” is an astoundingly odd and arrogant way of ignoring precisely what this media activity has been banging on about over the past fortnight.

Vice-chancellor Professor Zlatko Skrbis.
Vice-chancellor Professor Zlatko Skrbis.
Professor Kate Galloway.
Professor Kate Galloway.

A former Queensland ­Supreme Court judge, Daubney has been leaning on the services of special counsel Sophie Robertson to guard against even the slightest suggestion he might have anything to do with the executive function and overarching management of the university.

It also begs the question of what Daubney actually does for ACU at all, aside from chairing its Senate council. Attempts to parse his confusing statement and adduce what that “management response” entailed proved fruitless as well. Robertson told us: “Mr Daubney declines to make a comment either on or off the record.”

Masses of staff have been laid off at ACU. Its budget remains in a catastrophic deficit. Its recently appointed Dean of Law, Professor Kate Galloway, was paid $1m to relinquish her position and take up an inferior role – ­ostensibly because she held a view on abortion reform that rankled with the university’s Catholic overseers.

A governing body that can hear allegations of such seriousness, during a period of financial catastrophe and staff losses, and still rule that full and total confidence be maintained in the university’s management, well, it’s one that is sick as sin from the very top.

And so it makes perfect sense that universities regulator TEQSA is now actively pursuing an inquiry of its own into the Galloway matter and ACU, although a spokesman wouldn’t confirm that for the record.

Should ACU be found to have breached the laws governing academic freedom – by terminating Galloway’s position on the basis of ideological distaste – it could place the university’s commonwealth funding at risk, among other crises.

Nothing to see here, Daubney claims, per his statement on Tuesday. No independent, external inquiry, as some had sensibly called for. No possibility that the university has suffered a brain drain of talent, or has experienced a gross misuse of taxpayer funds, or really is being run into the ground.

It’s a remarkable position to hold, at a time when the regulator itself appears to have raised an eyebrow at the institution’s affairs. Perhaps ACU management has no idea about that yet – a discovery to be learned over Cornflakes in the morning.

Sneesby’s in high spirits

Staff at Nine Entertainment are shuffling around in a state of anxiety wondering if they’ll have a job in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, there was great comfort that arrived on Monday when CEO Mike Sneesby emailed everyone encouraging them to “get into the Games spirit” ahead of the network’s coverage from Paris.

Nine Entertainment chief Mike Sneesby wants staff to get into the Olympic spirit. Picture: Martin Ollman
Nine Entertainment chief Mike Sneesby wants staff to get into the Olympic spirit. Picture: Martin Ollman

That’s right. Shrug off the spectre of looming unemployment in a drum-tight labour market. Summon up that Olympic cheer. Put on a happy face, you goddamn grouch!

Sneesby’s tin-eared indifference to real-world concerns in his own newsrooms is genuinely something to behold and obviously regarded with a curled lip by many on the shop floor at Nine. Not exactly a goth wake on the ground, but we hear it’s grim.

Sneesby’s flubs are tallying up fast. First, he mismanaged the Darren Wick saga, the veteran newsman departing Nine with a $1m package, even as harassment allegations were backlit with Kliegs upon his exit.

Sneesby’s decision to skip off to Greece on a family holiday last month, the very day 200 job cuts were announced, deserves a special place in the pantheon of corporate heartlessness.

Former Channel 9 news chief Darren Wick, centre. Picture: Damian Shaw
Former Channel 9 news chief Darren Wick, centre. Picture: Damian Shaw

His latest move to play torchbearer during the Olympic relay ceremony, revealed here at the weekend, has obviously done nothing to endear him to the troops – and you best believe the boss made no mention of that in his email to the grunts.

Instead, it was all praise and pride festooned upon the network, the teams en route to Paris and those at home. “Don’t forget, everyone can get into the Games spirit by participating in our Nine Employee Exclusive events.” Woo!

Stuffed at the bottom was a throwaway par addressing the 800-pound gorilla that the CEO was otherwise ignoring. Yes, a challenging few months, he lamented. Economic headwinds. Structural changes. “These decisions are never easy but they are necessary to ensure we are best positioned for the future,” he said.

There’s every likelihood jobs will be lost by the time the Olympic cauldron is extinguished at the closing ceremony. Or, perhaps even earlier, as Sneesby runs the torch relay, flame in hand, to the sound of near-distant clapping along the banks of the Seine. A victory lap for the ages.

Yoni Bashan
Yoni BashanMargin Call Editor

Yoni Bashan is the editor of the agenda-setting column Margin Call. He began his career at The Sunday Telegraph and has won multiple awards for crime writing and specialist investigations. In 2014 he was seconded on a year-long exchange to The Wall Street Journal. His non-fiction book The Squad was longlisted for the Walkley Book Award. He was previously The Australian's NSW political correspondent.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/margin-call/acus-council-shrugs-off-concerns-get-your-games-face-on-says-sneesby/news-story/68ca9316b2335cca8f3f93b4ab99cf60