Australian Catholic University cops broadside from Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher

Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher has taken aim at the ACU management. Picture: Chris Pavlich

Could there be a greater smackdown of the Australian Catholic University’s embattled leadership than having a fed-up Anthony Fisher, one of the country’s most respected prelates, venting his utter shame with the institution’s management?

We’ve intercepted a copy of this extraordinary six-page letter sent by the Sydney Archbishop to ACU Pro-Chancellor Virginia Bourke on November 13. Carbon-copied were Vice-Chancellor Zlatko Skrbis and ACU Chancellor Martin Daubney, both of whom were probably the intended targets of Fisher’s opprobrium.     

Crisis-ridden as the university has already become, the archbishop’s letter was clearly prompted by ACU’s shambolic and fawning response to students and staff who staged a mass walkout of a speech given on October 21 by former union leader Joe de Bruyn. 

Awarded an honorary doctorate, de Bruyn’s acceptance speech canvassed Catholic social teachings in public life and his personal views on IVF, same-sex marriage and abortion, which he called the “biggest killer of human beings in the world”.

Seats began emptying at the sound of the word “abortion”.

ACU Vice-Chancellor Zlatko Skrbis.

Instead of apologising to de Bruyn and backing him for espousing “Catholic moral positions at a Catholic graduation ceremony”, Fisher said the university apologised to those who walked out of the event and “behaved so discourteously”. Refunds on the graduation fees were offered to distressed students while de Bruyn, escorted off the premises by two security guards, was left “humiliated rather than honoured”.

“As a bishop charged with pastoral oversight of two of (ACU’s) campuses, I find myself ashamed of the university’s recent performance,” wrote Fisher, who sits on the corporation that owns and conducts ACU as a Catholic institution. His remarks will undoubtedly be read as a grave and telling censure of Skrbis and Daubney. 

“This latest crisis should surely occasion some serious soul-searching within the university about its identity and mission … Confidence in the university among many of its stakeholders, as well as of the broader community, has been shaken.” 

Fisher went on to confirm that he’d been contacted by numerous individuals expressing unease at ACU becoming “ambivalent about
its Catholic identity”, a sentiment that gained momentum with the appointment of Professor Kate Galloway as Dean of Law earlier this year.

Galloway, a vocally pro-abortion academic, was named dean only to have her role terminated within a matter of weeks following a conservative backlash within the institution over her published works. She was reassigned to the role of “strategic professor” and given a compensation package of more than $1m over the embarrassment caused.

Fisher’s letter points out that de Bruyn shared an advance copy of his remarks with university officials but received “only vague encouragement from ‘lower down the tree’ to lighten his speech”. No one from management directly raised an objection, he said. 

The mass walkout was orchestrated by attendees who’d probably been tipped off to the substance and spirit of what de Bruyn planned to say, Fisher said. He also voices doubts over ACU’s assertion that it was not aware of any mass walkout being planned. 

For a start, several important university leaders were conveniently absent from the stage that day, including the chancellor, vice-chancellor and pro-chancellor. Their absence alone is considered irregular.

“I cannot recall an honorary doctorate being awarded without such a senior officer being present,” he said, pointing to the order of ceremony being “changed without notice”, the speech being moved “to the end” of the program, and counsellors being on hand “outside the hall” as other anomalies.

Fisher’s consultations with staff and his own knowledge of ACU graduations turned up no recollection of a doctoral speech “being moved to the end of the ceremony”. Suss, too, is that the printed running sheet listed de Bruyn as “speaking at the beginning, as is customary”.

“I can only assume that this change was made to enable the protest without compromising the granting of the degrees,” Fisher wrote. At this point, you really have to wonder just how broken Fisher’s trust must be for him to basically accuse ACU’s leadership of lying. 

The letter culminates with the archbishop’s resignation as chair of ACU’s Committee of Identity (a forum that guides the institution’s Catholicity), but he will remain a director of the committee and of the corporation that owns the university.   

A symbolic gesture, by the sounds of it, but one that’s powerful enough to place even greater pressure over the heads of Daubney and Skrbis. YB

The wild west

Small town, happy coincidence, or vast mining industry conspiracy? Sometimes in Perth it’s hard to tell the difference.

Hayley Lawrance.

Take the example of former corporate lawyer Hayley Lawrance, who has just announced she’ll be running as an independent candidate for the former blue-ribbon Liberal seat of South Perth at next year’s state election.

Lawrance’s last corporate gig was as a non-executive director of struggling mining explorer Global Lithium. She stepped down from the company’s board only recently, in the face of a board spill motion by South Perth businessman Leon Zhu.

That challenge is still to happen, after Global Lithium won court orders holding off its annual shareholder meeting amid dark mutterings that Zhu is fronting Chinese parties in his tilt at winning more influence over the company – mutterings categorically denied by Zhu, we hasten to add.

But the law firm advising his bid, Cornerstone Legal, includes as partners Tim Houweling and Bronwyn Waugh.

In a spectacular coincidence, Waugh is now the endorsed Liberal candidate for South Perth, running against sitting Labor MP Geoff Baker – who won the seat on primary votes at the last election and is now defending a 10 per cent margin.

Waugh’s campaign manager? Houweling, of course.

A spot of revenge against the Cornerstone team for the Global Lithium spill, we hear you ask?

Not so, Lawrance assures us. She unsuccessfully sought Liberal preselection at the 2021 election in the same seat, and is running because she’s a South Perth local and thinks she’s spotted a gap in the electoral market for Liberal voters who are sick of Premier Roger Cook’s Labor government, but aren’t yet convinced their own party is ready for government.

Houwelling and Waugh’s involvement in the Global Lithium situation is purely coincidental, she promises.

Margin Call is happy to note that a quick check of WA’s real time election donation tracker shows that neither Zhu nor any of the parties close to Global Lithium appear to have backed a candidate with cash. We’ll let you know if that changes.

And as for the Labor incumbent? We hear his mood is ranging between bemused and overjoyed. NE