ANU council member resigns after no confidence vote in university leaders

The twice-elected member of the Australian National University Council told her colleagues the Council no longer ‘aligns with the principles of accountability and representation’.

Liz Allen is a demographer at ANU in Canberra. Picture: Tracey Nearmy/ANU

A twice-elected member of the Australian National University Council has resigned, telling her colleagues the Council no longer “aligns with the principles of accountability and representation” on which she was elected.

It comes after more than 750 union members passed a vote of no confidence vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell and ANU chancellor Julie Bishop over job cuts and leadership scandals.

Demographer and senior lecturer Liz Allen, who served on the ANU Council as an elected staff member in 2022 and again in 2024, resigned on Monday.

In a letter to all council and university executives, Dr Allen wrote: “After careful consideration, I have made the difficult decision to resign from the ANU Council.

“ANU staff have twice generously elected me to serve on the governing body, entrusting me to better represent the diverse experiences and voices of our ANU community.

ANU chancellor Julie Bishop. Picture: Supplied

“Following the recent vote of no confidence by staff and the subsequent statement from the Council, I cannot in good conscience remain on Council. The direction of Council does not align with the principles of accountability and representation on which I was elected.

“I remain grateful for the trust staff have placed in me. I will continue advocating for a stronger, more inclusive, and transparent ANU through other leadership roles.”

Dr Allen told The Australian she “cannot give unconditional support to ANU leadership”.

“I don’t think the ANU Council can ignore or downplay the vote of no confidence. Nor can the ANU Council ignore the significance of the open letter from senior members of the ANU community,” she said.

“I see no sufficient evidence ANU leadership can bring about effective and collaborative change management.”

She said resigning from the ANU Council “was a last resort”.

“It became clear my perspectives were in contrast to that of the Council.”

In a statement to the media on Monday, Ms Bishop said: “On behalf of the Council, I thank Liz Allen for her service over 2.5 years. I look forward to hearing more about her nation-leading demographic research at our POLIS Centre for Social Policy Research. The Council will begin the formal process of holding an election to fill the casual vacancy”.

Following the no confidence vote last month, National Tertiary Education Union’s ACT division secretary Lachlan Clohesy called on the ANU council to deliberate on whether the positions of chancellor and vice-chancellor were still tenable in light of the no-­confidence vote.

NTEU national president Alison Barnes said “ANU scandals have piled up’’ higher than the Telstra Tower, a Canberra landmark.

ANU chief operating officer Jonathan Churchill on Wednesday said the NTEU vote had “no legal or binding effect’’ and questioned the integrity of the voting process.

ANU Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Genevieve Bell. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“The final result cannot be considered to be fully representative of the views of almost 5000-strong staff,’’ he wrote in a message to staff.

Professor Bell, a cultural anthropologist, was appointed to the top job in January last year, after the retirement of Nobel prize-winning astrophysicist Brian Schmidt, who had been ANU vice-chancellor for eight years.

She has announced $250m in spending cuts by the end of this year, with hundreds of staff set to be sacked.

Professor Bell, who is paid $1.1m to run the university, has also been criticised for continuing to work on the side for her previous employer, Intel.

In comments distributed by the ANU media unit, Michelle Ryan, inaugural director of ANU’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, leapt to Professor Bell’s defence, suggesting the ANU chiefs were facing more scrutiny because they were women.

Ms Bishop came under scrutiny in a Senate estimates hearing last month when it was revealed that ANU had outsourced work to Vinder Consulting, a firm owned by her business partner and long-time political staffer Murray Hansen.