Mark Vaile won’t become University of Newcastle chief amid coal furore

Mark Vaile backs out of appointment as University of Newcastle chancellor after furious resistance to his coal connections.

Former deputy Prime Minister and National party leader Mark Vaile.

Former Nationals leader Mark Vaile has lashed out at what he called “a dangerous style of activism” after a furore over his links to the coal industry caused him to back out of the role of chancellor at the University of Newcastle.

His withdrawal came after two weeks of growing opposition to the appointment from academics, students, donors and council members at the university.

“This has been a very difficult decision for me but has become necessary given the unjustified campaign against the appointment led by minority groups placing ideology before proper governance and what is in the best interests of the University of Newcastle and the communities it serves,” Mr Vaile said in a statement. He said minority groups had placed ideology before proper governance.

Mr Vaile, who was deputy prime minister from 2005 to 2007, is chairman of major coal producer Whitehaven Coal. As chancellor, he would have been in the University of Newcastle’s most senior job, as chair of the governing council, and a role similar to chairman of a major company.

He withdrew from the job just as the campaign against him was about to step up another notch, with senior health academics and researchers at University of Newcastle, many of whom hold conjoint appointments in regional hospitals, planning to release a petition on Tuesday.

Jennifer Martin, a professor in the university’s school of medicine and public health who resigned from the council two weeks ago in protest at Mr Vaile’s appointment, welcomed Mr Vaile’s decision to stand aside, saying it would help the university and the region get ready for the post-coal era.

“Newcastle will be better off with this decision,” she said.

Only on Friday departing chancellor Paul Jeans strongly defended Mr Vaile’s appointment, touting his environmental credentials and praising him as the best candidate to replace him as chancellor.

He said Mr Vaile “restated his support for achieving the university’s carbon neutral goal by 2025”. “He has also emphasised the importance of stopping human-caused climate change by transitioning our energy economy,” Mr Jeans said.

Last week Mr Vaile used an article in the Newcastle Herald to push back against critics, pointing out that as well as being chairman of Whitehaven Coal, he was chairman of Pacific Palisade Partners “an organisation that has $1bn of assets under management in wind and solar energy technologies”.

“I strongly believe that if we are to address the challenges of human-made climate change, we must help our industries and our communities to transition our energy sector,” Mr Vaile wrote.

“This can’t be an ideological debate of coal versus renewables.”

Mr Vaile was selected as chancellor by a committee of four on the 16-member university council, which as headed by deputy chancellor Michelle McPherson. It is understood other council members were given only Mr Vaile’s name for approval and not told the names of any others under consideration.

Since Mr Vaile was announced as the next chancellor council member Eileen Doyle also resigned, although she has not given reasons for her departure.

The university’s council will meet urgently on Tuesday to decide how it will appoint a replacement for Mr Vaile.

Prominent philanthropists last week published a full-page advertisement in the Newcastle Herald warning they would “not support a university who would choose as their leader someone who is determined to build new coal mines when most of the world is determined to reduce fossil fuel use”.