Student activist Drew Pavlou declares UQ suspension cut after appeal a ‘cynical PR move’

Drew Pavlou will still take the University of Queensland to court in a bid to overturn his reduced suspension.

Student Drew Pavlou says he will take his suspension fight to the Supreme Court. Picture: Liam Kidston

Student activist Drew Pavlou will take the University of Queensland to the Supreme Court in a bid to overturn his suspension despite it being cut from two years to a semester after an internal appeals committee threw out most of the allegations against him.

In a letter to the Mr Pavlou, UQ’s Senate Discipline Appeals Committee found him guilty of just two out of 11 misconduct allegations contained in a 186-page confidential dossier that had led to his suspension last month.

The two “serious misconduct”allegations involved a satirical stunt, in which he posed outside the office of vice-chancellor Peter Hoj wearing a Hazmat suit, and the other related to the online abuse of a fellow student.

Pavlou, a 21-year-old a final-year human¬ities student and elected member of the UQ senate, has now been suspended for the remainder of the year and ordered to do 25 hours community service on campus.

The misconduct investigation followed his vocal criticism of Chinese influence at the university and organisation of an anti-China protest at the St Lucia campus last year, which turned violent.

Mr Pavlou and his pro-bono barrister, Tony Morris QC had appealed his initial suspension – covering most of his two year term on the senate, in which he took his seat in January after a vote of 35,000 undergraduate students.

The appeals decision has been slammed by Mr Pavlou, who says he will launch a further appeal to be completely cleared in Queensland’s civil courts.

 

“In a disgusting and cynical PR move, UQ’s own Kangaroo Court have admitted 90 per cent of the charges against me had no basis and reduced my penalty by 75 per cent on appeal,’’ he said.

“Yet they’ve still suspended me to the end of 2020.

“UQ still achieves their purpose of removing me as a Senate member and student representative in order to please the Chinese consulate and punish me for my activism against the CCP.

“Shameful attack on free speech in Australia, hundreds of thousands wasted constructing a completely shoddy case that cannot stand up to scrutiny, yet still the star chamber does the bidding of its masters.

“I pledge to seek an injunction against this and a total exoneration in the Supreme Court.’’

In its findings, the committee questioned UQ’s Disciplinary Board and its findings of guilt that Mr Pavlou’s conduct had “prejudiced the reputation of the University”.

“Speaking generally, the Committee is of the view that the University’s reputation should not be regarded as a fragile or easily bruised thing,” the committee said.

“Many of the other submission made by the University in the Disciplinary board proceedings have reduced weight in the context of the vastly different findings made by this committee to those made by the Disciplinary Board.’’

In its letter, the appeals committee said Mr Pavlou in respect if his “proven misconduct, had you have shown no remorse or insight.

“You have been entirely unapologetic in respect of your behaviour.’’

UQ Chancellor Peter Varghese, who had raised his concerns about the severity of the initial two year suspension, said the outcome “should finally put to rest the false allegations that this process has been an attack on freedom of expression.”

“Neither of the findings of serious misconduct concerned Mr Pavlou’s personal or political views about China or Hong Kong,’’ he said.

“The University has consistently said that no student should be penalised for the lawful expression of personal views.

“The Committee conducted a complete rehearing of the matter and was required to make decisions based only on the evidence before it.’’