Universities question need for review of campus free speech

Universities have questioned the need for the federal government review of campus freedom of speech.

Margaret Gardner, chair of peak body Universities Australia. Picture: Stuart McEvoy.

Universities have questioned the need for the federal government review of campus freedom of speech announced yesterday, saying protections already exist for free expression and intellectual inquiry.

Margaret Gardner, chair of peak body Universities Australia, said universities had more than 100 policies, codes and agreements that supported free intellectual inquiry.

“In this context, it is unclear what issue the government is seeking to address,” said Professor Gardner, who is also vice-chancellor of Monash University.

Education Minister Dan Tehan has appointed former chief justice Robert French, also the current chancellor of the University of Western Australia, to undertake the review, which will look at all material that currently affects free-speech issues in universities, including codes of conduct, enterprise bargaining agreements, policy statements and strategic plans.

The review follows incidents including protests against commentator and psychologist Bettina Arndt’s speeches to meetings organised by the student Liberal clubs at La Trobe University and the University of Sydney, and the cancellation of a speech by US transgender opponent Quentin Van Meter at the University of WA.

Professor Gardner criticised some media commentators ­who “appeared to want government to override university autonomy with heavy-handed, external regulation and red tape”.

“Some commentators on free speech at Australian universities have been very wide of the mark — jumping to the wrong conclusions or selectively quoting from university policies and codes,” she said. “These same conclusions would not meet the threshold test of academic inquiry — informed by evidence and facts.”

Professor Gardner strongly defended existing protections for free speech and free intellectual inquiry in universities.

“Australian universities have been on the public record through the ages affirming our longstanding commitment to informed ­evidence-based discussion and vigorous debate,” she said.

“Australian universities teach students how to think, not what to think — and we teach them to ­engage both with ideas they agree with and those they don’t agree with.”