ANU contracts awarded to Julie Bishop’s former political staffer
Australian National University says its engagement of a consulting firm operated by chancellor Julie Bishop’s former political staffer is all above board, after the university’s awarding of contracts to the long-time adviser came under scrutiny.
Australian National University has come under scrutiny for awarding contracts to a consulting firm operated by chancellor Julie Bishop’s long-time political staffer, but says its engagement with the firm is all “compliant”.
Education committee chairman, Labor senator Tony Sheldon, questioned ANU vice-chancellor Professor Genevieve Bell at Senate estimates on Thursday over whether Ms Bishop had “secretly engaged a former chief of staff (Murray Hansen) as an external consultant” via his consulting firm Vinder Consulting.
Mr Hansen, who was Ms Bishop’s chief of staff for more than a decade, established Vinder Consulting in 2019 with his wife, before Bishop hired him as principal of her boutique strategic advisory venture Julie Bishop & Partners. Mr Hansen is listed as one of three team members at Bishop’s firm, alongside two other advisers also employed part-time in her ANU office in Perth.
In a statement, an ANU spokesperson said “the chancellor has never engaged Vinder Consulting to provide any service to ANU” but that the “ANU communications team has, on limited occasions, decided to engage the services of Vinder Consulting to provide specialist speech writing knowledge and skills that did not exist within the university”.
“The total spend over the four years from 2021 to 2024 was $35,000, and all contracts were well under the minor procurement $5000 threshold with the ANU procurement policy,” the spokesperson said.
“The engagement of Vinder Consulting by the relevant purchasing officer was compliant with ANU’s procurement policy.”
Senator Sheldon also raised questions about the two other team members at Julie Bishop & Partners, who were employed as an external officer and a senior adviser to the chancellor.
The ANU spokesperson said there was “a clear demarcation in terms of hours worked for the ANU”, as well as “controls in place to ensure there is no overlap with the chancellor’s other activities for the staff, and both staff members report to and are accountable to the university secretary”.
Senator Sheldon on Thursday said he had been “informed by reliable sources that the University of the chancellor has, over a period of time, engaged in a consulting entity called Vinder Consulting for some paid work”, noting that Vinder Consulting “has no website or other public profile”.
He asked Professor Bell whether “(this was) the first time you have heard about Ms Bishop engaging her former political staffer as an external consultant using university money?”
Professor Bell replied: “This is certainly the first time I have heard of it, Senator.”
ANU’s chief financial officer Michael Lonergan also said he had not heard of Vinder Consulting.
Senator Sheldon questioned whether Ms Bishop had gone through “the proper procurement processes” in putting contracts out for public tender, for example, or notified anyone of a potential conflict of interest in relation to her long-term personal relationship with Mr Hansen.
Senator Sheldon noted that the ANU procurement procedure document says that services should be “sourced through preferred suppliers or established provider panels where possible”.
“Does (the policy) apply to the chancellor?” Senator Sheldon asked.
“It would apply to the chancellor in her role as chancellor,” Professor Bell said.
Senator Sheldon concluded that “At a time when Ms Bishop has been accusing university staff of being the cause of ANU’s financial problems, it appears to me, on the surface, that she’s been leveraging university funds on political staffers and employees of her company.“
Professor Bell said she wanted to ensure the staff being discussed were “being treated appropriately” and the questions were taken on notice.
Ms Bishop was approached for comment.
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