Warm welcome to country or Macquarie University students fail

Law students at Macquarie University face the threat of failing a key exam if they perform an underwhelming acknowledgement of country.

Failure to include a culturally respectful welcome to country in an oral presentation as part of Macquarie University course will result in a fail for the law assessment.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Law students at Macquarie University face the threat of failing a key exam if they perform an ­underwhelming acknowledgement of country or refuse to ­acknowledge traditional Abor­iginal owners at all, in a move ­labelled “indoctrination” by Indigenous leaders.

The presentation is worth 30 per cent of the final course mark and students have been told the acknowledgement of country is one of the key five marking areas. The demand to perform a “thoughtful”, “culturally respectful” and “exceptionally well-written” ode to Aboriginal traditional owners at the start of an oral law exam is despite the course on “age and the law” having no direct ­relation to Indigenous matters.

Longstanding academic and founding chief executive of the Ramsay Centre for Western ­Civilisation Simon Haines described assessing a compulsory acknowledgement of country as “dangerous”.

“The critical error here is the confusion of categories – the academic and the political activist,” Professor Haines said.

Professor Simon Haines described assessing a compulsory acknowledgement of country as ‘dangerous’. Picture: Hollie Adams

“Wherever you may stand on acknowledgement of country etc, the fact is that being obliged to make an acknowledgment statement as an assessable element in an academic process is basically shocking. Social justice activist projects should not be confused with an academic assessment project. And that’s what’s happening here.”

Professor Haines, an academic for more than 30 years, called on the university’s vice-chancellor, Bruce Dowton, to review it.

“I actually think the VC (of Macquarie University) should ­review this,” he said.

“It’s his job. If I was running a university, I would call them in and basically say you just can’t do this. It’s an academic process, not a political one.”

He said tertiary administrators were becoming too detached from the mainstream to notice the problem with the welcome to country test. “The metaphor that I use is it’s a bit like an ice flow that’s broken away from the mainland. The entire sector has shifted so far in this activist direction that they don’t even realise how far they’ve got from popular community opinion. This kind of thing is why universities are on the nose more than they even ­realise or acknowledge,” he said.

Conservative Indigenous leaders have criticised Macquarie University for the assessment. Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta ­Nampijinpa Price said it showed universities were “more interested in indoctrination than genuine education”. Warren Mundine said he was “flabbergasted” and called it “pure indoctrination by a group of fanaticists”.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said “mandating that students participate in what is arguably a reinvention of culture in order to attain a tertiary qualification is an indictment on our education system”. Picture: Brett Phibbs/PhibbsVisuals

This latest controversy at Macquarie University follows 18 months of intense scrutiny on its anti-Israel academic Randa Abdel-Fattah. Her taxpayer-funded $870,000 research funding was recently suspended after she bragged about bending ­research rules.

University management conceded she had made “anti-­Semitic” statements during the last 18 months but said it could not take disciplinary action.

The rubric for the “law reform campaign” presentation assessment, seen by The Australian, says a student would fail if they “did not present an acknowledgement of country or welcome to country at the beginning of the presentation or did so in a way that was inappropriate or did not comply with the instructions”.

“There is significant room for improvement and further thought required for this to be considered culturally respectful,” the rubric offers.

A high-distinction acknowledgement of country would see a student present “a brief, thoughtful, exceptionally well-written, culturally respectful ­acknowledgement of country or welcome to country at the beginning of the presentation”, the marking rubric reads.

The course guide also refers students to the university’s “Aboriginal cultural protocols” document. The document contains a table of terms that “are now considered offensive to Aboriginal Australians and provides appropriate alternatives”. Examples ­include “Aboriginal Australian people/s” instead of “Aborigine”, “Aboriginal Australians or Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait ­Islander peoples” instead of “Aboriginals”, “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples” ­instead of “ATSI”, and “Indigenous nations” instead of “nomadic tribes”.

Senator Nampijinpa Price said “mandating that students participate in what is arguably a reinvention of culture in order to attain a tertiary qualification is an indictment on our education system”.

“Australians are fed up with being made to feel like they are guests in their own country, and requirements like this only serve to confirm that our educational institutions have become more interested in indoctrination than genuine education,” the Northern Territory senator said.

“The Albanese government has allowed activist behaviour like this to take root in our schools and tertiary institutions.

“That is why a Dutton ­Coalition government will get our country back on track, and ­ensure universities are focused on core academic instruction and research, rather than political agendas, and to treating people on the basis of need rather than race.”

Warren Mundine said universities had become “centres of indoctrination”. Picture: Adam Yip

Mr Mundine, a prominent No vote campaigner during the voice to parliament campaign and unsuccessful Liberal candidate for the NSW seat of ­Gilmore, said universities had become “centres of indoctrination”. “It is a dangerous step,” he said. “What has that got to do with the actual course?

“We are training lawyers. At the end of the day, they’re going to use that legal knowledge and everything to make Australia a better place in business and in the general community, and within the legal profession and in politics.

“This is pure indoctrination by a group of fanaticists.”

Mr Mundine said the acknowledgement of country was a “nice and great idea that had been ­hijacked by activists”.

A Macquarie University spokesperson said late on Sunday: “An acknowledgment of, or welcome to country is a requirement of this assessment because it is relevant both to this specific task and to the overall learning outcomes of the unit, Age and the Law. This unit addresses Indigenous young people and their relationship with the legal system in Australia.

“Age and the Law comprises three assessments. This is the only assessment in this unit that requires an acknowledgment of, or welcome to country.

“An acknowledgment of, or welcome to country is not a requirement of all assessment tasks at the university, nor is this a requirement of all assessment within the Macquarie Law School.”