Lefty academics hate the West, Craig Kelly says

Craig Kelly says the ANU needs to have a “good, hard look” at itself over the Ramsay Centre withdrawal.

Liberal Member for Hughes Craig Kelly has accused the ANU of a double standard over the Ramsay Centre decision. Picture: AAP

Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly says the Australian National University needs to have a “good, hard look” at itself after withdrawing from plans to establish a course in Western civilisation with the Ramsay Centre.

Mr Kelly accused the university of a double standard, citing up to $2 million ANU has received from the governments of each of Dubai, Iran and Turkey.

Australian Catholic University vice-chancellor Greg Craven today dubbed the ANU’s decision “the greatest act of gutlessness since Trevor Chappell bowled under­arm to New Zealand”.

“The ANU really need to have a good, hard look at themselves,” Mr Kelly told Sky News.

“They are accepting money from Iran. That’s a despotic government like Iran that does everything to suppress academic freedoms, the freedoms of women, that’s who they’re accepting money from.

“When it comes to a course on Western civilisation, absolutely, any course of Western civilisation is going to be pro-Western civilisation, simply because of the facts, because Western civilisation is why we have the great society that we have today.

“It’s why we have the wealth, the technological advancements, and if you look around the world today there are millions of people trying to flee to get to Western civilisations.

“We should be unashamedly promoting the success that Western civilisation has brought.”

Labor backbencher Peter Khalil said Western civilisation had also led to the formation of the labour movement, trade unions and workers’ rights.

“So they’re all good things as well. Craig, I hope you’d agree with those advantages of Western civilisation,” Mr Khalil told Sky News.

“In so far as ANU’s decision-making was internally, I understand that they’re making the case that this was going to impinge on their academic freedom and autonomy.

“I don’t know the details of their discussions. What I do know though is that Tony Abbott, talk about politicising these things, wrote a pretty hard-core article in Quadrant which may have actually tipped the scales against the course, and all of those professors who were supporting the course at ANU were suddenly put out in the cold because of that article, so maybe he has a bit of responsibility there in seeing this fall apart.”

Objections to the Ramsay Centre proposal had been raised by students and National Tertiary Education Union representatives long before Mr Abbott’s article was published.

Mr Kelly blamed “a whole lot of leftist academics” for the ANU decision.

“The march through the institutions is real,” he said.

“These people have a hatred of Western civilisation, they have a dislike of our nation, that is simply why they do not want this course.”