The secret deal for Melbourne Uni to fund artwork in exchange for council support for new campus

The University of Melbourne and the City of Melbourne brokered a secret $2.8 million deal for the university to fund a public artwork in Southbank in exchange for council support for its new campus at Fishermans Bend.

The council asked the university for money after the cost of the artwork by New Zealand indigenous artist Michael Parekowhai increased dramatically from $2 million to $22 million.

A confidential council briefing document from 2023 – obtained by The Age – outlines the nature of the deal they struck.

“On 28 September 2021 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the City of Melbourne and The University of Melbourne,” the briefing document states. “This MoU highlighted support the City of Melbourne will provide to Fisherman’s Bend and the University of Melbourne will provide to Knowledge (value $2.8 million).”

University of Melbourne vice chancellor Duncan Maskell.Credit: Justin McManus

The University of Melbourne is building a new campus at a 7.2 hectare site at Fishermans Bend, which it bought off the state government in 2019.

It is set to break ground this year on the $400 million first stage of the engineering and design campus at the old General Motors Holden factory.

Neither the university nor council would provide a copy of the memorandum of understanding or further details of the deal.

The Age this week revealed how the public art project blew out as its scope and size expanded, and the council’s efforts to cover the funding shortfall, including a four-point plan to extract money from the city’s wealthiest philanthropists.

The University of Melbourne has strong ties to the city council, with former lord mayor Sally Capp and current Lord Mayor Nick Reece both employed there.

At the time the deal was brokered, vice chancellor Duncan Maskell was leading the University of Melbourne, while Justin Hanney was chief executive of the City of Melbourne.

Hanney resigned in 2022 after a four-month probe into donations he solicited to crew and equip a yacht in the Sydney to Hobart race. The outcome of the investigation into Hanney was never published.

Both Hanney and Maskell declined to comment.

A spokeswoman for the University of Melbourne declined to comment on what it would get from the council in exchange for the $2.8 million donation or why the deal had been kept a secret.

She said the University of Melbourne signed multiple MoUs with the City of Melbourne in 2021.

“The university works with multiple partners to provide new and revitalised teaching, learning and research facilities, better amenities and shared open spaces to enhance the student experience across its campuses,” she said.

The spokeswoman said the agreements provided a general framework for ongoing collaboration between the parties in the planning, development and delivery of Fishermans Bend and Southbank.

Reece and a spokesman for the City of Melbourne declined to comment on the terms of the deal or what support the council would provide to the University of Melbourne in relation to its new Fishermans Bend campus.

“The City of Melbourne is working with the University of Melbourne to improve the student experience along Dodds Street and help shape the future campus at Fishermans Bend,” the spokesman said.

In 2018, the Capp-led City of Melbourne commissioned the artwork Yesterday, an eight-metre-high bronze sculpture that consists of a “soft toy appearing kangaroo” wrapped in fairy lights sitting on a primary school chair with the back of the chair branded with a Boon Wurrung expression of the word “yesterday”.

Lord Mayor Nick Reece has been employed by the University of Melbourne since 2013. Credit: Justin McManus

The council initially allocated $2 million to the artwork with confidential council minutes noting “any additional costs above the $2 million will be sourced from the private and philanthropic sector”.

However, the council’s contract with Parekowhai, signed in 2019, set out a much broader scope for the artwork with four further “component works” envisaged: Tomorrow, Seal and Pleiades, Knowledge and Intention.

The university agreed to fund Knowledge, a 50-metre neon rainbow “that brings to light the act of discovery”, which is costing $2.8 million.

Dr Colleen Lewis, of integrity group the Accountability Round Table, said she could see no reason why the agreement between the council and university was confidential.

“If the City of Melbourne wishes to have artworks around the city to enhance the city in some way that is fine, but it is up to the people of Melbourne to be part of that decision-making process,” she said.

“Secretive agreements in a democracy are rarely necessary.”

Lewis said it was up to the City of Melbourne to explain why the deal to fund the artwork was confidential and the onus must be put back on the council to explain.

“It does not align with accountability and transparency and all the other fundamentals that go with a democracy,” she said.

Reece has been employed by the University of Melbourne since 2013 and is currently its director of enterprise strategy and projects.

The university’s website states that in this role Reece “identifies and manages major development opportunities involving key industry, government and community relationships critical to the university’s agenda, and provides advice on state and federal government strategy and policy, and business development”.

A spokeswoman for the university said Reece had been on a leave of absence from his job since early this year.

“Nick Reece has recused himself from any discussions between the university and the City of Melbourne since his election in 2016,” the spokeswoman said.

Capp accepted a job at the University of Melbourne as a vice chancellor’s fellow just two months after stepping down as lord mayor in June. She declined to comment on the deal.

Announcing Capp’s new job at the university in August, Maskell said Capp had been an outstanding leader as lord mayor.

“Her experience and acumen will provide a boost to the faculty of business and economics and the university,” he said.

A concept of Melbourne University’s new engineering and design campus at Fishermans Bend.Credit: Melbourne University

At the time of her appointment Capp said she was delighted and looked forward to making a positive contribution to the university.

According to the university, the vice chancellor’s fellow program “provides distinguished leaders with access to a scholarly environment and the opportunity to make a distinctive contribution to the university and the wider community”.

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