VC Brian Schmidt has previously warned the 2020 financial report would not be great – it isn’t (CMM March 15)

ANU’s 2019 annual report did not appear until last October (blame the Federal Government for tabling it in Parliament late) but 2020’s is out in something approaching reasonable time. Perhaps because somebody decided it is better to get bad news out and over.

The university’s consolidated operating revenue in 2020 was $1.33 bn (down from $1.56 bn in 2019). Expenses were $1.34 bn (up from $1.24 bn in ’19). After adjusting for allocated income that cannot be used for operating expenses the university recorded an underlying operating deficit of $80.64m.

“Employee-related expenses” accounted for much of the spending increase, rising from $674m in 2019 to $779m last year, presumably being the cost of staff early departures, although “voluntary separation” only appears once in the report, with no number is attached.

But what, you ask, did the 2018 cyber attack cost ANU? Not telling, is the university answer. The amount of the insurance claim, “cannot be reliably estimated at this time.”