NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge calls for a “a cross-party parliamentary inquiry in the first half of 2019,” into University of Wollongong management. Mr Shoebridge is upset by the university accepting $50m from the Ramsay Western Civ Centre to fund staff and scholarships for a degree. “The Ramsay Centre is unashamedly seeking to celebrate and promote western civilisation, not to neutrally, let alone critically, examine it. It was established by a bequest from a billionaire Liberal party donor as part of that party’s ongoing culture wars,” he warns.
“Universities are governed by state laws and the NSW Parliament now needs to do its job and after the March state election immediately establish an open public inquiry into its management,” Mr Shoebridge wrote in an Illawarra Mercury oped (December 21).
Good-o, but at least one state law allows what Mr Shoebridge opposes. The university’s Act (1989) appears to permit accepting funding, even Tory gold. “The university may generate revenue for the purpose of funding the promotion of its object and the carrying out of its principal functions, states 6, 3 (a1).