Where's the Vaccine for Insecure Work?
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AdvocateVOL. 28 NO. 1 ◆ MAR 2021 ◆ ISSN 1329-7295 WHERE’S THE VACCINE FOR INSECURE WORK? JOIN THE CONVERSATION TO PLAN OUR SHARED SOLUTIONS IN OUR WORKPLACES AND IN PARLIAMENT. NTEU NATIONAL PRESIDENT DR. ALISON BARNES LABOR SENATOR TONY SHELDON GREENS SENATOR DR. MEHREEN FARUQI JOIN THE CONVERSATION 19 MARCH 2021 – 2PM AEST RSVP nteu.org.au/vaccine4insecurework IR Omnibus Bill will worsen insecure employment Academic freedom & (free?) speech Our changing workforce landscape Workload & pay justice at La Trobe Crowd-sourcing research for better uni governance A&TSI employment targets Gearing up for the next bargaining round Campaign to #SaveUVetStaff COVID-19 INTERNATIONAL Course cuts: Student choice under Job Ready Graduates Fiji’s deportation of USP VC 2020: The year the Government abandoned universities Turkish students fight for democracy The art of protesting in a pandemic Biden and the student loan crisis Introducing the new refreshed look of your benefits platform. 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GOVERNANCE Cover image: Mask- In this edition wearing participants in 20 Crowd-sourcing research for the 2021 Invasion Day in Melbourne. Matt Hrkac 2 Confronting 2021 in a COVID better uni governance world Australia's tertiary sector is in crisis. Far from Dr Alison Barnes, National President being sudden and unexpected, this is a crisis that has been a long time in the making. As 3 Healing the scars of 2020 many of us are painfully aware, the COVID Matthew McGowan, General Secretary pandemic has exposed deep structural flaws in how the sector has been governed for decades. 5 NEWS EMPLOYMENT 4 IR Omnibus Bill will worsen insecure employment 22 The changing university workforce landscape Free Sean Turnell! The very significant changes to the university workforce landscape have little if anything to do 5 Where’s the vaccine for insecure with improving the quality of teaching, research work? and community service. ACADEMIC FREEDOM 6 Newcastle management’s 'act in haste, repent at leisure' costs them 7 $6m 24 Academic freedom and (free?) speech 7 U-Vet members campaign to After two reviews into academic freedom, the protect jobs Government is seeking to change its definition in law. Yet NTEU believes that the only way to guarantee individual rights is through strong 8 An independent and peaceful clauses within Enterprise Agreements. Australia INTERNATIONAL 9 Fighting for workload and pay justice at La Trobe's School of 26 Fiji's deportation of the USP VC is Nursing & Midwifery and Rural a shameful act Health The shocking deportation of the University of 16 the South Pacific Vice-Chancellor Professor Pal WERTE! Ahluwalia, and his wife, Sandra Price, is a highly shameful event — in not just the history of the 10 Staffing data 2020 & expectations institution, but also in the history of Fiji and the for the future region. 28 Turkish students fight for 11 Campaigning on A&TSI autonomy and democracy employment targets Millennial and Gen Z students at Istanbul's Boğaziçi University are writing history, not COLUMNS only by resisting heavy-handed police violence, mass detentions, and arrests for defending 12 Underpinning change in democratic rights in Turkey, but also for showing universities how to do it in style. 20 Jeannie Rea, NTEU Immediate Past President 30 Can Biden's plan for 'Education 13 2021: A CAPA homecoming Beyond High School' solve the student loan crisis? Errol Phuah, CAPA President In the race for the US Presidency, Joe Biden put COVID-19 forward an ambitious higher education policy platform, but does it go far enough? 14 Course cuts: Student choice in the 32 Education unions defend & Job Ready Graduates era promote academic freedom Last year’s decline in international student around the world numbers coupled with the Federal Government’s Academic freedom is in a dire state globally, refusal to grant universities access to JobKeeper according to the recent International Further 26 set the scene for heavy austerity measures and Higher Education and Research Conference. across Australian universities. 16 2020: The year the Government DELEGATES abandoned universities 33 Patrick Hampton, UNDA COVID-19 and the Government’s higher education policy response exposed a Morrison- led abandonment of public universities and 34 Brian Pulling, UniSA policies that slashed public funding and increased student fees. MY UNION 18 The art of protesting in a 35 Gearing up for the next pandemic bargaining round 28 When it comes to engaging in activism, perhaps the largest challenges in a pandemic lie in 36 Dr Rod Crewther organising people face-to-face to take action. 37 Dr Olga Lorenzo 38 Professopr Margot Prior Hansen 39 New NTEU staff ADVOCATE VOL. 28 NO. 1 ◆ MARCH 2021 1 ◆ EDITORIAL ADVOCATE ISSN 1329-7295 Dr Alison Barnes, National President All text & images ©NTEU 2021 unless otherwise stated Publisher Matthew McGowan k [email protected] D @alisonbarnes25 Editor Alison Barnes Production Manager Paul Clifton Editorial Assistance Anastasia Kotaidis, Helena Spyrou Published by National Tertiary Education Union ABN 38 579 396 344 Confronting 2021 in a PO Box 1323, South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia Feedback & advertising [email protected] COVID world READ ONLINE AT NTEU.ORG.AU/ADVOCATE Welcome to the first edition of Advocate for 2021. This year has started in much the same vein as 2020 finished. The sector is still suffering from fund- The Government is, however, not solely ing shortfalls, mainly related to the responsible for job losses and hardship. continued absence of large numbers of University managements should be held international students and the refusal of accountable for their decisions: operating the Federal Government to allow univer- a business model reliant on ripping off sities to qualify for JobKeeper payments. a workforce they’ve chosen to casual- Moreover, the funding changes flowing ise and to prioritise capital works over from the Jobs Ready Graduate legislation investment in staff and, by extension, will be felt within this calendar year. students. Campuses are resuming face-to-face Hope for 2021 teaching and related activities, but may be hampered by periodic restrictions Despite 2020's pervasive gloom, last year as state governments cope with COVID also demonstrated the resilience generat- outbreaks. ed by standing together. As with most other aspects of Australian This year we must focus on building our society, things are unlikely to return to workplace structures and our delegate a pre-COVID ‘normal’ until most of the networks. We need to grow our work- population has been fully vaccinated, place strength by asking our friends and which may not be completed this year. colleagues to stand with us and join the Union. Jobs and revenue devastated NTEU NATIONAL EXECUTIVE We want to tell the stories of the people in 2020 National President Alison Barnes whose jobs were and are affected by General Secretary Matthew McGowan Peak body Universities Australia esti- COVID and its flow-on effects, as well as National Assistant Secretary Gabe Gooding mates the overall operating revenues of the wider stories of the impacts on the Vice-President (Academic) Andrew Bonnell Australian universities fell by $1.8 billion culture and fabric of universities and on Vice-President (General Staff) Cathy Rojas Acting A&TSI Policy Committee Chair in 2020. It predicts a further $2 billion fall society more broadly. Sharlene Leroy-Dyer in 2021. We need to make the community aware National Executive: The result has been that more than of the crisis tertiary education faces and Steve Adams, Nikola Balnave, Damien Cahill, the damaging implications for future Vince Caughley, Cathy Day, Andrea Lamont- 17,300 jobs were lost in the sector last Mills, Michael McNally, Virginia Mansel Lees, year, a figure which is unlikely to include generations of students. We need to build Cathy Moore, Rajeev Sharma, Melissa Slee, all of the casual and fixed-term positions the case for higher education so that the Ron Slee, Michael Thomson, Perpetua Turner, that have gone from around Australia. broader community stands with us. Nick Warner Many of those who have lost their jobs Watch out for information from your face the prospect of losing not only Branch or State Division about when Advocate is available online free as a PDF and an income but a vocation they have invested and how you can get involved, but start e-book at nteu.org.au/advocate in.